No reason to extend Lovie's contract yet

Of course Jerry Angelo wants a new contract for Lovie Smith.

The Bears GM is signed through 2013 and he'd like to avoid another coaching search, especially since he went through half the contacts in his cell phone before he found one last time.

And promoting Smith as a great coach only makes Angelo look better.

But with Smith having a year left on his contract, it's hard to imagine why the McCaskeys would extend Smith when there are so many reasons not to.

Yes, Smith did an admirable job this year. There's no denying that. His players always play hard for him and there's probably not an NFL coach who gets a more consistent effort from his guys.

Considering the talent Angelo handed Smith, it's a near miracle the Bears made it to the NFC title game.

But the reality is the Bears were among the luckiest and healthiest teams in memory, and they played in a weak conference.

Smith shouldn't be penalized for that, but those are the facts.

Next year the odds are it will even out, and if Angelo doesn't do something about the offensive line, the receiving corps, a backup quarterback and help in the secondary, there's every reason to think this team will come back to earth.

With a cap expected back in place, it won't be as easy as writing a big check, as they did for Julius Peppers.

So what if you extend Smith now and the Bears go 7-9 in 2011 and miss the playoffs for the fourth time in five years?

And the one year they made it will look like a fluke, with a win over an 8-10 Seattle team as the only playoff victory since 2006.

If the Bears don't extend Smith this off-season and it all goes bad in 2011, Smith will almost certainly be out of a job in Chicago.

So why the hurry?

If the Bears have a great year and go far in the postseason, that's great for the Bears and great for Smith. He'll cash in again in a big way and he can even hope for a bidding war.

Rather than be afraid of such a possibility, the Bears should only dream of having such wonderful problems a year from now.

Meanwhile, Smith's already making $5 million a year and there's serious doubt around the NFL that anyone would pay him more than that even if he won the Super Bowl next year.

Besides, there's no reason to think Smith in a lame-duck season will get any less an effort from his players than he did when he had two years left on his deal.

If the players love him as much as they say, they'll play even harder next season.

There's also a slim chance there won't be an NFL season, in which case your main reason for extending him doesn't even exist.

Assuming there is a complete schedule, it will be fascinating to watch another year of Smith and Mike Martz, and how much influence the head coach will have over the mad scientist.

It took 11 games — four preseason and seven real — for Smith to convince Martz that Jay Cutler would never survive the season if Martz didn't change his ways and run the football.

Some have said that's great coaching, while others wonder why he waited 11 games and let his QB take such a terrible pounding.

They will also point to Smith's in-game coaching, where he often makes mistakes that ought to leave ownership scratching its collective head.

It's not just the lack of adjusting that drives fans crazy but also the challenge flags and use of timeouts, like the one that cost the Bears a crucial first down late in the game Sunday.

And the fact that Smith stubbornly believes he was right to put Todd Collins in the game against the Packers is a frightening thought.

That he allowed Martz to call three pass plays immediately after Collins entered the game says plenty, and the 10 straight pass plays as soon as the Bears went down 14-0 was not only predictable, but disturbing.

The call to defer on the opening kick and the refusal to attempt field goals was bizarre.

But nothing sticks out more than the Earl Bennett end-around out of a timeout on third-and-3 on the final drive of the season.

For some reason, Desmond Clark — last seen being placed in witness protection — was in on that play and badly missed his block on Desmond Bishop, who then made the play on Bennett for a 2-yard loss.

That was followed by the decision to let Caleb Hanie go to the line on the most important play of the season without using their final timeout.

The result, of course, was an interception and the end of the Super Bowl dream.

In fairness, Smith sure has his strengths as a head coach and he has proved a lot during his seven years here.

It just doesn't seem like he has proved enough the last four years to suggest the Bears must rush into a new deal.

But in true Bears fashion, logic apparently won't have anything to do with it.

brozner@dailyherald.com