DETROIT (AP) -Lovie Smith might coach the Chicago Bears for the last time Sunday in Detroit.
Jim Schwartz is safe for now with the Lions, even though his first season as a head coach will finish with just two or three wins.
The Bears (6-9) have had a disappointing season – notwithstanding their overtime win Monday night over Minnesota – and will miss the playoffs for the third straight year since Smith led them to the Super Bowl.
When Chicago hit rock bottom this season Dec. 20 against the Baltimore Ravens, where it lost for the eighth time in 10 weeks, general manager Jerry Angelo shot down a report indicating Smith would be back for a seventh season.
The Bears owe Smith $11 million for the next two seasons and Angelo said the money won’t affect the decision on Smith’s future.
“At the end of the year, we sit down, we talk,” Angelo said two weeks ago.
, is confident Smith will still be leading the Bears next season.
“I know he’ll be back,” Bears defensive tackle Tommie Harris said. “He deserves every reason to, we just went to the Super Bowl a couple of years ago. He’s done some great things, and Monday night everybody played their heart out, and we’re going to do the same on Sunday.”
Smith is 51-44 in the regular season and 2-2 in the playoffs. He is the only coach in franchise history to lead his team to the playoffs in two of his first three seasons, and trails Hall of Famers George Halas and Mike Ditka in wins with the Bears.
Tom Coughlin and Andy Reid are the only active coaches who had 50 victories faster than Smith did, reaching the milestone in Week 4 with a 48-24 win over Detroit. That gave Chicago a 3-1 record and bolstered hope for a season that was sparked by the acquisition of quarterback Jay Cutler.
“I’m confident that I’ll be coaching the Detroit Lions this week, and that’s about as far as you need to go,” Smith told reporters. “None of us in this room knows any more than that.”
Meanwhile, Schwartz has about as much job security as anyone in the league despite Detroit (2-13) winning more games than only the St. Louis Rams, who beat his team.
“Our record is not where we want it to be,” Schwartz admitted.
his second. Schwartz did, though, talk – or listen – to defensive coordinator Gunther Cunningham about the topics.
“We talked for a long time (Tuesday) about what he’s doing, and how he’s doing it,” said Cunningham, a former Kansas City Chiefs head coach. “When he starts his team meetings on Wednesday mornings, the energy he gives me is unbelievable.
“He’s got great leadership skills. He’s thoughtful, tough, consistent and very wise. That combination is very hard to find in the NFL and his future is nothing but bright as a head coach. I was honored to be hired by him and I’m more excited now than I was before I got here.”
In Schwartz’s defense, the former Tennessee Titans defensive coordinator inherited a mess when he got his first job as a head coach nearly a year ago.
“He didn’t get an easy job,” center Dominic Raiola said.
That’s a fact.
Detroit became the NFL’s first winless team last year – under current Chicago assistant Rod Marinelli – and wasn’t expected to win more than a few games regardless of who coached this season because of the lack of talent left behind by former GM Matt Millen.
“It’s rough being a head coach and coming to a situation where you’ve got to try to turn around a program that went 0-16,” said Lions linebacker Julian Peterson, the team’s only Pro Bowl alternate.
st booth – and their .231 winning percentage is the worst by an NFL team over a nine-season stretch since World War II. Detroit’s 3-36 record over the last 2 1/2 seasons is the worst 39-game mark since the Dayton Triangles floundered through the 1920s, according to STATS LLC.
Detroit safety Kalvin Pearson is confident the 43-year-old Schwartz will turn the Lions into winners.
“He’s a nice, young coach who can relate with players,” Pearson said. “He brings energy and a new vibe that created a new morale for this team that we needed.”
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