Bears, Smith Agree Now Is Not The Time To Talk Contract Extension

By Chuck Sudo in News on Oct 11, 2012 5:20PM

There’s a lot of love to spread around with the Bears’ 4-1 start, including the steady coaching of Lovie Smith and the surprising offseason moves of rookie general manager Phil Emery. With the Bears entering a bye week and no one talking about Jay Cutler’s sideline demeanor during the Bears’ Sunday rout of Jacksonville, the Bears’ media pool has to talk about something and that just happens to be Smith’s future with the team.

Smith is working on an extension he signed through 2013 and the Bears’ fast start once again has people overreacting in the direction of “he’s the best coach ever and we gotta lock him up now.” Yet we’ve also seen Smith’s Bears teams fade out of playoff contention late in the season and that same stoic, stay-the-course demeanor that was a strength earlier becomes the reason the McCaskeys should dump him after another 8-8 or 7-9 season without a sniff of the postseason

Daily Herald columnist Barry Rozner saw this coming.

The overreaction to a good start should reignite the campaign for a new Lovie Smith contract. It’s the same story any time the Bears win two in a row, or in this case, three. The mythical narrative is that Smith can’t possibly coach the Bears on a one-year deal, which is all he’ll have left after this season. It’s the oddest of arguments because Smith is the greatest players coach of all time. At least, that’s what we’re constantly told. So, actually, he’s the perfect coach to work on a one-year deal in 2013. It’s the best conceivable motivation for a Bears team that wants to make certain it retains its beloved coach for several more years, and it ought to win 25 games this year and next because of it.

WSCR-AM afternoon host Terry Boers started the fire Monday when he cited a source as saying Smith and the Bears began negotiating a multi-year extension. Lovie Smith wouldn’t discuss the report. He let his agent—and son—Matthew Smith do the talking.

"Coach's only concern is bringing the Lombardi Trophy back to Chicago," Matthew Smith told the Tribune on Tuesday. "Any discussion regarding his contract would take place after the season."

Emery addressed the media about the rumors Wednesday.

''Geez, even if it was true, when would we have gotten that done? Coach Smith is very focused on improving his team on a daily basis. My mindset is with the personnel group and working with the coaches and making sure we have the right people on the roster on a daily basis, going out to colleges, doing visitations, getting ready for the next NFL draft. There's not enough hours in the day to have those kind of conversations.''

Emery inherited Smith and it’s the right course of action to see how the team performs under Smith before they begin talks. It’s conceivable that Emery may want to replace Smith even if the Bears to win the Super Bowl—a bandwagon we aren’t even close to boarding. Let’s see if Smith can buy some time with a 10-6 record and a playoff appearance first. Soon enough the bye week will be over and we can get back to the season's main narrative: Why is Jay Cutler such a jagoff?