Jerry Angelo, You've Got To Go Too

Earlier, I detailed why Lovie Smith needed to get the swift boot out of town.

Now, it's Bears GM Jerry Angelo's turn to be pantsed via this blog.

Angelo has been the Chicago Bears GM since 2001, and will always be known for ushering change.  Through his falls, he ousted Dick Jauron and brought in Jay Cutler.  Two moves that should give him some sort of immunity from the white-washing he is about to receive.  Right?  Not so fast my friend.

And this time, I don't even need five reasons.

1.  Is there a draft in here?  If not for the Detroit Lions and Oakland Raiders, there would be an argument for the Bears having the worst success rate of first round picks in the NFL.

Here is a history of Angelo's top selections:

• David Terrell
• Marc Columbo
• Rex Grossman
• Michael Haynes
• Tommie Harris
• Cedric Benson
• Greg Olsen
• Chris Williams

Of those selections, Columbo and Benson turned out to be good ... for other teams.  Harris was good, but has disappeared.  Olsen can be good when the ball is thrown somewhere he can catch it.  And the Jury is still out on Williams.

Want to look at some of the players Angelo passed up?  Of course not.  We'll do it anyway.

• 2001: Angelo gets a pass (kind of) as the best players of this draft that were drafted after the former Michigan standout include Steve Hutchinson (17th), Jeff Backus (18th), Casey Hampton (19th) and Reggie Wayne (30th).
• 2003:  When the Bears drafted Michael Haynes with the 14th pick, they passed on Troy Polamalu (16th).  When they drafted Rex Grossman, they missed out on Willis McGahee (23rd), Dallas Clark (24th),
• 2005:  Drafting Kyle Orton ahead of Brandon Jacobs was dumb.  I said it then and I'll say it again now, and will probably say it for a very long time.  All the Bears had to do was make a trip down I-57 and see a talent right in their own back yard.
• 2008:  I liked Rashard Mendenhall (23rd) and DeSean Jackson (49th) more than I liked Williams (14th) and Matt Forte (44th)   
  

For more of Angelo's draft failures, click here.

2.  The coaching staff.  Has there been a coaching staff that has been properly handled under Angelo's "watchful" eye?  He let Dick Jauron and John Shoop linger for three years before he kicked them to the curb at the end of the 2003 season.  Then Angelo hired Lovie Smith, who was his third option after Nick Saban wanted some of the shot-calling duties and Russ Grimm, who still is waiting for dinner with the McClaskey family.

Then there was the Terry Shea hiring fiasco.  The relieving of Ron Rivera ... after a Super Bowl, no less.  The hiring of Bob Babich to replace Rivera after early reports leaked that it would be Leslie Frazier replacing his former teammate.  Now, Frazier is among the up-and-coming head coaching candidates.

Hey.  Maybe he'll be up for the Bears job if someone wakes up the McCaskey family and tells them their team stinks and it's all the fault of the guys in charge.

3.  Contract negotiations.  What do Cedric Benson, Lance Briggs, Thomas Jones, Devin Hester and many other Bears players have in common?  Each have had their contract negotiations fumbled by one Jerry Angelo.

Benson ended up missing most of training camp, pushing back progress that had already  been dampened by a guy who didn't even want to be in Chicago to begin with.  Briggs almost was a former Bear because of the way the organization had treated him.  Jones' negotiations became so clusterfucked, he ended up being traded to the New York Jets.  Angelo can thank Lovie for making Hester the highest paid third option in the NFL after Smith called Hester, "a No. 1 receiver."

So, we've got a GM that:

• Has a poor draft history.
• Has a poor track record of hiring coaches.
• Has a poor history of dealing out contracts.
  

And why should he be the Bears general manager next season?

... Oh.  And I really couldn't pass up on this photo.