The Chicago Bears are going against the grain with their newest head coach.
But it's about as safe a pick as they could have made.
John Fox, who parted ways with the Denver Broncos on the day after their divisional loss to the Indianapolis Colts last Sunday, will come to Chicago after Marc Trestman lasted only two seasons before being fired.
Trestman was an off-the-wall hire, and it cost former general manager Phil Emery his job, too. With Fox, the Bears are going with a tried and true coach who has a career regular-season mark of 119-89 over a combined 13 seasons with the Broncos and Carolina Panthers, making two Super Bowls but losing both.
The last time the Bears hired a coach with previous NFL head-coaching experience was ... George Halas, when he rehired himself in 1958.
It makes sense for the Bears, in light of the Trestman disaster and having hired a 37-year-old first-time general manager Ryan Pace to replace Emery, to go with a safer choice at head coach.
The Bears also interviewed former Buffalo Bills coach Doug Marrone, Detroit's Teryl Austin, Denver's Adam Gase and Seattle's Dan Quinn but none of those coaches would have come to Chicago with the track record that Fox owns.
Will Fox win with Jay Cutler? That's the next big question that faces the Bears. Fox won in Carolina with Jake Delhomme, made the playoffs in Denver with Tim Tebow and went 38-10 with Peyton Manning the past three seasons.
Fox turns 60 on Feb. 8. He underwent heart surgery during the 2013 season, giving way to then-interim Jack Del Rio, before returning for the end of the season and making the Super Bowl, where they were blown out, 43-8, by the Seattle Seahawks.
The Bears have finished .500 or better in four of the past five seasons but last made the postseason after the 2010 season and fell to 5-11 this past season, the franchise's worst campaign in a decade, which caused the Bears to clean house thereafter.
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