Bears Martz On

Vice Presidential candidates took less time to vet than the Bears did to find their offensive coordinator. Yet, the Bears have finally made a decision, and hired Mike Martz to take over playcalling duties.

You'll remember Martz from such powerhouse offenses like the 2006-2007 Lions (ranked 21st and 16th in points) and the 2008 49ers (ranked 22nd in points). Feel the excitement...

Martz of course made his name being the coordinator and head coach for the "Greatest Show on Turf" with the Rams in the late 90's, and early 00's. And we all know his connection with Lovie Smith by this point, as Smith was hired as defensive coordinator in 2001 and the two led the Rams to the wrong end of one of the biggest Super Bowl upsets in history.

To be fair, I am being a bit harsh on Martz which I'll explain in a bit. The Rams were truly an offensive juggernaut. Martz essentially made Kurt Warner into a star and the team scored over 500 pts in three straight seasons from 1999-2001, apparently some sort of NFL record. With the Lions, he took over the 28th ranked offense by points and slowly moved them up to 21st and 16th as noted above and made Jon Kitna into a perennial 4,000 yard passer and certain to be overdrafted in 2008 fantasy football leagues everywhere. In 2008 with the 49ers, he took over the 32nd ranked offense by points and they moved up 10 spots...that's pretty good improvement once again.

What I don't like about Martz is that he basically ignores the run and has no concept of ball control. At least those have always been my impressions. As the Oilers showed in the 90's with Warren Moon and the Run 'n Gun offense, and the Rams under Martz and Vermeil, running up and down the field and scoring at will has some drawbacks, especially if it's all relied on the passing game. Your defense gets tired and turnovers can cost you games. Unfortunately I can't find time of possession rankings, but I would guess that his teams would be no better than middle of the road.

Obviously the talent is a big part of the equation and Martz wasn't working with a ton in Detroit or San Francisco. And he won't be working with much in Chicago either unless there's a big surprise in free agency. But I think we can all see where this headed. Matt Forte and the Bears running game is going to be an afterthought and Jay Cutler is going to be chucking the pigskin around, often to the other team. But after being ranked 19th in points scored last year, there should definitely be an improvement there and now it'll be up to Lovie to prepare the defense to be able to go 40 minutes a game and defend a short field.