DAVID T. FOSTER III-dtfoster@charlotteobserver.com
Carolina Panthers coach John Fox talks to his player in the fourth quarter against the New York Giants at Giants Stadium. The Panthers won 41-9, in the Giants last regular season game at Giants Stadium.
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- You’re probably not going to like this. But I believe it, and I’m going to say it out loud: John Fox should be the Carolina Panthers’ coach in 2010.
Fox, whose Panthers won 41-9 on the road against the New York Giants Sunday, has one more year left on his current contract and should be allowed to fulfill it.
If I’m Panthers owner Jerry Richardson, I give the most successful coach in Carolina history one last chance to get it right. I wouldn’t give Fox a new contract, but I would let him coach the 2010 season, see how that plays out and then make my decision on 2011.
I know that opinion won’t win me any popularity contests. Fox doesn’t know how to play the PR game – well, he knows how to but disdains it. And he coaches so conservatively that the third-and-long draw play and the punt constantly vie for the coveted slot as Fox’s best friend.
Fox is boring. Fox is stubborn. Fox has been here eight seasons and fans are tired of him, which is why online polls, talk-radio callers and my e-mail inbox all scream for his dismissal.
But I’ll tell you what else Fox is – he’s 75-60 as a coach for Carolina. He has taken the Panthers to the playoffs three times in his eight seasons, he’s won five playoff games here and he’s gotten to the Super Bowl once. He’s never had consecutive winning seasons here, no, but he’s also never bottomed out completely (as both Dom Capers and George Seifert once did).
The Panthers have never lost 10 or more games in a season under Fox. They won’t again in 2009 after suddenly discovering themselves – albeit too late – with these two surprising late-season wins against Minnesota and the New York Giants.
Fox runs a system that works. Criticize it all you like, but he has never varied from it. He runs the ball on offense. It’s about as pretty as a socket wrench, but it is effective.
Just ask the Giants, who got stepped on by Jonathan Stewart for a franchise-record 206 yards Sunday. Fox also knows how to coach a defense that creates turnovers. His players like him, defend him and want to win for him.
Most importantly, I just don’t know if the Panthers can do better than Fox. You will say “Bill Cowher is better,” but is that really true? Cowher did win a Super Bowl in Pittsburgh, but it took him 14 seasons to get there.
Cowher would come to Charlotte, change the defense, change the coaching staff and take at least a couple more years to get what he wants in place. Hiring Cowher would be taking two steps back and hoping to eventually take three forward.
You see, Fox is not that far away from getting it back again. We’ve seen that the past two weeks.
Yes, it’s too late for 2009. Yes, Fox erred by sticking with Delhomme too long. I wrote way back in late September that the Panthers needed to bench Delhomme and start Matt Moore, and I think the season may have turned out differently if Fox had done so.
But Fox still has a grip on this team. He still motivates. He is respected throughout the league. If he got fired here, you better believe he’d land somewhere else in the NFL with a head-coaching gig.
Hey, personally, I’m tired of Fox, too. I would say his press conferences feel like you’re in the dentist’s chair, except my dentist lets you watch TV in his chair, so Fox is actually worse.
But I’m looking beyond my own little corner of the world for this one. Fox is a good coach. The Panthers already are in a long-term relationship with him. There are rocky patches.
The Panthers can try to work on the relationship – give it one more year to try and get fixed -- or they can divorce Fox and try to find something better.
Me? I still think this marriage can be saved.
