Entering Year 3, Bears' John Fox talks QBs, a rebuild and his future

Bears head coach John Fox watches quarterback Mitch Trubisky during rookie minicamp. (AP)

Bears coach John Fox’s future is tied to the futures of his quarterbacks.

If free-agent signee Mike Glennon is competent as the starter this season, the Bears have a chance to exceed expectations. If No. 2 overall pick Mitch Trubisky develops the way the Bears hope he will, the team will be relevant for years.

If both happen, Fox will be around to witness the Bears’ resurgence firsthand.

‘‘It’s been said thousands of times: The head coach and quarterback get way more credit when it’s good and way more blame when it’s bad,’’ Fox told the Sun-Times. ‘‘That ain’t changing.

‘‘I didn’t invent that saying, but that saying is true. All these guys are big boys. They know what they signed up for; we all signed up for it. They get it. And they’re working their fannies off right now to help the football team win.’’

Victories were elusive in Fox’s first two seasons with the Bears. His 9-23 record with them is the worst two-year run of his 15-year head-coaching career, and it’s the only time he has posted back-to-back losing seasons. A third could put him squarely on the hot seat.

‘‘I just know I’ve been doing this a long time,’’ Fox said. ‘‘I understand the way it works. It’s a performance-based business, and you’ve gotta win. There can’t be any more pressure on the outside than there is on the inside.’’

Rebuild?

When the Bears report Wednesday to Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais, only 10 players on the 90-man roster will remain from the day Fox was hired.

Fox inherited a team that finished the 2014 season ranked 23rd in scoring offense and 31st in scoring defense. They also started that season as the third-oldest team in the NFL in average age. Fox’s first two teams with the Bears have been ranked 19th and 10th in opening-day age, respectively, and that figures to skew younger this season.

Still, there’s a word the Bears won’t use publicly.

‘‘I read, ‘They won’t even say they’re rebuilding,’ ’’ Fox said. ‘‘Well, I’m never going to say we’re rebuilding because what am I telling that locker room? I’m giving them an out. So I’m not doing that.

‘‘We have gone from [one of] the oldest [teams] to one of the youngest. Call it what you want, but we’re getting better for it.’’

The roster turnover won’t be complete, however, until the Bears can figure out the most important position in sports.

Finding a quarterback

After the Bears traded up to pick Trubisky — the only quarterback ever drafted in the first round by a Fox team — they began working on a practice schedule to get him and Glennon as many snaps as possible. (Glennon needs the work, too; he has attempted only 11 regular-season passes in the last two seasons.)

By starting Glennon, though, the Bears hope to put themselves in a different position than the last four teams to select a quarterback with a top-two pick. Three of those four quarterbacks began their rookie season as the starter, but only the Eagles’ Carson Wentz, who was drafted second in 2016, still is playing for his original head coach.

Glennon’s consistency this season is paramount.

‘‘How the quarterback plays a lot of time dictates how the team plays,’’ Glennon said. ‘‘With that being said, the 10 guys around him can help that situation out. Ultimately, as a quarterback, you put a lot of pressure on yourself, knowing that if you play well, the team should play well.’’

When Fox refers to the Bears’ injury woes last season, he doesn’t focus on the 19 players on injured reserve but on the fact that quarterbacks Jay Cutler, Brian Hoyer and Matt Barkley each started at least five games.

‘‘We won three games running with three different quarterbacks,’’ Fox said. ‘‘That’s not, in this league, a secret for success.’’

Optimism

Fox said the game is fun only when you win.

‘‘We haven’t won two years in a row, so it hasn’t been fun,’’ he said. ‘‘But I still like where we’re headed.’’

He pointed to outside linebacker Leonard Floyd, who will fit better in the Bears’ scheme in his second season, and to the return of nose tackle Eddie Goldman from injury.

‘‘We’ve added pieces — probably the most noticeable would be the secondary — with experience, guys that have played,’’ Fox said. ‘‘That wasn’t necessarily a strength of ours the year before. . . . There’s more experience, more competition in every spot.’’

No position, though, matters more than quarterback.

‘‘The bottom line is, ‘Perform well,’ ’’ Fox said. ‘‘I don’t care if you’re the quarterback or the cornerback, we have to perform better than we did a year ago or the year before that. I think everybody gets it.’’

Follow me on Twitter @patrickfinley.

Email: pfinley@suntimes.com

Entering Year 3, Bears’ John Fox talks QBs, a rebuild and his future