Lovie Smith needs to stop banging square pegs into round holes
By John Crist
Lovie Smith needs to break his habit of forcing players to be what they’re not
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are coming off a 2-14 disaster, with first-year coach Lovie Smith putting some of the same bad habits on display that ultimately led to his demise with the Chicago Bears.
For the most part during his nine-year stint in the Windy City, Smith fielded a strong defense predicated on forcing turnovers and a special-teams unit that continually won the battle for hidden yards — having the best return man in NFL history, Devin Hester, in his employ obviously helped. His player-friendly approach worked well in the locker room, as he was respected by veterans and rookies alike through good times and bad.
However, as a beat writer covering the team for six seasons, I — as well as a good majority of my fellow print, radio and television personalities — regarded Smith as a premier coach only from Monday to Saturday. Sunday was a different story, as he was conservative on offense, predictable on defense and made more than a few curious decisions when it came to his red challenge flag. While the league was transforming into a pass-happy video game on offense and a zone-blitz freak show on defense, the laid-back native of Big Sandy, Texas, was much more comfortable running the ball and playing Cover 2.
After a lone campaign in Tampa, Smith is still guilty of one particular mistake he made on a handful of occasions in Chicago: asking players to be something they’re not.
Exhibit A is Mark Anderson, a defensive end from Alabama selected with a sixth-round pick in the 2006 NFL draft. Barely expected to make the 53-man roster since he battled injuries throughout his first training camp — the Bears had a pair of solid ends returning to the starting lineup in Alex Brown and Adewale Ogunleye — the 6-4, 255-pounder came out of nowhere to produce 12 sacks as a pin-his-ears-back terror in obvious passing situations.
But instead of appreciating what he had in Anderson, an ideal No. 3 D-end to augment the more well-rounded Ogunleye and Brown, Smith made the former Crimson Tide a starter and relegated Brown — one of the most popular vets in the locker room — to a backup role. Not only did Anderson’s sack total fall from 12 to five even though he was on the field twice as much, but Chicago’s rush defense plummeted from sixth in 2006 to 24th in 2007. A big reason was the undersized Anderson not being able to hold the point of attack up front, something Brown did willingly at the expense of gaudy sack numbers.
Anderson was never again an effective defender until landing with the New England Patriots in 2011, when coach Bill Belichick coaxed 10 sacks out of him coming off the bench in 15 of 16 games.
After a lone campaign in Tampa, Smith is still guilty of one particular mistake he made on a handful of occasions in Chicago: asking players to be something they’re not.
Perhaps the most headline-grabbing example was the aforementioned Hester, who took the league by storm as a record-setting return savant during that same 2006 season — he ended up returning the opening kickoff of Super Bowl XLI for a touchdown, something that had never been done before. He was a natural with the ball in his hands, which is why it made perfect sense to move him from cornerback to wide receiver.
Since Hester was really a player without a position, even going back to his collegiate days at Miami, using him in a limited role offensively — in the slot for three-wide formations, as a flanker running the occasional end-around, etc. — would have been a wise decision. Sure, you want to get the ball into his hands as often as possible because of his take-it-to-the-house ability, but you also had to make sure he was still fresh for his primary responsibility: scaring the bejesus out of opposing kickers and punters. No wideout can run 30-40 pass patterns per game and then be expected to flip field position routinely on returns.
Nevertheless, once the Bears said goodbye to conventional pass-catching weapons Bernard Berrian and Muhsin Muhammad in 2008, out of nowhere Smith announced Hester as his No. 1 receiver at the Scouting Combine.
Hester maxed out at 57 catches for 757 yards and three touchdowns in 2009, and that was after Chicago made a considerable upgrade at quarterback with the trade for Jay Cutler. Worst of all, following an eye-popping 11 return TDs his first two years in the league, Hester didn’t find paydirt again on special teams until 2010, when he was more of a complementary piece in the passing game — Johnny Knox was the go-to guy — and not the main target.
Look at what the Atlanta Falcons did with Hester in 2014, adding him to an enviable pass-catching arsenal that featured Pro Bowlers Julio Jones and Roddy White. Nothing more than the third or fourth man for quarterback Matt Ryan, Hester was only targeted 59 times but managed to reel in 38 passes for 504 yards and a pair of touchdowns — he caught 64.4 percent of his targets in Atlanta, while in Chicago that figure was 55.6. Proving that he wasn’t overused offensively, Hester also led the league this past season in punt-return average (13.3 yards per attempt) and kick-return yards (1,128).
Which brings us back to the Bucs and Smith’s questionable choice to hand the QB assignment to Josh McCown, a career backup in every sense of the term.
McCown was a dream come true as the No. 2 signal caller in Chicago. He accepted his role, performed brilliantly when needed — his 101 passer rating as a Bear blows away his career mark of 76.1 — and didn’t complain once when a healthy Cutler was put back under center again.
Just like he thought a pass rusher like Anderson could be a starting defensive end, and just like he thought a return man like Hester could be a starting receiver, Smith banged the square-pegged McCown into a round hole at the game’s most important position. The results were less than swashbuckling: a passer rating of 70.5 in 11 starts, trailing the likes of Geno Smith, Derek Carr and Brian Hoyer. The second-year pro McCown was brought in to replace, Mike Glennon, posted an 83.3 starting five games.
Needless to say, Smith and Co. will surely address the quarterback position with the No. 1 selection in the draft this spring.