We have our first surprising name to be fired on Black Monday. Chicago Bears coach Lovie Smith was fired Monday, according to NFL.com's Ian Rapoport. Smith met with upper management this morning. Bears assistants were very nervous, according to Rapoport.

Smith had a few things working against him, starting with the reality that he hasn't made the playoffs for five of the last six years. An even bigger factor: GM Phil Emery was just hired last year. New decision makers usually want to bring in their own head coaches.

NFL.com's Albert Breer reported last week that Emery and other GM candidates were told a year ago that they had to keep Smith for 2012, but Smith's future after that would be up to them. Now Emery exercised that right. The Bears failed to make the playoffs after a 7-1 start. While Smith's defense is still dangerous, he's consistently been unable to improve the offense through his staff hires.

Smith coached the Bears for nine seasons, making the playoffs three times, including one Super Bowl appearance. The defense was always good, but this was a team that more often hung around the middle of the NFL.

With Smith out, Jay Cutler is going to have to start over with another offensive coordinator. A defense full of players fit to Smith's scheme may not fit well anymore.

This was a sensible time to make a change, but the Bears may have to take a step back in 2013 before taking a step forward.

God dammit - I wanted that man there forever! Always loved the deer in the headlights look when something went bad, backed by the arrongance that he thought he had it all under control. If Andy Reid gets hired by the Bears, he might actually turn Cutler into a good quarterback. What a horrible turn of events.

He was easy to hate for us Packer fans, and I'm personally happy he got shit-canned, but I still think he was an excellent head coach. I would also worry if the Bears hired Andy. I'm not too concerned, as manglement in Chicago is too stupid to hang on to Smith, so practically by definition they would be too stupid to hire Reid.

Zombie, you are talking out of your ass. We do not have the personnel to play a cover 2 sysetem because we have been building a 3-4 defense. It'd take 2-3 years to make the conversion over, and I don't even believe that is a shut down defense. It is a defense built to make an offense go on long drives, but it's weakness is up the seams and there are too many good tight ends in this league that shred cover 2s.

Lovie's supposed success was built on beating up the weak sisters of the league and he has never been able to piss with the big boys, even with that very strong team that went to the super bowl a decade ago.

I am talking out of my ass. Rockmolder corrected me. Had no idea how many changes we'd have to make if we installed Lovie Smith as DC. Most importantly, we'd take away CM3's best skills.

So, I retract what I said about Lovie Smith.

If we have Hester as our returner and Lovie Smith as our DC, and shore up the OL with one or two workable players (they don't have to be Solid, just average is fine), we'll go 17-2 next year with a SB win. Easily.

Rumor has it the Bears want to interview Packers Offensive coordinator Tom Clement in their search for a new head coach.

Rumor has it the Bears want to interview Packers Offensive coordinator Tom Clement in their search for a new head coach.

We went 15-1 last year and 11-5 this year with Dom Capers as DC and Randall Cobb as our returner. We won a super bowl in 2010 with Dom Capers.

Kickoff Returns:
Randall Cobb: 25.4 YPR, 0 TD
Devin Hester: 25.9 YPR, 0 TD

Punt Returns:
Randall Cobb: 9.4 YPR, 1 TD
Devin Hester: 8.3 YPR, 0 TD

Not taking anything away from Hester, but he's not the beast he used to be. Cobb is just as dangerous, and Ross has shown flashes of greatness in his limited opportunities as well. Hester would not be an upgrade, we can debate all year long about whether Lovie would be an upgrade to Dom or not, but the fact of the matter is that changing DCs = changing scheme, which makes it very hard to hit the ground running. Upgrades at O Line would mean a lot but we've got other needs too.