Most coordinators who want to become head coaches will prepare themselves relentlessly for the interview process. They’ll work through the questions they think front offices will ask them. They will ask for the counsel of the head coach they’re working for, and possibly other head coaches throughout the league if they have those connections.

60-year-old Bears defensive coordinator Vic Fangio has done none of these things, as far as anybody knows. Right now, he’s too busy designing and implementing the NFL’s best defense—the same defense that took down Sean McVay’s highly-prized offense Sunday night when Chicago beat the Rams, 15-6.

One of the few football minds who has consistently put quality defenses on the field in an era when every possible rule seems to favor the offense, Fangio is an outlier in an age when defenses far too often play on their heels to avoid mistakes. In Fangio’s world, you play with a definitive edge, or you don’t play at all.

Which fits the man’s personality. He doesn’t suffer fools, but if you have legitimate questions and a need to learn, you will get his ear.

When I sat with Fangio during Media Day in the week leading up to Super Bowl XLVII, it wasn’t terribly populated. There were a handful of reporters around, and since nobody was speaking up, I kept asking Fangio questions about not only the upcoming game pitting his 49ers against the Ravens, but defensive trends in general. Eventually, an older reporter asked me to pipe down so he could ask a few questions, which I did. But I walked away from that encounter with Fangio wondering why he wasn’t getting more looks as a head coach.

That was early 2013, when Fangio had put together a San Francisco defense that ranked third in Football Outsiders’ 2012 opponent-adjusted defensive metrics. Yes, it helped that he had superstars like Patrick Willis, NaVorro Bowman, Justin Smith, and Aldon Smith on the team, but it was the scheme—simple pre-snap, and folding out into all kinds of concepts post-snap—that he employs to this day. There are variations of the defenses he’s put on the field as a coordinator for the Panthers, Texans, 49ers, and Bears since 1995, and he’s generally fielded squads among the best in the league.

But this Bears defense? It’s the best Fangio’s ever had, and in his fourth year on the job in the Windy City, everything’s come together. General manager Ryan Pace has done an estimable job of loading that defense with talent from front to back both in the draft and via free agency and one enormous trade—the acquisition of former Raiders pass-rusher Khalil Mack in early September. Mack was the frosting on the cake, and he’s made a tremendous difference, but there’s also Akiem Hicks and Eddie Goldman on the line, rookie linebacker Roquan Smith is playing like a first-rounder after a summer holdout, cornerbacks Kyle Fuller and Prince Amukamara are enjoying their best seasons, and safety Eddie Jackson has more defensive touchdowns over the last two seasons (five) than anyone else in the league (two).

It’s a lot of talent, but when you ask those gifted players, they credit Fangio for this year’s performances that have led to Chicago’s current defensive standing. In his first Bears press conference, Mack sounded particularly excited to work with the guy who had put together those great San Francisco defenses.

“Oh, man, you’re talking about 49ers, seeing some of the clips, watching all the film back in the day, looking at him and Justin Smith; looking at the things they were doing with Patrick Willis and bringing this guy and that guy, NaVorro and all these different players, man, just looking at the things he was able to do, it’s very impressive.”

So, if Fangio does get in the front offices of teams who have released their former head coaches, how will that go? With football acumen to burn, but a comparatively unvarnished personality, will one owner/general manager combination be able to see the value in hiring the one guy who appears to be able to put the brakes on today’s offensive explosion?

He’s already had at least one shot that didn’t work out. When head coach Jim Harbaugh and the 49ers parted ways after the 2014 season, Fangio was a candidate to replace his old comrade, but the team instead decided on defensive line coach Jim Tomsula instead–one of the most glaring errors in franchise history–a mistake that defensive back Carlos Rodgers called “a slap in the face.”

Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports has talked with people in several front offices regarding Fangio, and the general belief is that the coach will absolutely get a first look from a lot of teams this time around. Of course, the general trend is to hire a younger offensive mind as everyone tries (generally in vain) to find the next McVay. But if you’re a forward-thinking front office, why wouldn’t you want the guy who put McVay in his place and has done the same to a lot of other offensive coaches throughout the years.

When thinking of Fangio’s current status, the easy comparisons are to Bruce Arians and Mike Zimmer—older assistants who had created significant resumes, but whose refusals to say what everybody in the room wanted to hear held their candidacies back. Both men eventually got their chances, and both have been very successful, but this seems another case where the team taking this chance will have to be confident enough to let their new head coach say what he says the way he says it.

And as Jay Glazer of The Athletic recently posited, ageism may indeed play a part in complicating Fangio’s prospects.

“We’ll see in the next six weeks how well we do,” Fangio said this week, via Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune. “It would be nice, but I am not going to burn the house down if it doesn’t happen or think anything less or be unhappy with my coaching career or whatever.”

Offensive tackle Bobby Massie, who played for Arians in Arizona and now suits up for the Bears, thinks the Arians comparison is entirely appropriate.

“They’re going to tell it how it is and they ain’t going to play any games with you,” Massie told Biggs. “Similar in ways, I would say. Bruce thought he was the coolest coach in the league and on the team with us, we just had a swagger in Arizona and he was the reason for that. I wouldn’t say Vic is cool, but he has his own personality and that shows through the way the defense plays.”

If Fangio does get a head coaching job in the offseason, it would be in his best interest to avoid the common philosophy for defensive experts who rise to that lofty position—generally speaking, defensive head coaches from Zimmer to Pete Carroll would prefer that their offenses run safe. Explosive plays are acceptable if they’re mistake-proof, which means that they’re generally not acceptable. In today’s NFL, if you’re scoring less than 30 points a game with frequency, it puts an enormous burden on your defense, especially when you’re playing teams designed for explosive play after explosive play.

In that Media Day interview years ago, Fangio was asked about the effect then-49ers starting quarterback Colin Kaepernick had on the team from his vantage point.

“We’ve seen him in practice—it’s a new type of offense that’s being sprinkled into the NFL, and it goes back to what I said earlier about the colleges [being] our farm system. That’s what colleges are producing right now, and if the guy has some throwing ability, it behooves you to run some of that in your offense. It does make you nervous and have to adjust your scheme on defense.”

Now that it’s been far more than sprinkled into the NFL, how cool would it be for Fangio to buck the trend and have an offensive coordinator who wouldn’t keep things close to the vest? Certainly a college head coach like Oklahoma’s Lincoln Riley is going to get as many shots at an NFL head coach position as Fangio is, but what if the ideal marriage is the seasoned defensive mind with the new kid on the block? The Rams have done this estimably with the 32-year-old McVay and 71-year-old defensive coordinator Wade Phillips. Who’s to say Fangio couldn’t find equivalent success with the same model?

Whether he becomes a head coach in the 2019 season or not, Vic Fangio is putting forth his best work in his 19th year as an NFL defensive coordinator, and that should be celebrated. If not with an upgrade in position, perhaps with a Super Bowl ring?