Bears hire Mike Martz!

[Balance-a-Bull]

http://blogs.suntimes.com/bears/2010/02 ... .html#more

In His Own Words: Angelo
By
Neil Hayes
on February 2, 2010 10:59 AM


Here is the best of general manager Jerry Angelo from Monday's conference call.

Angelo was first asked if hiring Martz means the offensive philosophy will change:

"It's a change. We know that. We'll wait and see what Mike does. Obviously, we know what Mike's reputation is. He likes to throw the football. He's very aggressive in play calling. He runs an attacking offense. We wanted to make change. We wanted to be something different than what we were and we just felt after going through the process that Mike really presented what we considered the best plan for us."


Will you have to change the roster to accommodate the type of players who excel in Martz's offense?

"No. We talked about that. Our roster is pretty well set. We don't have the first two picks in the draft. Free agency, potentially will be very limited. It's not like we won't look for players like we do every year but we're not going into this thinking we have to have an overhaul with our offense.

"I spoke with Mike and went over the roster as did Lovie and gave him my perception of our roster and I feel it's applicable with his philosophy. There's going to be some adjustments. There are going to be some nuances. Some things aren't going to work exactly the way he would like the in beginning but that's part of the adjustment coaches make and sometimes players.

"So, I feel like [he has] the nucleus of what he needs to make his offense work. It was very clear to me that he felt very comfortable with our offensive personnel."

The perception has been that Martz was Lovie's guy and Angelo was less than thrilled with the decision, which Angelo denied:

"with all the candidates, my thinking might be a little different than Lovie's in that I'm looking at it in some ways a little different than he's looking at it but we talked through that. I went to Lovie and we talked a lot about what we're looking for, the best fit, and there's a lot that goes into it. But absolutely not. The more we talked about it the more we worked through it and used the same process for every candidate.
"I was 100 percent on board with Lovie's decision and for the right reasons. We said we wanted to make change. Mike Martz brings a change in our offensive style. It brings a change for everybody, for our coaching staff and those who were here, it will be a change for our players and it will be a change for us [in] personnel. But it will be a positive change. He comes in with a very good track record and a wealth of experience and we're real excited about the prospects."

Angelo said he understood why Perry Fewell became the Giants' defensive coordinator instead of accepting the same position with the Bears:

" understood where perry was coming from. Perry has ambitions to be a head coach and my take was he felt with an offensive head coach maybe he was in a better position to create a better path professionally for himself because he made it very clear that he wanted to be a head coach. He even asked me what I thought would be his best path to be a head coach in the league. I gave him my thoughts but I could see he was very driven by that so I understood why he did what he did."

Why did the process last so long? If Martz was the guy, why not interview him first?

"Lovie's relationship with Mike was obvious. Everybody knew that, so we decided why not explore people we've heard about and done research on and like and want to know? We didn't want to slant the field to anybody. By bringing Mike in, maybe that perception would've been out there. So we brought in all the candidates we were able to talk to. No everybody we wanted to talk to we were able to talk to and we felt once we exhausted that we would bring Mike in. At the end, as I said, we were impressed with mike in the day and a half he was here. We all had that feel-good [feeling]. We talked about it this morning for a few hours on the direction we wanted to go into. We even talked about bringing somebody else in but we felt like we were all comfortable. There's no guarantee with anybody, but we didn't want to continue to spin our wheels either."

[Balance-a-Bull]

http://blogs.suntimes.com/bears/2010/02 ... lovie.html

In His Own Words: Lovie
By
Neil Hayes
on February 2, 2010 12:26 PM

Lovie Smith touched on several topics during Monday's conference call announcing the hiring of Mike Martz as offensive coordinator. Among them:

On the process that ended with Martz being hired:

"Everyone in the building has to be on board with anybody we bring into the building. We do the same thing when we're bringing in players. But Mike and all the rest of the
guys had a chance to come through, meet with ownership, meet with administration, some of the assistant coaches here, some of the players, and then I took in information from them to get some of their input. But in the end, that's why I'm the head football coach; get a chance to put all that together and then make these kinds of decisions.
I feel real good about Mike Martz being a part of our team. I think he'll bring energy. The guys will be excited about the Chicago Bears offense that we're going to have."

Will the offensive philosophy change?

"It will change a little bit. But the same type of approach we'll still take, and that's being hard-nosed, tough, being able to run the football, balancing it up with the pass and going from there."

He still needs a defensive coordinator. Will this be an in-house hire or will he hire someone from outside the organization?

"Keeping all options open right now." he said.

Clyde Christensen of the Colts and Terry Malone of the Saints were also candidates. Why not wait until after the Super Bowl to interview the Colts' and Saints' assistants?

