Being the guy tasked with turning around a franchise that has been failing for years is not easy. John Fox probably thought he could do it when he took the job with the Chicago Bears, but clearly, he did not succeed. But was it because of him or was the team that bad?

Fox is not the kind of coach that would throw a former team under the bus, but he did comment recently on the team he inherited, via NBC Sports Chicago’s John Mullin.

“…We inherited a mess, . . . but I felt we were on the brink at the end. I think that [Halas Hall] building is definitely different; they feel it. I do think that it was a positive. . . .”

He took over a team in 2015 that has been going downhill for the last three years. After finishing 10-6 in 2012 they slipped to 8-8 the following year. The year before Fox took over they finished 5-11. So, it is not hard to argue with his claim of “inheriting a mess.”

To be fair, while the team only won 14 games in three seasons under him, they do appear to be a much better team now than they were then. Mitchell Trubisky has some growing to do, but he does appear to be an upgrade from Jay Cutler.

Whenever Matt Nagy gets let go or leaves town, he will not be able to make the same claim. It would be a stretch to call the Bears a good team, but they certainly are not a mess.