Martz Is In

Its finally over.  After almost four weeks of interviews and candidates coming in and out of Halas Hall then either going somewhere else or not being offered a job, the Bears finally have their man, or at least a man that wants the job.  Mike Martz officially agreed to a 2 year deal to become the team’s offensive coordinator.

Now we all know about the embarrassing mess that was the search for someone to fill this spot, so for the sake of Bears fans everywhere I won’t bother re-living it in the article.  What I would like to do is talk about why I don’t think this is such a bad choice.

For starters, I had a feeling this would happen nearly a month ago.  Before Ron Turner was fired even though we all knew he would be at seasons end, I had a feeling Martz’s name would pop up, if for no other reason than he coached with Lovie in St. Louis.  Every Bear fan knows that Lovie actively pursues anyone with ties to the Rams of the late 90′s and early 2000′s.  Remember Adam Archaletta?  Then Orlando Pace and Rod Mirenelli.    This should come as no surprise.

The only reason I find this surprising is because reports indicated that Jerry Angelo had told Lovie that he couldn’t hire Martz the very day Turner got the ax (reports the AM 670 radio broadcaster who broke them still swears are true).  And that may very well be true.  Perhaps Angelo never really had anything against hiring Martz but he knows how Lovie fixates on individuals he has experience with from the Rams organization and just wanted him to expand his search some and not settle on Martz before seeing what other fish were in the sea so to speak.  And if that’s the case, I don’t have a problem with Angelo doing that.  But I don’t think it was the exploring of other options that bothered fans.  I think it was the perception that the Bears lacked anything resembling a plan in this search that really frustrated people the most.

Despite the process, I actually think this was a decent hire for Lovie.  I’m not saying that there wasn’t possibly better candidates out there, but I think Lovie could have done worse and there are things that I like about Martz coming to the Bears.  For starters, Lovie trusts him as a coach.  Lovie is known for his stubbornness and for wanting coaches to do things his way, even offensive coaches.  There were times this past season when Lovie told Ron Turner to mix more runs into the play calling even though that wasn’t there best chance for success.  I don’t think that will happen with Martz.  Because of their experience with each other and Lovie’s obvious respect for Martz, he will have more freedom than Turner had to call the game the way he wants to without as much interference from Lovie, and the less Lovie interferes with the offense the better.

I also think it will be good for Cutler to have a coordinator that really appreciates what he is capable of and will know how to get the most out of him.  Every quarterback Martz has ever worked with had a better year the first year with him than the year before.  He turned Jon Kitna into a 4000 yard quarterback on a bad Lions team so I think there is a lot of hope for seeing progress with Cutler next season.

It will also be interesting to see how he uses the running backs and receivers.  Martz is a guy the demands perfection when it comes to running routes in his offense.  A 10 yard route doesn’t mean 10 yards and 1 foot, it means 10 yards exactly and he won’t tolerate anything less than getting it perfect.  It could be a good opportunity for the young receivers on this team to really develop.  He also loves to use running backs in his passing game.  Backs in his offense can expect to get up to 80 catches or possibly more, Marshall Faulk had nearly 100 a couple times, and Forte is very good at catching the ball from the running back spot (its probably what he really does best) so I think there is something there Martz can really take advantage of that Ron Turner seemed to completely overlook last year.

Egos aside, there are only 2 real concerns I have about this hire.  First, QBs take a lot of hits in Martz’s system.  He likes to run longer passing routes that require 5 to 7 step drops for the quarterback which leaves him back in the pocket for longer and with no hot reads.  You need good offensive line play for this kind of system to really be successful and as all Bears fans know, the offensive line hasn’t been what you would call a strength in recent years.  My other concern is with the tight ends.  Martz doesn’t utilize them much in the passing game unless its to keep them in as extra blockers to allow the quarterback time to make those 5 to 7 step drops.  The Bears are as deep as any team in the league when it comes to pass catching tight ends and it would be a waste to not incorporate them into the offense more than he has in the past.

But all in all, I think this was a good hire.  Martz will definitely be more aggressive with his play calling than Ron Turner was, which is something that I really like.  They will push the ball up and down the field and really put pressure on the defense.  It’ll be a big change from what we have seen from the Bears offense over the last couple decades when they have been content to run the ball in the red zone and settle for field goals.  Lovie brought in one of the best passing minds of the last 50 years so no longer will we have to hear him say “we get off the bus running” because that’s not what Mike Martz does best and its not why he was brought here.