John Fox won't commit to or deny a quarterback change: ‘We're looking at everything'

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John Fox, on Friday, wouldn’t rule out changing quarterbacks and starting Mitchell Trubisky Oct. 9 against the Minnesota Vikings. But the third-year Bears coach didn’t announce anything, either. 

“I’m not really trying to be clear,” Fox quipped. “Actually quite the opposite. But we’re evaluating every day.”

The Bears are 1-3, though, and with an opportunity to self-scout in this break between Thursday and Monday night games, everything is being evaluated. But there isn’t a go-to wide receiver walking through that door who can alter the complexion of this offense. The Bears aren’t going to find an impact guy stashed on a practice squad or in free agency. Whatever work there is to do will have to come from within, and most likely, the guys who are already starting.

“It’s 11 people executing and doing their job,” Fox said. “I think as I’ve referenced, the quarterback gets a lot more credit and a lot more blame than they deserve. We’re looking at everything and we’re not in big rush to do anything about it because we don’t have a game until next Monday night.”

There’s one position, though, where a change to the depth chart could make a difference. And it’s the one played by Mike Glennon, Trubisky and Mark Sanchez. 

Fox almost certainly knows this, even if he’s not publicly saying it. Back in 2011, Fox dropped Kyle Orton after five ineffective games in which the Denver Broncos were 1-4 and Orton had seven interceptions and eight touchdowns. Tim Tebow replaced him and took care of the ball better (12 TDs, 6 INTs), and the Broncos won seven of their final 11 games and reached the playoffs. 

If the Bears are going to make a quarterback change, there’s no reason for Fox to announce it now with over a week until the team’s next game. The Bears may have already come to a decision that Trubisky will start, or they’ll come to that decision over the weekend or into next week. Or maybe they’ll decide to stick with Glennon (or, alternatively, play Sanchez). At this point, everything is on the table. 

“We watch these guys practice every day,” Fox said. “That’s the unique thing we get to evaluate. I’ve seen steady growth (from Trubisky). It’s altogether different I think. Most quarterbacks would tell you that. All of a sudden your experiences in college, your experiences in the preseason and then you get to the regular season. People talk about this as well. You get to a playoff game. It ramps off. So you don’t really know that until you put somebody out there. You’d like to have them as ready to take the test as possible and typically the more you study the better you get.”

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