How the Logic of Pairing Ryan Pace and John Fox Was Flawed

Nowadays people are saying that the hiring of John Fox was a total disaster. Well sure hindsight is always helpful in these situations. Being 13-32 with three games left in your third season qualifies one as a dud of a head coach. At the same time the move has its defenders. They base their arguments on the logic of the time. Adam Hoge of WGN explained it perfect in his recent article.

"Fox was clearly the most qualified candidate for the job and had a history of turning around both the Carolina Panthers and Denver Broncos. Compared to Emery hiring Marc Trestman over Bruce Arians, Fox was a perfectly sensible hire, even if it made for a somewhat odd pairing between a veteran head coach and the youngest GM in the NFL."

It's that last bit that is so integral to the point being made here. Three years ago it was explained to Pace and the Bears ownership that hiring Fox made perfect sense. He was experienced, proven and the perfect compliment to a rookie GM looking to find his way in the NFL. Except no. That logic was flawed from the beginning. If the Bears had bothered to pay attention, they would've seen it.

John Fox and Ryan Pace were destined to clash

The thing about veteran head coaches who've been around for a long time is they're all the same. A track record of success makes them believe they can handle the personnel duties in addition to coaching. Why do they need a GM babysitting them? This is something that has happened before. Back in 2010 the Philadelphia Eagles promoted Howie Roseman to become their new GM. Up until that point the personnel responsibilities were controlled by longtime head coach Andy Reid. Roseman was the youngest GM in the league at that time. Reid had coached the Eagles for a decade. It's fair to say he wasn't happy with the idea of giving up his power of picking his own players. That soon led to friction. From there the Eagles declined. They were 11-5 in 2009, went 10-6 in Roseman's first year, 8-8 in 2011 and finally bottomed out in 2012 at 4-12. As a result Reid was fired. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=675SlR9hNnU

Ignore history? Repeat.

It's almost an exact timeline of what the Bears have experienced over the past three years. Don't be fooled by what Pace or Fox say to the media. There has definitely been some friction between the two in regards to roster composition. One source told me some of that centered around one of the teams' most recent flops.

"Fox wanted Glennon. Pace wanted to use that money in other areas. Bears were the only team interested. Pace had a blueprint. He wanted a top corner to sign, a top receiver, top safety and a cheap VETERAN QB."

This would back up the story that Pace had plans to go quarterback in the draft and wanted to prepare the roster for that eventuality. Fox though is a known hater of rookie QBs as evidenced by his inability to develop one. Every time he's had a chance to get a younger passer, he's instead gone for veteran free agents. Jake Delhomme in Carolina and Peyton Manning in Denver. Pursuing Glennon was right up his alley. A perfect way to bypass the idea of drafting a rookie. Then Pace went ahead and did it anyway without Fox's knowledge. In the end their differing philosophies failed to mesh, as is so often the case in the NFL. That's why Pace needs to make a change and find somebody who thinks more like him.