John Fox just isn’t right for the Chicago Bears anymore. Initially chairman George McCaskey said he wanted to get back to traditional Bears football. That meant being the toughest, most physical team on the field. Strong defense and power running are the calling card. This job Fox accomplished. Now it’s time to take things a step further. They need to find a proper head coach for Mitch Trubisky, and Josh McDaniels needs to be that guy.
Okay that’s a lot of meat packed into one statement. We’ll start with the first part. Fox is a 62-year old coach steeped in a defensive background. His greatest career successes involved signing veteran quarterbacks to run the offense. Not once has he ever developed a rookie into a good or even reliable starter. The handling of Trubisky to this point seems to reflect that.
So why McDaniels? There are a number of reasons. He’s vastly experienced and still just 41-years old. He has two Super Bowl rings and has overseen the most consistently successful offense in the NFL the past five years. It’s that last part that should endear him to the Bears most.
Josh McDaniels is the master play caller Trubisky needs
Part of being a great coach in the NFL is being able to understand the game at its deepest depths. Details are where the good separate from the great. Nothing is more vital to the success of an offense than sharp play calling. Few if any are better in the game right now than McDaniels. Patriots head coach Bill Belichick explained why back in September, using some game film against the Houston Texans to illustrate it.
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The play below took place early in the game. Patriots wide receiver Chris Hogan runs his route to the sideline and catches a Brady pass for a first down. Belichick explained the dynamics of the play and how the defense communicated throughout it.
“They’re in Cover 4 again. And [Chris] Hogan turns out away from this linebacker. And here’s Hal, who’s too far away from him and Hogan makes the catch for a decent gain on the play. Kind of an interesting part of this play, when Hogan breaks out, Hal is working over the top and he’s anticipating that the corner will come down and trap this and move down and take the receiver to the flat while he goes over the top to the outside guy.”
Where McDaniels steps above others in his mastery of situation and anticipation is what came later. The Patriots showed the exact same formation to Houston. The corner and safety anticipate it’s another quick out throw to Hogan and thus move that way to trap it. Only it’s a ruse. Hogan fakes the out with a double move and then heads back towards the middle of the field on a deep cross, popping wide open.
That subtle adjustment was all McDaniels and is one of many examples of why the Patriots offense is so hard to defend.
Knock on McDaniels is he doesn’t know how to lead
There is no question that McDaniels the play caller would be a dream come true for Trubisky. So what about McDaniels the head coach? A lot of people have already seen that movie and it was a box office flop. At 33-years old he was the hot, young name in the league. The Denver Broncos hired him in 2009 in hopes he’d keep their strong offense going. Instead a calculated blunder by a naive coach led to huge backlash.
McDaniels reportedly trashed starting quarterback Jay Cutler during their first meeting. Cutler was so offended by the exchange he demanded a trade out of town. He was dealt to Chicago in exchange for Kyle Orton and draft picks. Then things were made worse when McDaniels’ reported plan to go get Matt Cassel fell through after Kansas City got him first.
He tried to make due with what he had. Orton had the best season of his career with 3,802 yards and 21 touchdowns with 12 interceptions. Unfortunately it wasn’t enough. McDaniels was fired 12 games into the 2010 season. He finished with an 11-17 record. Much of the reason behind the abrupt departure was a videotaping scandal in which he failed to report an illegal recording of an opposing teams’ practice even though he refused to view it.
Simple answer to why he failed? He wasn’t ready
People look at Sean McVay out in Los Angeles and they feel going with a really young coach is the solution to every teams’ problems. That is not true. On average the coaches who get their first job at a very young age don’t do well. Of the head coaches in the Super Bowl era who started 33 or younger, only one of them won a championship at that original job. That being John Madden with the Raiders. Several like McDaniels were considerable flops.
However, there is another fact about the NFL that must be recalled. Head coaches tend to have greater success on their second chances than they do on their first. Here are a few examples.
John Fox
- Carolina Panthers: 73-71
- Denver Broncos: 46-18
Marty Schottenheimer
- Cleveland Browns: 44-24
- Kansas City Chiefs: 101-58
Marv Levy
- Kansas City Chiefs: 31-42
- Buffalo Bills: 112-70
Gary Kubiak
- Houston Texans: 61-64
- Denver Broncos: 21-11 (one ring)
Mike Shanahan
- Los Angeles Raiders: 8-12
- Denver Broncos: 138 -86 (two rings)
Tony Dungy
- Tampa Bay Buccaneers: 54-42
- Indianapolis Colts: 85-27 (one ring)
Sid Gillman
- Los Angeles Rams: 28-31
- San Diego Chargers: 86-53 (one ring)
Bill Belichick
- Cleveland Browns: 36-44
- New England Patriots: 207-73 (five rings)
There’s no reason to think McDaniels hasn’t matured and learned lessons from the mistakes he made in Denver. All these other coaches did and it served them well. McDaniels himself admitted that in hindsight he wasn’t ready eight years ago but that’s he’s learned from the experience.
“Sure. All the experiences I’ve had in coaching I hope have made me a better person, better coach. I think so much about this game, this business, is about people and trying to put together the right group of people and allow them to have their responsibilities, trust them to do their job and be a great resource for them and help them in any way that you can.
Some of the things I failed at before, I think I learned from and am better for it. I think I am.”
If that’s true, then it should be an easy decision for the Bears. McDaniels is the best offensive mind in the NFL and has been trained by arguably the greatest of all-time. If the goal is to make Trubisky a long-term success, this is the fish they have to reel in.
