Lovie Smith Will Return As Bears Coach, GM Jerry Angelo Fired

More general manager shakeup today in the NFL, as the Chicago Bears have announced that Jerry Angelo has been fired as GM after 11 years with the team.

The Bears also announced that head coach Lovie Smith will return next season.

Can’t say that the first one is all that surprising given the recent problems with this team. Most Bears fans that I’ve interacted with in recent years haven’t seemed to care too much about Angelo’s performance as general manager of the team.

They’ve failed to upgrade at key positions (offensive line and wide receiver to name a few) and some of the problems they’ve had in previous years popped up once again this season.

As for Smith, it seemed hard to blame him for the late season collapse considering the circumstances.

Jay Cutler was playing the best football of his career before suffering a season ending thumb injury in late November. Everything was clicking at that point, and it looked like the Bears were going to once again have a chance to make a deep run in the postseason.

So it wouldn’t have been fair for something as freak as a season ending thumb injury to end the tenure of Smith in Chicago.

Especially considering that the Bears were in the NFC Championship a year ago.

We’ll see where the team goes from here, but certainly, upgrades have to be made in order for this team to be a serious Super Bowl contender next season.

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