Dowell Loggains and Vic Fangio were two of the most mentioned names throughout the 2016 season. Sometimes with joy and admiration, others not so much. Rumors have been flying for weeks that one or even both might get fired due to the struggles of their respective units during a difficult season. Fox put that to rest almost immediately.
John Fox says that the Bears' coordinators, Dowell Loggains, Vic Fangio and Jeff Rodgers, remain intact.
— Chris Emma (@CEmma670) January 4, 2017
Fox has a long history of remaining loyal to his primary staff members. He’s never fired a coordinator in his coaching tenure. Besides, there were points made that to him and the rest of the team justifies their return.
Loggains
John Fox makes it clear that he doesn’t think “play calling and design” are issues on offense. Hence, Loggains returning.
— Adam Hoge (@AdamHoge) January 4, 2017
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Indeed the constant gripe from many people about Loggains was an inability to adjust during games and also a stubborn unwillingness to run the football more. This despite have a young stud at running back in Jordan Howard. Fox explained the lack of consistency in personnel and constantly playing from behind in games were a big part of those issues. He also stated he wanted to keep Loggains because of his ability to manufacture explosive plays and run the ball efficiently.
Fangio
Bears GM Ryan Pace dismisses "rumors" of a rift between John Fox and Vic Fangio, a front office restructuring or a consultant at Halas Hall.
— Chris Emma (@CEmma670) January 4, 2017
Fangio on the other hand was the guy nobody, including the players wanted to lose. Both Pernell McPhee and Jerrell Freeman went on record stating they’d be very upset if the veteran defensive coordinator left. It all started a few weeks ago when there was a reported friction between Fox and Fangio. This led to a belief that the latter might resign or be fired. Given how well the defense played (15th in yards, 37 sacks) in spite of losing several players to injury, his loss would be disastrous.
Pace insisted that the tension reported was more about the team losing. Competitive people get testy when they’re not winning. Especially ones who do it often like Fangio and Fox. Thus the only notable moves the Bears have made regarding their coaching staff were at the positional level.
Offensive line coach Dave Magazu and safeties coach Sam Garnes were both dismissed. Whispers were the players didn’t care for Magazu and the poor play of the safeties on defense pretty much doomed Garnes. All told most of the staff will remain intact, which does have some advantages even if fans wanted to see bigger changes.
