Following a 2005 NFL Coach of the year award with a Super Bowl appearance, heading into this off season, Lovie Smith’s future with the Bears was in limbo. He was the lowest paid coach this past season, and was heading into the final year of his current contract. There was much speculation about whether the notoriously tight-fisted Bears would shell out the big bucks to get Lovie signed. Wednesday they did just that, locking up Smith until 2011. Smith’s new contract will pay him approximately $4.7 million dollars per year.

Along side Lovie Smith’s new contract, Bears President Ted Phillips also extended the contract of Bears GM Jerry Angelo. While Smith is responsible for the on the field success of the Bears, credit has to be given to Jerry Angelo for bringing in top talent, and maintaining good standing with regards to the salary cap.

I think this is a good thing for the Bears future. I really like Jerry Angelo’s personnel decisions (minus letting Roosevelt Colvin go due to not filing the correct paperwork). He has obviously drafted really well (Mark Anderson is a prime example). I’d love to see him revamp the offense a bit, but I think the Bears are in good shape with Jerry and Lovie at the helm.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 1st, 2007 at 1:41 pm and is filed under Chicago Bears, Football, NFL. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.