Bears fire head coach

Chicago Tribune ^ | 12/29/2003

[Thane_Banquo]

Dick Jauron, 35-46 with only one winning season in five years as the Bears head coach, has been fired with one year remaining on his contract.

He got the news about 9 a.m. Monday morning in a meeting with general manager Jerry Angelo.

"Simply put, expectations were not met," Angelo said in a Monday afternoon press conference. He also said that the team needs to win "on a more consistent basis."

[HEY4QDEMS]

The Giants have ask Bill Belichick and the Patriots for permission to interview OC Charlie Weis, and DC Romeo Crenell.

The Pats are currently working out a schedule for these guys to interview for the job and be back on time to prepare for the playoffs.

Belichick is a class act and said he will do everything he can to help Crenell and Weis get the big break they deserve.

[discostu]

Johnson will only comeback to a sunbelt city he can park his boat at.

[discostu]

Dennis has lost a lot of weight since he got fired, spends a lot of time fishing, and just plain looks great. Why would he want to come back? Take a per diem for coming in to interview and head back out to the lakes, Dennis has it all worked out.

[hchutch]

The Bears had a lot of injuries early on this year, particularly the O-Line. That messed up the offense.

Shoop was the bigger problem, IMO. Jauron did okay with a healthy club.

[pctech]

True, his teams the last two years had injuries. And Shoops definitely didn't help alleviate the problems. I never liked him as a OC. But you can tell when a team is run poorly, and though Jauron is a class-act, he just didn't handle the team effectively. And Blache, man I hope he ends up mopping floors. He was the worst excuse for an DC I've ever seen. I knew when he was hired away from the Colts that he'd be bad news, and he was most of the time.

[mattdono]

I can see why Wannstedt got to stay and even got an extension, though he will not be in control of personnel decisions (which might not be a bad thing, as he isn't the "guru" of personnel).

The Dolphins still need to "get over the hump", but the guy's record is pretty solid in Miami...11-5, 11-5, 9-7, and 10-6 is nothing to shake a stick at. Many teams (including the Bears) would love to have those records.

The only reason they aren't in the playoffs is because the AFC is very tough this year. They finished behind a New England team that, right now, seems very tough to beat. The NFC has 3 teams at 10-6 that are in the playoffs; the AFC only 2, with one of the wildcard teams (the Titans) have a 12-4 record.

I agree that you have to win the games and it takes care of itself, but it is easy to make an argument that the Dolphins were right there again (cue the Maxwell Smart, "they missed it by that much!").

[Paul8148]

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=1695742

The Raiders Players want their Coach to go.

[stylin19a]

Too bad about Jauron.
The Bears really don't like to eat contracts...yet they do it.

The Bears were absolutely hamstrung by not resigning some guys a couple of years ago and by all the injuries this year.
I think Jerry Angelo is not long for these Bears.

[mattdono]

Callahan has already cleaned out his office. He will be fired in a press conference later tonight (maybe tomorrow morning).

[discostu]

And lets give Dave some credit. The Phins went 2-2 this December instead of their usual Ofer. They needed 3-1 but 2-2 is much better than usual.

[Thane_Banquo]

He just signed a 4 year extension, giving him an additional 5 years on the Bears (next year plus the extra 4 years). He's actually done an okay job, in my opinion. The Bears had an incredible draft: Grossman, Briggs, Tillman, Wade, Gage.

I think one of his problems is the McCaskeys are notorious cheapskates, which makes it hard to re-sign excellent players like Tony Parrish (he went to SF after 2001).

[Paul8148]

Any rumors who the Raiders want? I know Dennis Green and Al are friends but he does not want to walk with Al.

[Paul8148]

I mean work

[hchutch]

If I were the Bears head coach, I'd probably find a DC who would use the 46. That defense would make the most of folks like Urlacher, Alex Brown, Mike Brown, Green, and some of the others on the team.

The big thing for the draft is to get more offensive linemen and defenseive linemen. QB is okay with Grossman and Stewart. A better offense that what Shoop put together would be a good thing. Grossman's the future, but I like a lot of the stuff that Kordell could bring to the table in the offense.

[RabidBartender]

"The Dolphins still need to "get over the hump", but the guy's record is pretty solid in Miami...11-5, 11-5, 9-7, and 10-6 is nothing to shake a stick at. Many teams (including the Bears) would love to have those records."

No doubt. In fact, Miami has the same record as Baltimore and even beat them head-to-head 9-6 during the regular season. But because Miami plays in the wrong division, they get hosed. Maybe the NFL should go to a 'best 6 teams' format instead of division champs.

But I've seen Wannstadt make too many dumb calls as a coach, both in Chicago and in Miami. With this Miami defense and the awesomely talented Mr. Williams, there is no reason the Dolphins shouldn't have won 12 or more games this year.

I'm still convinced he was just Jimmy Johnson's hand puppet in Dallas and that his Chicago tenure (40-56) was a true measure of his coaching ability.

[Alberta's Child]

Jauron was possibly the worst head coach in the NFL.

Jim Fassel was a class act in New York, but there's no question he was the worst coach in the NFL over the last couple of years. I never thought a coach made a huge difference in the NFL (a good coach might be "worth" two more victories in a 16-game schedule than a bad one), but I've changed my mind about that after seeing the Giants go 4-12 this year when they would have won at least 10 games with a guy like Parcells or Bill Belichik running the team.

[RabidBartender]

Bring back Buddy!!!!!


Hee hee.

[discostu]

Nothing I've heard. If the Niners hadn't brought in a failed college lineup last year I'd say Al would probably steal somebody from across the bay (Al loves stealing people from across the bay), but I don't think there's anyone on that staff Al would want (Al's crazy but he ain't stupid). Word on the street is that Al has standing offers to John Madden and Terry Bradshaw, not that I think either of them would take the offer but it's worth mentioning whenever there's an opening in Oakland.

[Paul8148]

I mean who goes and finds people that even work out there or somewhere else for the cheap like Shannan or Gruden.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

He was insufferable in Minnesota.