NEWSLETTER
Coaches who head into the media world don’t tend to be critical of their former teams, so I suppose John Fox’s willingness to go down that road should be appreciated. But once again, Fox’s foray into the world of analysis had led him to share criticisms of a problem he helped create.
Give it a watch and listen below:
Bears fans aren’t used to Fox having strong opinions on anything. So not only was it a bit of a surprise to hear the (now) ESPN analyst point out the franchise he used to coach as having the NFL’s worst offseason, his reasoning behind was very much an eyebrow-raiser.
“When you’re going to play defense, lean on takeaways to help a young offense, and you don’t have a kicker — a reliable kicker — that you’re going to need those points from after some of those turnovers,” Fox said. “I think the kicking question is really big right now in Chicago, and I think that might be a problem for them in the season.”
Ironic, he could analyze the kicking problems of others, but not for himself.
Fox picked the Bears as the NFL team having the worst offseason because of the team’s inability to solve its kicking problems. Of course, Bears fans know all too well that these issues began when the team cut Robbie Gould in favor of bringing in Connor Barth — a player with whom Fox had familiarity in Denver. Since the Bears parted ways with Gould in 2016, their kicking game has been a house of horrors. But Gould has gone on to prosper, connecting on 96.5 percent of his attempts.
To be fair, Fox isn’t wrong about the Bears needing to fix the kicker spot. But the worst offseason in the NFL? Come on now, Coach … you’re smarter than that.
Again, this isn’t the first time Fox has had questionable Bears-adjacent thoughts. In May 2018, Fox called the Bears’ passing game “deficient” in 2017. Why, yes, that is the same one he oversaw as the team’s head coach. Now this? *extreme side-eye*
I don’t think there are sour grapes here (he said as much back in April) but this is a bit suspect from the old ball coach.
