The Chicago Bears held their season-ending press conference today at Halas Hall to answer a variety of questions about the current state, and future, of the franchise. The interview was led by general manager Ryan Pace and head coach John Fox.
This was somewhat of surprise considering a lot of people expected Fox to be fired at the end of the season. Hub Arkish, a local Bears beat reporter, repetitively cited a possible rift between Pace and Fox over team control. Arkish has reported that Fox wasn't Pace's first choice for head coach, therefore a termination was possible after the last two years.
When addressing questions from the media today, Pace set the story straight. After a very poor 9-23 start, Fox's record doesn't appear to be what Pace is fully judging him on. Even though he did say this season was "unacceptable, " Pace had a lot of good things to say about Fox and revealed exactly why he is being brought back.
The main reasons Pace said Fox would be brought back are the following:
... He has created the culture Pace was looking for. According to Pace, Fox has created the culture, and the locker room, that Pace thinks is conducive with winning. Outside of the problem with the PEDs, which Pace talked sensitively around, everything going on in the Bears locker room has the arrow point up as far as the general manager is concerned.
... He has been essential developing young players. The Chicago Bears played more rookies and second-year players in 2016 than any other team in the league. Pace credits Fox for finding a way to get the young guys on the field, outside of injuries that forced it, and he sees value in that. Most football fans know Fox has been around a longtime and has worked with several young draft picks. Pace confirmed for everyone that Fox's presence in Chicago has been critical when developing the youth.
It's clear that off-the-field, Fox is doing a lot of good things. If he wasn't, Pace would have fired him. The door was open to terminate Fox and Pace would have been supported by damn near everyone if that's what he decided to do, but he didn't. It's obviously related to the reasons above and could be partially due to the six head-coaching vacancies currently in the NFL. Did Chicago really want to focus on finding a new head coach this off-season when they have so many other big decisions to make?
The answer is a resounding "NO."
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