By Wes French
Mike Martz is the new Bears offensive coordinator after a long, rough search by the Chicago braintrust.
Martz has ties to Head Coach Lovie Smith from their time spent together in St. Louis; time spent taking the Rams to the playoffs and winning a Super Bowl in the process. Martz was tabbed as the odds-on favorite to become Chicago’s OC even before Ron Turner was goated out of his job, yet it took over three and a half weeks for him to get an interview. So why was a guy with a successful history with the coaching staff, a Super Bowl ring and a reputation for high-powered offenses the EIGHTH candidate inquired upon? Something smells off in Halas Hall.Here is a brief history of the month long search for the Bears new OC:
General Manager Jerry Angelo wanted to interview ex-USC OC/ex-Denver QB Coach Jeremy Bates first, the guy QB Jay Cutler initially wanted, but he moved Northwest with Pete Carroll when he took the Seattle job. Angelo was then denied permission to speak with Packers QB Coach Tom Clements and then the candidates began to fall like dominoes.
Rob Chudzinski (Chargers) and Ken Zampese (Bengals) decided it’d be better to stay with their teams, Frank Cignetti Jr. decided he wanted to stay in the college ranks (Pittsburgh) and then came the biggest slap in the face. Hue Jackson decided it’d be better to take the OC job in OAKLAND with offensive lineman-sized QB JaMarcus Russell, crazy Al Davis and heavyweight contender Tom Cable than to work with Cutler, Jerry and Lovie. Vikings QB Coach Kevin Rogers was interviewed next before they ultimately decided to interview and hire Mike Martz.
Lovie said that Martz was his choice all along and Angelo reaffirmed to the media that this was “the most important decision for the franchise” since hiring Smith back in ‘04. Sounds to me like Jerry turned exhausted every avenue trying to find ANYONE else before giving Lovie what he wanted. The battle lines for the 2010 season are taking shape.
Angelo might be wrong with his hesitance to hire Martz, though. While his last two stops were anything but impressive, Martz needs this opportunity to prove he still has what it takes to coach a winning offense in this league. St. Louis gave him a reputation for winning and building offensive juggernauts. Detroit and San Francisco scared his resume severely, but what better way to regain respect than taking a dilapidated offense and turning it into a league leader?
The pieces are in place for him to thrive with Cutler and and RB Matt Forte in the backfield. The wide outs showed a lot of potential with Johnny Knox and Devin Aromashadu finishing 2009 with solid contributions and veteran Devin Hester sure to be a constant deep threat in a Martz offense. The Offensive line must be addressed through free agency with no picks until the third round of the draft, but the talent is there to score with the best in the league.
Truth be told, I think this job scared a lot of candidates away. The writing is on the wall that if the coaching staff doesn’t succeed this year they won’t get another chance. I didn’t think Ron Turner deserved to be fired given the defense was the main reason for the 2009 collapse, but he was. So now the task of turning things around falls on Mike Martz, which seems to be just what he was looking for.
Check back in another month when the Bears finally hire a defensive coordinator. I wonder how many guys turn that job away with Lovie Smith determined to run his Tampa-2 because “it’s the same scheme as when we went to the Super Bowl.” That was three years ago Lovie, the team also hasn’t been back to the playoffs since.
February 2nd, 2010 at 10:26 pm
good job Wes, but “brass”, really? try bronze…….oohhh yaaaa
put some bling up in dis