John Fox is no longer head coach of the Chicago Bears. A lot of people feel relieved at that, including some of the players on the team. Jordan Howard freely admitted his love for Fox but that it was time for a change. Winning eight games in two years can have that effect. It’s hard to tell though where things started to truly turn against him. When did it become clear that the Bears were drifting away from his control?
After 2015 it looked like Fox was in firm command. Despite a 6-10 finished he had the team brimming with optimism after an upset win over the Packers on Thanksgiving. A strong off-season in 2016 could put them back into the playoff picture. Instead, they crashed to earth at 3-13, the worst record ever for a Bears team in a 16-game regular season.
Some thought that the failure would cause Fox to get fired. In the end, he wasn’t, but it became clear things weren’t the same. The old coach has lost some of his luster, not to mention sway behind the scenes. That became evident with what happened in the NFL draft last year.
John Fox friend Jay Glazer confirms Bears hid Trubisky pick from him
NFL insider Jay Glazer has a close relationship with several people around the NFL. He personally trains with many of them, able to speak their language on a personal level. One man, he’s been known to get along with for years is Fox. Typically any inside information regarding the head coach has come from Glazer. Such was the case again when one of the most explosive rumors of the 2017 NFL draft was finally confirmed.
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Jay Glazer on John Fox not knowing the #Bears were going to draft Mitch Trubisky: "You got to make sure everyone is on the same page. And even after that, Foxy kind of protected the organization on how much he did and didn’t know.”
Full SC pod is up! https://t.co/x555U3zd7T
— Adam Hoge (@AdamHoge) February 1, 2018
Chris Mortensen of ESPN blew the lid off this shortly after the Bears selected Trubisky #2 overall, stating Fox didn’t even know about the pick until shortly before it happened. Months later word came out that GM Ryan Pace kept him out of the loop intentionally because he was afraid Fox, who’s known for being chummy and open with people, might blab the information by mistake.
Some people though believed it was the first major sign that Pace was starting his preparations for a change at head coach and wanted a quarterback in place for when that happened. After all, Fox had never drafted a QB in the first round his entire career dating back to 2002. This was a sharp departure from that. It’s far more likely that Pace went freelance than him convincing the veteran coach it was in his best interests to do so.
Fox and pretty much everybody knew he was out if he had another losing season. A rookie quarterback wasn’t going to save him. It was a bit underhanded, sure, but at the end of the day Pace’s first responsibility was to the Bears organization, not Fox’s job security.
