One silver lining for every team that missed the playoffs
Chicago Bears (6-10)
You now have a competent coach and a front office that’s able to shape a competitive team.
For the Chicago Bears heading into 2015, the requirements for success were exceptionally low. There was no expectation for a playoff push, only competence, and this started with the head coach and the front office.
The Bears needed a solid balance at head coach for 2015, requiring:
- … a coach who had the respect and loyalty of the roster, one who had the pro football pedigree and experience in leading the team without being authoritarian. This was a category where Lovie Smith excelled while coaching the Bears. This was the fundamental problem Marc Trestman had while coaching the Bears. He didn’t value the stability of the locker room to the same degree as implementing his system. By the end of his tenure, Trestman was no longer in control of the roster, and the Bears spiraled out of control.
- … a coach who understands how to make adjustments in the current landscape of the NFL, both in the short term during games and in the long term while influencing the shape of a roster week to week (and year to year). While Smith nailed down the first requirement, he failed miserably with this second. His undying loyalty to the Tampa-2 defense – a defense that without Rod Marinelli would have remained rigid against teams that exploited it’s predictable zone gaps – as well as his loyalty to whatever scrub quarterback came his way, forced the Bears into becoming a one-dimensional team without a sustainable model for success.
John Fox was able to fit both of these requirements. Fox’s experience and disposition won over the locker room quickly, keeping the players’ best interests in mind.
From Chicago Tribune’s Dan Pompei:
"… when [RB Matt] Forte injured [sic] his knee midway through the season, Fox told him, “Be smart. I don’t know what’s going to happen and you don’t either. You need to get well and make sure what you put out there on tape is good. That tape is your resume.” Fox added that he has advised other players similarly in the past."
He and his staff also put the Bears in the best position to win with mid-season adjustments – moving Matt Slauson to center after Will Montgomery’s injury was particularly inspired – and by smartly integrating young players into the lineup like rookies Jeremy Langford (RB), Eddie Goldman (DT) and Adrian Amos (S).
The Bears aren’t a juggernaut in 2016, but they should be competitive.
Next: New Orleans Saints