Hey Jerry! Do Your Job

Last season, this blog, Grizzly Detail started a series called: Hey Jerry! Draft This Guy.

We encouraged the Bears General manager to lay his bet on Gabe Carimi, a behemoth Left Tackle from Wisconsin. Wouldn't you know, Angelo went out and got him. Bravo.

We patted ourselves on the back, thinking that we influenced the Bears draft decision, and helped Angelo, who has a moribund track record -- land an actual prospect. 

Well, it turns out, Angelo wants us, and our media brethren, to continue to do his job.

At Sunday's press conference, Angelo asked the press corps to give him names of players, and not to list problems.  

Who should we look at? Give me names. Don’t tell me about our problems. Give me solutions. I’m in the solution business, not identifying the problems. You guys do a great job of identifying our problems. How about a few solutions.


Really, Jerry? You are paid millions to do your job, so it's pretty brave for you to ask the media -- who are NOT paid millions of dollars -- to do your job for you -- even though we're clearly better at it than you.

It's your job to improve the offensive line, not Peggy Kusinski's, not Brad Biggs', not Jeff Dickerson's or any other member of the media. It is our job to cover the team fairly, and yes, that means discussing the problems.

However, the media didn't need to do much detective work to figure out that the Bears offensive line was the team's biggest problem. The 52 times we saw Jay Cutler on his back during the regular season was our first clue. But instead of holding onto a player who was one of the few good pieces of a line that begged for veteran leadership, Angelo let him go for $500,000.

Now, an offensive line that uses several complex protection schemes will be led by a player who has just weeks to learn from Mike Martz and Mke Tice. Tim Ruskell, the Bears director of player personnel, drafted Chris Spencer when he was at Seattle.

Spencer is a perfectly serviceable center and could get up to speed in a normal off-season and pre-season. Unfortunately, the season starts in one month, 11 days. Spencer needs a learning curve that just doesn't exist.

Angelo is looking for solutions from media, so I'll assure you one thing, Jerry. Spencer isn't it. Who is? I'll have to agree with the reporter who offered a solution.

"Olin Kreutz."

Thanks to ESPN Chicago.

Copyright FREEL - NBC Local Media
Contact Us