No move in the works, but Bears' OC Ron Turner is on the hot seat Brad Biggs
Mike Martz made it clear on NFL.com last week that he wants to trade his spot in front of the camera with the NFL Network for a place on the sideline again.
“I do want to coach again,’’ Martz said.
Well, you don’t have to try too hard to connect the dots with one possible scenario in Chicago. Bears offensive coordinator Ron Turner is on the hot seat with the team foundering at 4-6 and out of sync despite the addition of quarterback Jay Cutler. The club is headed toward its third straight year out of the playoffs, and pressure is also building for coach Lovie Smith, who is signed through 2011.
“Martz would love to work with Jay Cutler,’’ said a source with close ties to the former architect of the Greatest Show on Turf.
Of course, Martz hired Smith as his defensive coordinator with the Rams in 2001, and the two have a close bond. When Smith went to construct his first staff with the Bears in 2004, he turned to Martz for assistance. He didn’t have an offensive coordinator on his staff for Smith, but he called Dick Vermeil in Kansas City and that is how the Bears landed Terry Shea for one year.
Martz was infamously slated to be the Bears offensive coordinator in 1999 when he was going to come work under Dave McGinnis. But owner Mike McCaskey fouled up the hiring of McGinnis and the team quickly scrambled to bring in Dick Jauron.
Could it be that Martz’s date in Chicago comes a little more than a decade later? It’s hard to say. If Smith really wanted Martz to run his offense, he could have already made that move. Martz struggled for two seasons in Detroit as the play caller under Rod Marinelli (now a part of Smith’s staff) and last year in San Francisco. But he didn’t have the quarterback. Cutler would solve that.
“Coach Martz is a big play guy,’’ said Bears left tackle Orlando Pace, who played for Martz in St. Louis. ``He wants the big plays all the time. You have to have a defense that is sound. He’s going to put up 30 points a game if he can, but you have to have a defense. We had some instances like that (where the defense was put in tough spots). But like I said, he’s a gambler. He gambles and it paid off for us a bunch of times.’’
If Smith plots a new course on offense, would be want to gamble on someone other than Martz?
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Mike Martz = QB killer. He goes minimum protection, and everybody in the route, and asks the QB to take a ton of punishment in the pocket. Ask Kurt Warner and Marc Bulger, who he almost completely ruined as professional QBs. Bulger is still broken, and Warner took 3 years to get his game back on track.
There is way too much arrogance in Martz to make him a good fit in Chicago. I still say Jeff Jagodzinski is the right choice for OC. He is good with QBs, and has a very solid offensive strategy centered around the downfield passing game and diverse running game.
ANYONE but another year of Turner. Let him run his high school offense in high school where it belongs. Running the same 6 plays from the same formation, amazing Cutler and the Bears can score at all. My wife can sit on the couch and call the play before it happens. Dive play, screen pass, shotgun, punt, repeat.
I would do this in a second. People forget that Kurt Warner and Marc Bulger were no ones before Martz worked with them. Does anyone forget that Jon Kitna threw for over 4000 yards with Martz as OC? What about the fact that San Francisco had a better offense last year with him?
Sure he gambles a lot but he gets results and he knows quarterbacks and how to develop them. For better or worse we are stuck with Cutler for a while and, when he's on, can throw the football like he was born to do it.
Please. Ron Turner and Pep Hamilton know nothing about quarterbacks. Martz would be a huge step up.
Martz would shot himself in the head after one day with this talentLESS pile of crap offense that Angelo has dumped on us.
@Joe - didn't JJ get fired this year by some pro team? Why?
JJ got fired by that offensive juggernaut TAMPA BAY. The offense is not talentless, Knox, Hester, Bennett, Olsen, Forte, Cutler all have talent. Peyton Manning couldn't succeed in this Fisher Price scheme. The line is a different story. Williams and Pace make sure each drive starts 1st and 15 by jumping AT HOME. Martz, Weis, please someone implement an offense in Chicago!
I agree with gobearsgo -- you could have ended the headline after the word "work."
Lets see who the coach is after Lovie gets fired. If the Bears want Cower or Shanahan, that means that Angelo goes too. Why would Shanahan spend seven hours with the Bills? That team is a mess. The Bears have problems but they are solveable plus there are weapons there. If Shanahan did wait for the Bears and come, it might mean the return of Bobby Slowik to Chicago as D-Coordinator
Just so Turner goes and the new OC hires a real QB coach. Any change within reason is an upgrade @ OC , but this franchise has got to stop destroying QB talent.
The new deal locks Celek up through 2016, and the team has now signed 22 players on the current roster to multiple contracts, proof that the Eagles are one of the most pro-active teams in the league when it comes to investing it its own players.
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Nov 25, 2009
10:36 AM
Duh. Martz wants to work with anyone.