Chicago Bears: Is John Fox about to pull a Jeff Fisher?

John Fox made a couple of interesting comments in a recent interview with Sports Illustrated. Is it possible he is more like Jeff Fisher than even Chicago Bears fans imagined?

After the 2017 season, I assumed John Fox and Jeff Fisher would only be mentioned in the same way we talk about Blockbuster Video. All three had a decent run for a period of time, but modernity passed them by faster than Fox could lose another challenge.

Fisher epitomized mediocrity during his coaching career. During his 22 seasons has a head coach, he finished with an overall record of 178-171-1. However, he was known as much for his conservative offenses as he was anything else.

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Throughout his time in Houston/Tennesse and St. Louis/Los Angeles, he always seemed to do just enough to keep his job — to the surprise of many. Fisher was like the employee you know should have been fired a long time ago, so you just assumed he had incriminating photos of his boss.

John Fox had more postseason success but finished with an overall record of 141-130. However, during his tenure with the Chicago Bears, he was an abysmal 14-34. Likewise, Fisher was an atrocious 17-28 during his final three years with the Rams. Which is why it was surprising, if not downright comical when Fisher apparently tried to take some credit for the Rams success last year.

In speaking about his impact on the 2017 Rams, Fisher said “[t]hey’re basically, I don’t want to say my players, but I had a lot to do with that roster. Left them in pretty good shape.”

In 2015, Fisher had Case Keenum and Nick Foles on his roster. The Rams went 7-9. In 2016, he had Case Keenum and Jared Goff and went 4-9.

In 2017, once free from the shackles of Fisher’s antiquated offense, all three shined. Goff took a huge step forward, leading the Rams to the playoffs. Additionally, Keenum had a career year, losing to the eventual Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles, led by — you guessed it — Nick Foles.

Which brings me to John Fox. In a recent interview with Sports Illustrated, he made some similarly interesting comments. Regarding his time with the Bears, Fox said:

"Well, it was [a mess]. When we got there, it wasn’t very competitive. They were getting blown out. And I think we were competitive. The record, look, you go 6–10, 3–13 and 5–11. I’ve been around this league for 28 years. I get it. But we also inherited the [30th-ranked] defense in the league and now they’re a top-10 defense."

What Fox failed to mention was that it was Vic Fangio who turned them into a top-10 defense. He also conveniently left out that even with a top-10 defense, he failed to win more than six games in any season. It would have been maddening enough if Fox stopped there, but he didn’t. He continued:

"I think [the Bears will] be better. What that means, I don’t know, but I know they’re better and they’re in better shape with free agency as far as money to spend and even draft picks. So that’s a bitter pill, but I understand the game; I get how it works."

Again, there is a lot to unpack here. It is true that the Bears had a lot of money to spend in free agency this year. However, the reality is that if Fox was still their coach, it wouldn’t have mattered. No free agent wants to play in an offense that resembles something that predated the forward-pass. In fact, Allen Robinson admitted that a big reason he chose Chicago was Matt Nagy.

The fact of that matter is that if the Chicago Bears enjoy much greater success in 2018 it will be, in large part, because John Fox is no longer the coach. The reality is they would not have attracted the free agents they did if he was still there.

In addition, they would be running the same offense that routinely put Mitchell Trubisky in third down and forever. Finally, just like we saw with Jeff Fisher, it doesn’t matter who is on your roster if you don’t utilize them correctly.

Next: Keys for the 2018 Chicago Bears' defense

Bottom Line

Perhaps the comments were innocuous. However, if John Fox uses his pulpit as an analyst for ESPN to attempt to take credit for any success the Bears have in 2018, it might cause the heads of Bears fans everywhere to explode.