Jeff Fisher made headlines last year when he tried to take credit for the Los Angeles Rams turnaround despite him not being the head coach anymore, stating most of that team was established under his watch. Sean McVay merely took advantage of what he’d built. Some wondered if John Fox, whom the Chicago Bears fired back in January, might take a similar stance when he finally agreed to talk about the team this month.
While he wasn’t quite as blatant about it as Fisher was, it became clear in an interview with Dan Pompei of The Athletic that Fox isn’t willing to give much credit to his replacement Matt Nagy. Fox has been doing analyst work all year for ESPN. He remains open to coaching again provided a favorable situation opens up.
No surprise given the man will be 64 in February. Seeing the Bears go 10-4, win the NFC North and be considered a true Super Bowl contender must be tough given the rough three years he endured trying to get them back on their feet. That would explain why his stance on Nagy was, shall we say, lukewarm at best.
John Fox isn’t sold on Nagy as a coach or a play caller
The curious comments began when Fox was asked about how dramatic the turnaround has been from last year. While of course the defense rightfully got praise, Fox determined that much of that success was due to the new additions they made on offense from Allen Robinson, to Trey Burton, Taylor Gabriel, and Anthony Miller. Any mention of Nagy’s scheming and play calling was conspicuously absent.
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“Not really. Tarik (Cohen) and Jordan (Howard) were big elements of the offense the year before, and there was going to be plenty of money to interject some talent into the skill people. I knew they were going to do that regardless of whether I was there or not. And they did that. It’s worked out pretty well…
…When you go from 5-11 to winning the division, that’s a great job. They made strides offensively, and made some acquisitions offensively to help them. The leading receiver last year was Kendall Wright. He’s not even playing football anymore.”
It didn’t end there.
Pompei pressed the questioning a bit further, asking directly what Fox thought of Nagy’s game planning and knack for calling plays. Rather than dial things back, the former coach decided to double down and openly declare his belief that the system he’s built will likely go out of style before too long.
“There are teams like Kansas City that are doing similar things. For me, the jury is out on all of it. Some of the defenses are catching up with these things pretty quickly. I mean, remember the run and shoot? It had its moment, but it kind of went away over time. You will have trends, but ultimately it comes down to how well you run it, how well you do on third down and playing good defense.”
First of all, the Run and Shoot went out of style because teams couldn’t run the ball effectively in it. There was no balance and soon defenses began to figure that out. Such is not the case with Nagy’s offense. The Bears are 14th in the NFL in rushing. Kansas City is still 16th despite losing star running back Kareem Hunt. Baltimore, who runs a similar style as well, is 2nd.
It’s hard not to think that this dismissal of Nagy’s system sounds less like genuine analysis and more like a tad bit of sour grapes.
