Since 2009, John Fox has an eye-bleeding record as head coach of three different teams — except when his quarterback is Peyton Manning.
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Fox had a respectable start to his head coaching career, going 63-49 in the regular season from 2002-08 with the Carolina Panthers. He did have four seasons with eight or fewer wins over that span but also had three with 11 or more, including an 11-win 2003 regular season that concluded with a three-point loss to the Patriots in Super Bowl XXXVIII.
Since 2009, he is 66-77.
He is 38-10 with Peyton Manning as his starting quarterback and 28-67 without him. All 38 wins came between 2012-14, Manning's first three seasons with Denver and Fox's final three. Though the pair never won a Super Bowl together — twice losing in the divisional round and once in the Super Bowl — they made magic during the regular season.
Or maybe it was just Manning, the offensive coaching staff and a gluttony of weapons that made magic.
While impossible to know — or measure — how much impact John Fox had on Manning and an offense that ranked in the top five in both scoring and total yards each of those three seasons, it's clear that the veteran coach cannot win without an elite quarterback.
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The three successful seasons in Carolina came with Jake Delhomme playing average football, at best, but since then he has never finished above .500 without Peyton Manning. His lone non-Manning season with at least a .500 mark came in 2011, the infamous Tebow season.
Following the Bears' Week 5 loss to the Vikings, Fox is now 10-27 in two-plus seasons in Chicago. Jay Cutler has started 20 of those games, followed by Matt Barkley (six), Brian Hoyer (five), Mike Glennon (four) Jimmy Clausen (one) and Mitchell Trubisky (one).
While that's not an elite group of quarterbacks, Fox's record without Manning is still concerning and suggestive that unless Trubisky turns it on, Fox is not the right guy in Chicago. Heck, even he does turn it in, Fox may not be the right guy in Chicago.
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