Bears hire John Fox as franchise's 15th head coach

John Fox is officially the Bears' head coach, per NFL source.

— Mike Klis (@MikeKlis) January 16, 2015

Since his dismissal as the Denver Broncos head coach on Monday, John Fox was almost immediately linked to the Chicago Bears because of ties to consultant Ernie Accorsi and Ryan Pace through Sean Payton. Now that it's official, Fox has been tabbed to be the next head coach for the Chicago Bears.

Fox worked his way through the ranks, spending most of the '80s in the college ranks before breaking into the NFL with the Pittsburgh Steelers in '89, under Chuck Noll.

Fox then spent time with the San Diego Chargers and L.A. Raiders as a defensive backs coach. After a year with the Rams he then was hired as the defensive coordinator for the New York Giants under GM Ernie Accorsi, in 1997.

In 2002 he became the third head coach of Carolina Panthers. Fox turned around the Panthers from 1-15 in 2001 to 7-9 in 2002, and then to the Super Bowl in 2003 with Jake Delhomme and an 11-5 record.

Fox was known as a defensive coach who got the most out of his teams. Fox's Panthers made the playoffs three times in his nine seasons.

Fox has spent the last four seasons with the Denver Broncos where he quickly turned them around from the mess of the Josh McDaniels era, taking them from 4-12 to 8-8 and a playoff victory with Tim Tebow at the helm. Along with president John Elway, they were able to land Peyton Manning and have gone 13-3, 13-3 and 12-4. They got to the Super Bowl following the 2013 season, where they got smoked by the Seattle Seahawks.

Overall Fox is 119-89 as a head coach in the regular season, going 73-71 in Carolina and 46-18 in Denver. He holds an 8-7 playoff record.

Some will say that this is a slightly more successful Lovie Smith: A defensive-minded coach known for having a strong running game but has clock management and conservative game-planning tendencies in big games. His in-game adjustments have been questioned by some. Having Peyton Manning has also been cited as reason why he's had success.

Others will say that he managed to get to the Super Bowl with Jake Delhomme and win a playoff game with Tim Tebow. His teams in Carolina generally overachieved with few superstar players, save for Julius Peppers and Steve Smith.

There's no disputing that he was the most accomplished and successful former coach on the market. Now he's the Bears' man.

So what do you think of the hire?

EDIT:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Fox said Ryan Pace made all the difference to him in going to that spot. Again, done deal 4 years new Bears head coach</p>&mdash; Jay Glazer (@JayGlazer) <a href="https://twitter.com/JayGlazer/status/556174268933742594">January 16, 2015</a></blockquote>

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