Chicago Bears: Projecting The 2017 Off-Season
By Erik Lambert
The 2017 Chicago Bears are going to look very different from the 2016 version. That’s inevitable given the way their season has gone and will likely go.
Perhaps the man with more to lose than anybody is head coach John Fox. He came in with promises of a quick turnaround and instead stands 8-17 so far in his two seasons on the headset. He’ll be 62-years old next year. No doubt he realizes the odds of getting another head coaching job after this are all but impossible. Unless he can string together some wins, it’s likely Fox will be gone and GM Ryan Pace will be searching for his replacement.
Who will that be? Based on the current crop of likely candidates, expect it to be this guy.
New Head Coach: Matt Patricia
This was a tough call. It came down to figuring out how Pace would approach the situation. Everybody will automatically assume it has to be an offensive guy because the Bears will likely draft a quarterback. However, it’s important to remember this. Fox is a defensive guy and the man rumors insist Pace liked before hiring him was Todd Bowles, another defensive guy. Don’t forget Pace played defensive end in college. At heart he thinks from that side of the ball.
What makes Matt Patricia so appealing is his background. The Patriots have never ranked lower than 10th in the NFL in points allowed since he took over their defensive play calling. He’s a former engineer, which means he understands the idea of how to make pieces fit together to form a working machine. It’s how he’s operated in New England with its constantly shifting roster. Tom Landry had a similar history. Also one must not forget he spent his first two years as an offensive assistant in New England. So he’s not unfamiliar with coaching that side of the ball.
Throw in some excellent facial hair, a must for successful Chicago coaches and this makes perfect sense.