Angelo, Martz should be just the start
Jerry Angelo began his Bears career laughably, the product of Ted Phillips and a search firm, inheriting a coach he didn't want and undermining Dick Jauron at every turn.
He departs undercut by his own inability to draft wisely and — ironically — because he was unable to protect his greatest triumph: Jay Cutler.
He leaves the same day as Mike Martz, another failure but that one the responsibility of head coach Lovie Smith, who somehow managed to increase his power Tuesday.
Instead of a complete housecleaning that should have included Angelo's boss — Phillips — and the former GM's hand-picked coach — Smith — those two men saved themselves while sending their friend down the tubes, a brilliant and cutthroat strategy for remaining employed before someone discovered an auger.
The disappointment is with George McCaskey, who I heard two weeks ago was pondering changes. He had been handed the gift of a miserable losing streak that allowed him political cover for flushing the entire organization, but instead he left a swirling mess.
By the sound of McCaskey's own words Tuesday, he permitted Phillips and Smith to engineer this self-preserving power play, and in the process McCaskey passed on a golden opportunity to start over.
So, please, stop with the Rocky Wirtz comparisons. Wirtz stayed away from the hockey business until it was his turn to take over, neither wanting to be tainted by the misery nor painted with the broad Wirtz brush, knowing fans' perceptions would be crucial.
No, this McCaskey is more Peter Wirtz, content to let those he perceives as competent run the family business, his Crane Kenney still the team president.
Maybe the new GM will discover his own power a year from now, the power to fire a head coach and make sweeping changes, but right now Phillips is the man with that authority, and he and Smith are thick as thieves.
Phillips was smart to realize any change at both GM and coach would probably include him, so instead we have only the GM fired and Phillips with all his NFL experience now leading the search without paying an outside firm this time.
The new GM must inherit Smith, and the head coach will have much influence when it comes to player-personnel decisions, a frightening thought when you consider Smith says he has a great offensive line and an all-world tight end in Kellen Davis.
So while McCaskey gets credit for dumping a GM incapable of putting in place the pieces to make Cutler a great QB — a GM who collected all of 3 playoff victories in 11 years — it makes little sense to burden the next GM with Phillips above and Smith below.
And that's why it smells of a put-up job, the next GM wedged between Phillips and Smith, who had grown increasingly uncomfortable with the man who handed him a job.
There already was dysfunction, Smith frequently blaming or praising a person or unit Monday, and Angelo speaking to his website a day or two later with the opposite reaction.
There was consistent disagreement on the state of the offense, specifically as it related to Martz and his penchant for getting the quarterback pummeled.
Angelo, to his credit, never wanted Martz here. Angelo, to his detriment, could not convince a decent coordinator to take the job, and he was forced to let Smith hire Martz.
Now Martz is also gone — sent packing Tuesday — but Smith remains for at least another year, and more if Phillips has his way — hoping his aging defense can make one last stand, banking on a healthy Cutler and Matt Forte to grant him yet another fortunate contract extension.
Meanwhile, Angelo leaves with a history of trading down and awful drafting, and in his wake are the likes of Cedric Benson (fourth overall), Michael Haynes (14th), Chris Williams (14th), Dan Bazuin (second round), Mark Bradley (second), Roosevelt Williams (second), Terrence Metcalf (third), Garrett Wolfe (third), Michael Okwo (third), Dusty Dvoracek (third), Jarron Gilbert (third) and Juaquin Iglesias (third), to name just a few.
Those picks easily overshadowed the great finds such as Matt Forte (second round), Lance Briggs (third), Earl Bennett (third), Kyle Orton (fourth), Alex Brown (fourth), Mark Anderson (fifth) and Chris Harris (sixth).
For three years Angelo was unable to find a backup quarterback good enough to hand off and make a 10-yard throw, and he will be remembered for the box-checking folly of 2002 (Warrick Holdman and D'Wayne Bates) and the failed Ravens draft-day trade of 2011.
Angelo had to go, and anyone without an agenda knew it, but to stop there is akin to wiping down the deck chairs with a dried-up towelette.
They need a genuine NFL team president who's qualified to hire a genuine NFL GM.
The Bears need complete regime change, not a new arrangement of the furniture.
And excitement over the whiff of change has already subsided.
An odor remains.
brozner@dailyherald.com
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