McCaskeys Hint John Fox Is In Trouble if Bears Don't Progress

GM Ryan Pace may be running the show for the Chicago Bears and that hasn't changed. At the same time, the ultimate direction of the franchise remains squarely in the hands of its owners. Specifically matriarch Virginia McCaskey and here son George, current team chairman. They made sweeping changes after the debacle in 2014 that saw the Bears give up 50 points in back-to-back games during a 5-11 death march. Now they've tried to stay patient, but it's clear enough. Head coach John Fox is behind the 8-ball. He was supposedly a man known for creating quick turnarounds for downtrodden franchises. Carolina and Denver can attest to that. However, Chicago presented a more significant challenge. Unlike those teams, which featured younger rosters with some solid talent already in place, the Bears were an old team with few talents to build around. Combined with a litany of injury problems, they've careened to a 9-23 record across two years. Still the ownership stayed patient, giving Fox the typical three years it takes to overhaul a roster. This is Year Three now. Results are often expected around this time, and he's under pressure to deliver.

Head coach John Fox does not have time on his side

Of course the big question is would the Bears fire the 62-year old if his team doesn't reach a certain expectation. McCaskey didn't come right out and say so. No owner in their right mind would do that. Even so he made it fairly clear that they would be watching carefully and the expectations were elevated for this year. Dan Wiederer of the Chicago Tribune lays it out as such.

"She sees the progress," George McCaskey noted at the NFL owners meetings this spring. "But like any Bears fan, she wants results." At this stage, might the "pissed off" label still ring true? "That's the quote that won't go away," George answered. "Until we win." Yep, these are the Bears in 2017, still mired in mediocrity and heading for a new season with no obvious signs that they're nearing a significant breakthrough. Ownership has been clear to stress that there are no ultimatums for this fall, no win-loss benchmarks that will determine the job security for Fox and his staff. But it's easy to deduce that this is a win-or-else season for the 62-year-old coach. In Fox's time in Chicago, his Bears have won barely a quarter of their games, shackled with a 9-23 record that has elevated aggravation and apathy throughout the fan base. Fox enters the third season of his four-year deal. And with NFL head coaches rarely entering the final year of their contracts without an extension or a dismissal, the stakes seem clear.

Are the Bears already thinking ahead?

It's true. The last time the Bears faced this sort of situation was 2006. Lovie Smith was in the second-to-last year of his deal. Chicago went to the Super Bowl and he got his raise. He also went to the playoffs the year before so there was never any question he was safe. Fox has no such safety net. Not only is he older than Smith was, but the win-loss counter is skewed. Smith got his reprieve through running the ball and playing great defense. Fox seems to hope he can do the same. Otherwise it's clearer than ever the team is ready to make a change. In fact rumors were rampant earlier in the offseason that, and take this with a grain of salt, the Bears tried to get him to resign so they wouldn't have to fire him. Fox refused and so the status quo was kept. Pace denied such rumors but since then reports of the head coach not being made aware of the Mitch Trubisky trade in the draft hints he's not as "in the loop" as he once was. Is it all pure speculation or a sign the team is preparing to make a change? The answer will become clear if he fails to win enough games.