The off-season trimmings continue as Bears fired their Senior Director of Pro Personnel. Bobby DePaul was escorted out of Halas Hall today after being relieved of the position he has held for the past nine seasons. According to Zaidman, he was "best known for engineering the trade for quarterback Jay Cutler."
DePaul, in his ninth year in the position, played a major role in acquiring free-agents such as John Tait and Thomas Jones as well as working behind the scenes last April to pull off the trade for Cutler with the Broncos. He is deeply connected around the league and well-respected for his ability to judge of talent and make a deal (from chicagobreakingsports.com).
Full (chicagobears.com) story can be found here >>
More after the jump...
Brad Biggs (Twitter):
Firing of DePaul leads to speculation that Jerry Angelo will hire a friend from Tampa Bay for the job, ex-Seahawks GM Tim Ruskell.
But firing of DePaul does not solve problems Bears have had drafting. Angelo has not drafted Pro Bowl position player since 2004.
8 of the 11 starters on offense for the Bears in Super Bowl were brought in by pro personnel director Bobby DePaul.
The Bears have gone mostly with draft picks since in replacing those starters and have not made the playoffs since.
Zach Zaidman (Twitter):
The Bears have yet to name replacement for DePaul. Time is of the essence. The NFL veteran free agency signing period begins on March 5th.
ESPN Chicago Article:
DePaul successfully landed quality free agent types such as John Tait, Ruben Brown, Thomas Jones, Tim Shaw, Roberto Garza, Anthony Adams and Nick Roach.
But there were also mistakes, like Darwin Walker, Marty Booker, Michael Gaines, Orlando Pace and Frank Omiyale (a tackle asked to play guard).
Many want to also pin the blame on DePaul for Brandon Lloyd and Adam Archuletta, but Ron Turner favored Lloyd, and Lovie Smith pushed hard for the Bears to acquire Archuletta.
Thoughts?