How long will John Fox remain head coach of the Bears?

The San Francisco 49ers faced off against the New York Giants in Week 10, and they embarrassed them in a 31-21 win. Ben McAdoo later admitted as much after the game, which came on the heels of anonymous players criticizing the coach. It seemed like it could be enough to result in McAdoo getting fired, but clearly the Giants are prepared to wait until after the season.

This week, the 49ers face another embattled coach when they travel to face John Fox and the Chicago Bears. We chatted with Windy City Gridiron writer Jeff Berckes to get his thoughts on where Fox stands, and what Bears fans want to replace Fox. This all came as Bears fans have a ready made logo for Fire Fox! Thanks to Jeff for his thoughts.

Yes, pretty amazing when there’s a readymade logo for you to get canned – I guess I should be glad there isn’t a Fire Jeff logo out there. We at Windy City Gridiron signed his termination papers months ago. That article is from September 20^th. There is just no doubt that Fox will be gone at the end of the year. He should’ve been fired after losing to the Brett Hundley Packers at home after a bye week. There’s just no excuse for that result, but the Bears aren’t a team that historically has fired coaches during the season. They are a passive, weak ownership group who prefers to avoid any splashy moves.

The opinions on what people want in a new head coach vary widely so I’ll just speak for myself. I want someone who has a plan for Mitchell Trubisky. As I mentioned above, this team is married to Trubisky for the next few years and while he has enormous potential, he needs a serious plan for development. That likely means an offensive minded coach, similar to your hire of Kyle Shanahan, however, this is Chicago and a great defensive coach who has a plan for Trubisky is fine. The one guy I see out there that could fit that mold is Matt Patricia. I know the Patriots defense was terrible at the beginning of the year, but they’ve made adjustments and played better.

There’s the popular narrative that all of the Patriots assistants will fail once out of the orbit of Bill Belichick. I find that to be the most ridiculous, naïve evaluation of coaches ever. The past performances of Romeo Crennel, Eric Mangini, Charlie Weiss, etc., do not have any bearing on Patricia or Josh McDaniels. They are all individuals who will approach their own opportunities differently and with unique circumstances. Can you imagine not getting promoted at work because another person from your unit didn’t make a good supervisor? Plus, Patricia is a guy who “grew up” in the Patriots organization and if you want to build a consistent winner, I’d love to allow a guy who learned from the best coach in the history of league (apologies to Bill Walsh and George Halas) a chance to build something in Chicago.