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Lovie Smith is Most Likely Done as an NFL Head Coach

By Bill Zimmerman

Dec 27, 2015; Tampa, FL, USA; Chicago Bears head coach John Fox and Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Lovie Smith greet at the the of the game at Raymond James Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 27, 2015; Tampa, FL, USA; Chicago Bears head coach John Fox and Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Lovie Smith greet at the the of the game at Raymond James Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports /
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In what was a surprising move on Wednesday night, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers decided to terminate former Chicago Bears head coach Lovie Smith and go another direction with their franchise.

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The move came as quite a shock. Lovie was dealing with a rookie QB in Jameis Winston and managed to increase the team’s record from 2-14 to 6-10. The Bucs closed on a losing streak, dropping their last four, but there wasn’t a football mind in America that thought Lovie was going to be shown the door with two years remaining on his contract.

Not to mention, how the Bucs let him go wasn’t the classiest maneuver as they fired him over the phone. Apparently Lovie was called only to set up a meeting but Lovie isn’t an idiot and understood where this was going and the conversation ended in his firing rather than having him come in and suffer the indignity in person.

The reports are that the Bucs decided that offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter was too important and they were fearful that he would leave for a head coaching position with another organization so they decided to fire Lovie and elevate Koetter (which still hasn’t been done yet).

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NFL coaching carousel tracker 2023: Who's been fired, who's been hired?
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    • Another thought may have been that the Bucs were on the fence with Lovie and knew that if they had another season where they increased to say 9-7, Lovie was going to be due a contract extension and it would become increasingly difficult to get rid of him any time soon. This may have been their window and they decided to move.

    I’m not giving Lovie Smith a strong endorsement as an NFL head coach. I never had a problem with Lovie when he was in Chicago. Personally, I like my NFL head coaches to have a little more of an edge but Lovie worked well with the organization, his players liked him, and he had a great defensive mind.

    When the Bears fired Lovie and fans rejoiced, my first reaction was “careful what you wish for” and unfortunately, that very much came true. I am a big supporter of the Ryan Pace- John Fox regime, it’s light years better than Phil Emery and Lovie, so if Bears’ fans had to deal with two years of Marc Trestman to be where I think we will be in a few years, it will end up being worth it.

    I don’t want to go as far as to say that Lovie Smith got a raw deal in both organizations he coached but that argument can be made. Lovie managed to reach a Super Bowl with Rex Grossman at quarterback and had to try and win another NFC Championship game with Caleb Haine at quarterback. In 2011 the Bears were sitting at 7-3 before a Jay Cutler injury forced Haine in at QB again and their season collapsed. In Lovie’s final year they finished 10-6 but missed the playoffs and Lovie was fired- keep that in mind. For all the love Marc Trestman got in 2013 for his great offense, he actually decreased the Bears win total from 10 to 8.

    In Lovie’s first year in Tampa, they did struggle and went 2-14, but keep in mind they went 4-12 the year before. It’s not like the team collapsed, he took over a junk heap and it needed to be rebuilt. His team improved to 6-10 this season and were poised to make another leap next season.  Lovie has had success as a head coach, and the way I see it, he may never get another opportunity, which will be unfortunate.

    Lovie Smith will turn 58 years of age this spring. He almost certainly is going to need to become a defensive coordinator again before he might be given another opportunity to be a head coach. There may not be many teams that want to hire a coach in his early 60s to try and rebuild a franchise when his resume, while it isn’t underwhelming, it’s nowhere near a slam dunk either.

    Again, as I said before, I never loved Lovie as a head coach in Chicago, but he’s more than competent and far better than some of the other coaches that are given opportunities with organizations on a regular basis. There are definitely better head coaching options than Lovie Smith, but there are far worse ones, and those lesser choices will get plenty of more opportunities before Lovie Smith gets one- if he ever does.

    Lovie Smith’s head coaching career might be over, and after two questionable firings, that’s unfortunate.

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