John Fox isn’t remembered too fondly these days for his exploits as head coach of the Chicago Bears. Not a surprise given his win-loss record in three seasons. To be fair, he did clean up the locker room issues and rebuilt the defense into something respectable. However, it was apparent towards the end that the coach had lost his edge and was merely playing out his string on the sidelines. Despite all of that, the stories of the man away from the field have never stopped being entertaining.
An unexpected one just cropped up. David Kaplan of ESPN was on his showed “Kap & Company” discussing the state of the Bears’ pass rush with retired guard Kyle Long. The conversation eventually came around to a story of when he attended the Super Bowl party of former Bear Tom Waddle for the Eagles vs. Patriots matchup. It was there Fox, boozed up, unloaded quite the soundbite.
“But Danny is standing there and Foxy’s drinking vodka and he says, ‘Let me just refill my glass, and you can ask me anything you want.’ And what did he say about Leonard Floyd, Danny? Who did he compare him to?”
“Jason Taylor.”
“He said, ‘That guy is Jason Taylor and if you guys will let him develop he is going to be a great football player.'”
John Fox premonition has been entirely incorrect
Keep in mind according to the timelines, Fox said this in January of 2018. In that time, Floyd has played 33 additional games. He has eight sacks in that span. Taylor had 17 sacks in his third and fourth seasons combined. Suffice to say this idea that the 28-year old isn’t going to be anywhere close to that level. All we’ve confirmed is that vodka can make people say some crazy things.
Floyd is easily one of the biggest mysteries of this 2020 offseason. He’s under contract for the year, but at a price of $13.222 million courtesy of his 5th year option. Most would agree that it is more than a little pricey for what he’s brought to the table. A reminder that it is more money than Preston Smith will be making this season and he had 12 sacks in 2019. The Bears have a lot of roster issues to work through and need as much money as they can get.
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Figuring out what to do with Floyd’s contract is an important step. This could mean a contract extension to lower the cap hit. It could even mean cutting or trading him. There is no telling how this will go.
