John Fox’s unemployment did not last long.

Sources tell The Athletic that the longtime NFL head coach, with stops in Carolina, Denver and Chicago over his 16 years leading teams, has been hired by ESPN as an NFL studio analyst. The network has some studio openings with the departure of Herm Edwards (to coach Arizona State football) and the possibility of some of its studio crew moving to Monday Night Football. ESPN declined to comment.

The Bears fired Fox on January 1 after three seasons. Overall, he was 133-123 as a head coach, including taking the Panthers to the Super Bowl in 2003 against the Patriots. His regular-season record of 46-18 and .719 winning percentage as Denver’s coach is the best regular-season mark among all Broncos coaches.

Fox has had an interesting NFL run, including coaching Peyton Manning and Tim Tebow in Denver, Jay Cutler in Chicago, and Julius Peppers in Carolina. His sense of humor could translate well to a studio analyst position with reps and coaching from producers.

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(Photo by Wesley Hitt/Getty Images)