Lloyd's Comments Open New Problem

     Several days ago, the Chicago Bears signed wide receiver Brandon Lloyd.  That really wasn't the big news.  What really was interesting was his comments during a phone conference with reporters in which he stated that Rex Grossman would be the team's starting quarterback.  He followed that up by stating that both Grossman and Kyle Orton are well thought of by the coaches and that he "assumed" that Grossman was the starter.  After a pause, he said that "open competition is what I'm is being told right now".  Someone must have gotten to Lloyd right away to tell him that was not the right answer.  Turner was quick to follow up Lloyd's comments by telling the press that they all know that there will be a quarterback competition in camp.  If that's true, then someone forgot to inform Lloyd.

     I would think that the team, coming off a poor season in which they didn't make the playoffs following their Super Bowl trip a year earlier, could not afford to have any more public relations gaffes or nightmares.  Remember the Tank Johnson situation?  Or how about Lance Briggs' accident?  Brian Urlacher's decision to only talk to Fox Sports' Jay Glazer? And, let's not forget the quarterback problems that plagued the team yet again.

     Someone, if not Smith then definately Turner (who coached Lloyd at the University of Illinois), should have clued him into the fact that the press would ask him about the quarterback competition.  The easy thing to do would have been to tell him to just say they have two quarterbacks they have faith in and that the best one will win out in training camp.  Unfortunately, Lloyd was "now" being told that there is a competiton. Just when was "now", or to paraphrase Bill Clinton, " what is your definition of now?"  I've got a feeling that "now" meant right at that moment when someone jotted down a note for him on a piece of paper.  The fact that Turner had to attempt to clear things up tells me that somewhere along the line, communication broke down...if it had ever been established to begin with.

     Look at last year's win by the Bears over Philadelphia as another example of bad, or perhaps good as it turned out-communication.  Brian Griese leads the team 93 yards in the final minutes to win the game.  He does so without the use of the communication device in his helmet which went kaput.  He called his own plays and got them into the end zone.  In the post game press conference, Griese tells everyone that's what happened and then makes a crack about that having been a good thing depending on how you look at it.  The following day the team wasn't basking in the glow of a victory. Rather, it was trying to get Griese to retract his statement and apologize for his seemingly derrogatory comment about the coaching staff.  

     Following the Bears Super Bowl loss, many people wondered why the defense didn't make adjustments to stop the Colts.  Then defensive coordinator Ron Rivera took a very professional stance in addressing that question by saying it was a team loss.  Rumors floated around that Rivera pushed for adjustments during the game, but those fell on deaf ears (i.e. Smith).  Talk show hosts and some writers questioned whether Rivera had much pull in organizing the defensive game plan or if Smith really was the one who called the shots.  It was no secret that Smith and Bob Babich were close and that's who Smith eventually wanted to oversee the defense. 

     In my view, both of those examples show a lack of good communication and managerial skills on the part of the coaching staff.  The Lloyd statements seem to add to that list of communication problems which shows me that either people don't speak to each other, or they do but no one pays attention.   Either way, I have great concerns about what will not only happen this year on the field, but what will be said, or not said, by all involved. 

     As a side note, I would like to extend a kudos out to Brad Biggs of the Chicago Sun Times for making the quarterback controversey angle to main part of his story several days ago.  Without question, Lloyd's revelation should have been the main part of any story regarding that phone conference with reporters.  It was in the Sun Times but not in the Tribune.  Beat reporter Vaughn McClure saved that little nugget for the end of his story and, even then, didn't devote more than three or four lines to it.  I'm sorry, but when someone drops a story in your lap like that and you dismiss it as just an innocent slip of the tongue you need to rethink what you are there to report on.  With as big a topic as the quarterback problem here in Chicago is, you can't let something like a new signee's statement that "Rex is the starter" go by with a shrug of the shoulders