With the first head coach axed, the Chicago Bears need to follow the lead of the NY Giants.
Last year, the NY Giants went 11-5 under new coach Ben McAdoo and looked like they were ready to surge into potentially a division championship in 2017. With the offensive weapons they already had, a revamped defense, adding Brandon Marshall and Evan Engram and another year for Sterling Shepard to develop, the Giants were set to be one of the top teams in the league.
But that’s why you play the games.
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After injuries to Odell Beckham and Brandon Marshall, struggles with the offensive line, and a team that unraveled from the start, the Giants were in a tailspin and fell to 2-10. When John Mara and the rest of the Giants Ownership saw that there was no way this team could recover under their current leadership, they acted. They fired McAdoo and they even fired GM Jerry Reese. They did so with four games to go in the season.
The Chicago Bears would be wise to follow in the footsteps of the NY Giants. No, the Bears shouldn’t fire Ryan Pace (although some fans believe they should). But what the Bears do need to do is remove John Fox as their head coach. The team knows he will be fired. Fox knows he will be fired, and it’s creating an untenable situation in the locker room.
The Bears are truly playing out the season and the motivation is lacking and because of these issues, the development will not be what Ryan Pace and the front office want to see. It seems that the Bears have no plans to remove Fox before the season ends, but just because they’ve never done that before, doesn’t mean they shouldn’t do that now.
Part of the issue may be that the Bears don’t feel that they have a man on the coaching staff that can take the title of interim head coach. It’s been reported that Vic Fangio isn’t interested in that title, but the Bears need to find someone who is. It doesn’t really matter who takes control of the team, they just need a different voice in the locker room, even if the players know the voice is only temporary.
The Bears know they aren’t making the playoffs and they know their coach is fired, getting fired up to play on Sunday is going to be difficult for any of them to do. They need to have a fresh voice in there, one that can talk about positioning themselves now for a better spot within the organization next year. One that can tell them that improvement over these next four games may not help them for this season, but it can help them start at a much higher level in 2018. Hearing this from Fox isn’t going to resonate with anyone.
If one of the original NFL franchises in the New York Giants can make a major move like this in the middle of the season, so can the Chicago Bears. Everyone knows the move is going to be made, so why wait? Do it now.