And while they were at it, they decided they better escort him out of the building just to be safe.
Greg Bedard was surprised by the move and said "nobody in NFCN knew Packers personnel better." So I'm hoping DePaul's next job is somewhere far away from the Packers, preferably for an AFC team.
According to Chicago Breaking Sports, DePaul had a "strong" relationship with GM Jerry Angelo, didn't always "see eye-to-eye" with Lovie Smith, and was "brash sometimes to a fault." Maybe Smith just won a power struggle, which might not be a good thing for Bears fans.
I'm just speculating, but all NFL teams are getting ready for free agency to begin at the end of the month, and apparently DePaul wasn't seeing eye-to-eye with Smith or someone in the Bears front office. Maybe DePaul and someone else did not agree about the 2010 free agent class, and DePaul's "brash" behavior got the best of him. Or maybe this is just fallout from 2009 when DePaul "engineered" the QB Jay Cutler trade and he was probably the driving force behind the free agent signings of LT Orlando Pace and OL Frank Omiyale.
No matter what the reason, the Bears just lost a talented personnel evaluator on the eve of free agency.