Martz hired as Bears offensive coordinator

It figures that the same day I pen a column ripping the Chicago Bears for their lengthy search for an offensive and defensive coordinator, they actually go and hire one.

Mike Martz was hired Monday afternoon to fill the offensive void created when Ron Turner was fired the first week of January. Almost immediately after the firing, Martz's name became a favorite with the Bears. They then waited almost a month to hire him, and were turned down by multiple candidates they either attempted to interview or were rumored to covet along the way.

Let's forget about the farce that was the Bears' search for an offensive coordinator and focus on the hiring it produced. On one hand, Martz has one of the most accomplished offensive minds in the NFL. He won a Super Bowl as offensive coordinator in St. Louis and took the Rams to another Super Bowl as their head coach. During virtually his entire tenure in St. Louis, the Rams were a feared offensive team.

Now for the negatives. Martz has failed at his last two stops with Detroit and San Francisco. In fact, current Bears defensive line coach Rod Marinelli fired Martz when he was head coach of the Lions. At every stop, he had a history of getting along poorly with fellow coaches and with players. By all accounts, his ego is every bit as large as his resume, if not bigger.

The Bears pride themselves on being a run-first football team that eats up the clock and keeps the defense off the field. The strength of a Martz offense is that it gets the quarterback to make plays with a vertical, pass-heavy, innovative attack. Bringing Martz in and expecting him to conform to traditional Bears offensive football would be a mistake. Expecting Martz ball to work while counting on the current offensive line to give Jay Cutler the time to make seven-step drops and receivers like Devin Hester and Johnny Knox to learn new and complex terminology might be even more foolish.

I'm not condemning the Martz era while its still early in its infancy. In fact, I think his arrival might be the best thing that ever happened to Jay Cutler. The offense should be better with Martz calling it. But with the current roster on both offense and defense, all it might mean is that the Bears lose a lot of 37-27 games next year.