John Fox has everything the Chicago Bears and their fans desperately want right now: a lantern jaw, a silver mane, a solid defensive pedigree and a long track record of...well, getting to Super Bowls.
When Michael C. Wright of ESPN.com reported that the Bears hired Fox, it made all the sense in the world. But is it the right hire? The best hire? The one to get the Bears back to the top of the NFL?Fox will replace the gaunt, professorial Marc Trestman on the Chicago sideline. Bears fans will surely love that.
Even if Trestman's offensive wonkery had turned quarterback Jay Cutler into Dan Marino and the Bears into Super Bowl champions, he still represented a big departure from the kind of football—and coach—sausage-devouring Chicagoans know and love.
The Bears are synonymous with the hard-nosed defenses of Mike Ditka and Lovie Smith. The 2014 unit allowed a 31st-ranked 442 points. It was an embarrassment to the legendary legacies of Dick Butkus, Mike Singletary and Brian Urlacher.
Fox, though, won't have a Hall of Fame middle linebacker to work with, or top-shelf talent like Von Miller, Chris Harris Jr. and T.J. Ward.
Instead, aging stars like linebacker Lance Briggs and former Vikings All-Pro defensive end Jared Allen are still around, and cornerback Kyle Fuller certainly looks like a difference-making youngster.
In the middle are a lot of decent players who won't get much better. The Bears' breakout veteran of 2014 was defensive end Willie Young, who'll play most of next season from the wrong side of age 30.
Let's say Fox, and whomever he hires to round out his coaching staff, can get more production out of the Bears' defensive talent than outgoing defensive coordinator Mel Tucker did. Given Fox's track record of quick turnarounds, that's a safe proposition.No matter how strong Fox's jaw, no matter how accountable he holds his players, there's only so much a head coach can do if he doesn't have a championship-caliber roster. The Bears might be on the fast track back to respectability, but they're no closer to a championship than they were before firing Smith
Source http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2332239-john-fox-hire-puts-chicago-bears-back-on-track-to-perennial-mediocrity
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