Teams that don’t consider former Rams coach aren’t looking hard enough. Robert Boland
As Chris Matthews famously says on his show “Hardball” on MSNBC, “Tell me something I don’t know.” With seven NFL teams and perhaps as many as a dozen major college teams expected to be looking for head coaches, what coach who has appeared in a Super Bowl and is actively looking for work has the best winning percentage?
APWill Mike Martz be back on the sidelines in 2010?
Bill Cowher? Mike Shanahan? Mike Holmgren? Brian Billick? Jon Gruden? All would be incorrect answers. The answer is Mike Martz, who owns a career .624 winning percentage and is a phenomenal 21 games over .500 in a league where the median winning percentage is .492 in the salary-capped era. He also has three divisional titles and one Super Bowl appearance to his credit. For the record, Cowher’s winning percentage is .623, Shanahan’s .598, Holmgren’s .592, Billick’s .556 and Gruden’s .540. The men whose faces would arguably go on a Mt. Rushmore of coaches’ records don’t even overshadow Martz, who has the 19th-best winning percentage of any coach who has coached 50 or more games in the NFL. Martz would outrank even Joe Gibbs (.621), Bill Belichick (.620), Bill Walsh (.609) and Tom Landry (.607).
Brad Biggs’ story this week about how Martz would be interested in working with Jay Cutler in Chicago started me thinking. Why is no one writing about Martz as a candidate anywhere? Sure, he has a reputation for being a prima donna and was chased out of his last two jobs as an offensive coordinator. But what happened after he left the Rams, the Lions and the 49ers? They got worse. The Lions got much, much worse.
The cases of the Rams and the Lions really need no explanation, and perhaps Martz should feel like the captain a ship relieved of duty before it hit an iceberg and sank with him safely on shore. But surely you’ll say that the 49ers appear headed in the right direction. Except at 4-6 they are not currently on pace to match last year’s 7-9 record, and their passing attack -- the area of the game Martz most influences -- ranked 13th in the league in 2008 and is currently 23rd. Martz even got 2,046 passing yards out of ex-NFL Europe journeyman Shaun Hill, who had been out of the league two years earlier, in only eight starts. Hill led the 49ers to a 5-3 record in those starts, and if you extend his stats over a full season, Hill hits the 4,000-yard threshold long considered the line of demarcation between good and great passers and offenses. Hill has since been benched.
In fact, Martz has had every quarterback he has worked with over a long period hit that 4,000-yard threshold sooner or later -- Kurt Warner, Marc Bulger and Jon Kitna. What do these quarterbacks have in common? None of them was a highly-regarded talent before Martz hooked up with them. Only Bulger was even drafted, and not by the team Martz had him with. The others were essentially street free agents. What does this say? Martz can do more with less at the quarterback position than virtually anyone.
APKansas City Chiefs head coach Todd Haley
Has Martz earned his reputation and contributed to his current place outside of football? The answer, obviously, is yes. But Todd Haley is hardly “Mr. Personality” in Kansas City. Eric Mangini isn’t practicing the techniques of how to win friends and influencing people in Cleveland. Isn’t a .200-point or better improvement in winning percentage at least worth the risk of talking to Martz, not only for a coordinator position but also a head coaching vacancy? And isn’t it, based on the above-described evidence, almost negligent not to have him on a list of candidates under investigation? If he’s not being considered, NFL and college teams aren’t looking hard enough for candidates. Given his current employment status, Martz isn’t likely to be as expensive as a more sought-after candidate like Shanahan, Cowher or Holmgren. He also has a 20-plus year career in the college ranks, including coordinating some very interesting teams at Arizona State.
Is age a factor? Not really. Martz is 58 years old and is about 11 months older than Belichick. He’s about six months older than the eternally youthful Pete Carroll.
Am I making a case for Martz? I guess I am, but more as an outcome of what I’m really trying to illustrate, which is that your favorite team (or mine) isn’t looking or thinking about who’s leading them nearly as hard as they might like to convince you they are. It’s an indictment of organizational thought or lack thereof.
The statistical snapshot I’ve laid out for Martz may admittedly be a bit misleading since some of the coaches who rank above him aren’t considered Hall of Fame-caliber coaches and were, in many cases, lucky enough to take over good teams. Martz’ record pales in comparison to that of a Lombardi or a Shula. George Allen also outranks him, and he never won a championship.
But isn’t the ultimate measurement of a head coach what his record is? As Bill Parcells has said, “You are what your record says you are.” Incidentally, Parcells career winning percentage is .570, more than .50 points less than Martz’s.
Would be happy to see him as the new OC of the Jets, anyone but baby Shotty.......
i don't like salad, especially the kind that talks to me.
That's 'cuz you're using the wrong kind of dressing.
Jeremy:
The correct spelling is 'offense' and 'defense.' Perhaps your little blurb would've been interesting if not so distracting with those repeated mistakes. Then again, you sound like a long-winded elderly woman that doesn't have any friends and just wants to be noticed. It's too bad you have internet access.
Ron,
Spelling conventions are local. Ignorance is universal. Welcome to the global community.
