The case for firing Lovie Smith at season’s end

Preface: I don’t care about us tanking or it being a developmental year. There’s zero- I repeat, ZERO, development going on on the defensive side of the ball.

We had the worst rushing defense last year, we have the worst rushing defense this year. Our interior line might as well not even be there and our front 7 has the most missed tackles in the league. His player profile of smaller linemen and a big rotation of guys leads to no cohesion, no gap integrity and no consistent edge setting.

Pitre is being so limited because he has to be an extra man in the box to attempt to stop the run. Stingley isnt being used to his potential either. He’s a man corner and Lovie is trying to make him be a square peg in a round hole. Our linebackers can’t cover, yet they’re being asked to take over crossers and drags in zone.

You can’t even say it’s a personnel issue. DeMeco and Saleh took defenses that were injured and playing equivalent caliber of players as us and had top 10 units two consecutive years.

The offense is it’s own issue that I won’t touch on since Lovie is directly responsible for this piss poor defense. He needs to be fired at the end of the season and we need to hire someone who isn’t stuck in the past trying to play antiquated football in a division that loves to run the ball. I don’t care about anything else. Easerby is gone, we have a lot of young pieces to entice a coach to come now. Stingley, Green, Pitre, two great tackles, Pierce, Nico, and Christian Harris. This SHOULD be an attractive spot for people now and we should take advantage considering we have 12 draft picks and projected ~50M+ cap room this year. If we get a coach who empowers his players instead of holding them back with scheme and fit, we can see a massive jump.

Positions to address: IOL, IDL, ILB, EDGE, OLB, RB2, WR, TE