As one of the billion or so English speakers who's not an American, my spelling is correct. Look it up, if you can find a minute to take a break from your trolling.
Martz is a great offensive coach except his system has one very important problem...it gets the QB killed! His system will lead to higher sack counts than almost any other and thus will damage the most valuable asset on a team. If he can change his system to reduce the number of sacks than yes, I say hire him. A team with a strong offensive line that can pass protect should consider him...a team with a poor O-line should run away. It is madness for the Bears to consider Martz considering how bad their O-line is...Cutler will get killed in Martz system.
Hey Jeremy, you foreign scholar, did you not notice that the NFL is an American game? So using the American (i.e. the SUPERIOR) vernacular would be the correct choice. Dumbsh*t.
Oh, and by the way, YOU'RE WELCOME for America. God knows we've helped your country, whatever it may be, with some sort of financial or military support over the years. In case you forgot, that 'Global Community' you like to talk about is only possible because of the 'ole U. S. of A. So next time just say thank you and be on your way.
Ron,
We burned down your White House. So how 'bout THEM apples?
I and millions of other people world wide are grateful for the contributions America has made to all aspects of the world, the sacrifices of its soldiers in both world wars, the advances made by its scientists, the beauty offered by its artists and musicians. It is a truly amazing country, full of profound contradicitons -- great generosity and astonishing bigotry, cutting-edge intelligence and mind-boggling ignorance, wonderful kindness and unspeakable cruelty.
In my experience, those people who give up an unpromted "you're welcome for America" are people who've done nothing to earn any of the thanks they seek. So rather than ride the coattails of your forefathers, maybe you should get out there and do something for the betterment of yourself, your community, and your country. Then you'll find that people will thank you without you having to beg for it.
Mike Martz obviously prompts deep feelings on nationalism on both side of the Atlantic. Who knew he was that controversial.
Hey Jeremy, you foreign scholar, did you not notice that the NFL is an American game? So using the American (i.e. the SUPERIOR) vernacular would be the correct choice. Dumbsh*t.
Oh, and by the way, YOU'RE WELCOME for America. God knows we've helped your country, whatever it may be, with some sort of financial or military support over the years. In case you forgot, that 'Global Community' you like to talk about is only possible because of the 'ole U. S. of A. So next time just say thank you and be on your way.
Look at the reality, not the stat. Martz inherited a superbowl team and rode them to a slow decline. No one wants a coach that's only gone downhill in his career.
Sorry, Ron, I didn't realize you were an elected official. I would have used smaller words.
Here's a tip for debating in the future. WHEN ALL YOU CAN DO IS REPEAT YOURSELF, YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO SAY IT LOUDER!
Try a larger font, or everything in capital letters.
Hey Ron and Jeremy, may I suggest you exchange emails and take the international argument somewhere other than this most excellent forum for football talk?
When all else fails, repeat yourself. Nice comeback, Ron!
I think Jeremy made some fair points - Martz did insist on beating the Patriots with the pass when he could have run over them with Marshall Faulk, for whom the Pats had no answer. By passing, he played right into their hands, which was to knock the living daylights out of his receivers. Ahh, the good old days, before Polian, illegal contact, and the absurd emphasis on pass interference against the Colts' opponents (but shockingly enough, the Colts haven't been called once for PI, despite bumping receivers downfield and hitting them before the pass arrives anyway). I digress.
Wins are wins, though. Martz, for all his reputation, might still be better than at least half of the coaches in the NFL.
Martz's winning percentage is built on the backs the greatest offensive talent ever assembled. This talent - Bruce, Holt, Warner, Faulk, Hakim, Proehl, Pace, Timmerman - was handed to him by Dick Vermiel. Once he was given mediocre to below average talent, Martz was no longer a .500 coach. He is not worth the trouble.
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12:37 PM
If you had a QB with the best touch, uncanny accuracy, excellent pocket presence, and an unparalleled ability to read defences, but, for some inexplicable reason, every third pass he threw ended up being an interception, would you call him a great QB? Would it matter if he threw 50 TDs in a season if he threw 60 INTs?
Coaching requires a larger skill set than co-ordinating, and while Martz is among some of the best in some of those areas he has shown that he's completely lacking in others, most having to do with defence. In particular, while he's a master of the passing game, he is oblivious to the interrelationship between offence and defence, and the fact that a quick-strike offence that is anything less than spectacular will decimate his own team's defence.
Bill Parcells' quote sounds great, particularly when it comes from somebody with a .570 percentage and 2 rings who'd really like to be in the Hall of Fame. But it too can be spun. Parcells has won exactly 0 playoff games without a particular defensive co-ordinator now residing in the Boston area. A better test comes from a spin on another Parcells quote: how good is your salad, when you consider the quality of ingredients you were given to make it?
In Martz's case, he had the best lettuce, radishes, and dressing in the history of the game. Granted, .624 is a pretty good salad, but one can't fault those who say the salad should have been better. Particularly when, as has been reported in several quarters, his lettuce told him he could win the salad championship if he just let his All-Pro radish run the ball, but Martz refused: he was going to win the game his way.
It's that kind of judgment that has kept Martz, and his .624 winning percentage, off the sidelines and in the t.v. studios.