"We went a long time as I saw it to wait for guys. ... We could have waited a little bit longer. But as you go through the process, once you feel comfortable that you've looked
and talked to enough people that you can make a good decision, you go with it. There are still some guys of course involved in the playoffs and there are some college guys that are out there too. But after we went through the process and Mike came through, I felt real good about him leading our group."

So, why did the process last so long?

"We said we would take our time. There's no hurry. There was no rush. We're not playing a football game tomorrow. We wanted to look at all available candidates out there. On some of them we had to wait. We had the playoffs going on. I wanted to talk to some of the guys in the playoffs. That's just how it's set up. You can't get impatient. Of course it's a big decision. Wanted to take our time. And still feel like we have time. There's nothing that we had to do, that we make a decision just right away now."

There was much criticism about Smith involving quarterback Jay Cutler in the process. Cutler met with several candidates. Martz even flew to Nashville, Tenn., to meet with Cutler on Saturday.

"There's a couple misconceptions out there too on just Jay Cutler meeting with the guys," Smith said. "A part of the interview process that I have in place is for guys to come in and meet with ownership, meet with administration, our assistant coaches here, and our players. Olin Kreutz had a chance to talk with Mike Tice as he came through. Greg Olsen talked with Rob Chudzinski when he came through. A part of the process is for all of the candidates coming through to meet with someone preferably at their position. Jay of course was involved quite a bit because most of the offensive coordinators that we talked to were also quarterback coaches. So that was a part of what I wanted to do and I thought it was productive to let them to that."

Smith disputed reports that he wanted Smith while Angelo wanted some other candidate.

"You've heard me say this plenty of times and I'm going to say it again: There's a big difference between perception and reality," Smith said. "That was not the case. Jerry and I, we're on the same page with every decision we've made around here. We discuss every major decision that goes on. We're both on board, whether it's a player coming in, a coach coming in. That is another thing that was coming out of here that was completely wrong."


Martz's system is said to be complex. Will the offense have mastered it by the season opener?

"We will be ready to go, to play football, to have our offense in place by the first game
like we go in mind with that each year. It's not so complicated where we can't do that. I think that's a misconception for people to think that."

The running game will continue to be emphasized despite Martz's pass-happy style, according to Smith.

"When I say get off the bus running the football, I mean that is a mindset. The run will always be a part of what we're going to do. I mean, in Chicago, we play in the elements. That won't change. But there's nothing wrong with being able to run the football well and having balance to be able to pass the football. That's what I'm excited about.

"What Mike will bring to the table of course in the run but of course the pass too. I am excited too. It's not just Mike that's coming in, it's Mike Tice and what he will bring to the table. We're looking for balance to be able to run and pass the ball."

[Balance-a-Bull]

http://blogs.suntimes.com/bears/

Faulk talks about Martz and how he'll fit in Chicago
By
Sean Jensen
on February 2, 2010 2:34 PM

Former St. Louis Rams running back Marshall Faulk offered some perspective on the Bears hiring of Mike Martz.

Here are some highlights:

On the marriage: "think this is a great move for Mike, going to Chicago. He understands this may be the last chance for him to prove to people that he can get it done, which doesn't make sense, because everywhere he's been, the offense has done well.

"Every place that he's been, they've been successful. They went up. Offenses never went down."

On Martz and Jay Cutler: "It'll be very interesting. This will be the first time that Jay Cutler will not have control of the decisions that he wants to make. I'm very familiar with the offense, and it will be a challenge to Jay. And I don't want to take anything away from Ron Turner, but Mike will test his football knowledge, and test his willingness to want to get better in the NFL, because he'll ask him to do some things that Jay may not be comfortable with."

On what Kurt Warner's concern about Cutler's ability to anticipate throws: "Jay is a see it, throw it guy. And when you have the talent that a guy like that has, you sometimes don't rely on your instinct to guide you.

"Mike will really ask him to be more of an anticipator, and Jay will struggle with it. He'll struggle with it at the beginning. But hopefully, he'll look at Mike's resume....

On Matt Forte's role: "He will love it. If he can just understand and come to grips with the fact... not expect to get 30 caries a game, you can survive and play well in Mike's offense."

On Greg Olsen: "The key guy will be Olsen. Getting a tight end involved. It'll be tremendous. It'll be hard to stop, the dynamic of that offense.

"This will be the best tight that (Martz has) ever had."

On relating to Martz: "If you mess up, if you don't do your job, if you don't work hard, he's extremely difficult to deal with. If you decide to take off, you will hate Mike Martz. If you show up and you're not prepared, you will hate him. It's that simple."

On Cutler picking up the offense: "The learning curve is based on Cutler, and what his abilities are. I mean, he's a Vanderbilt guy. He should be able to digest it in a week."

[emperorjones]

http://blogs.suntimes.com/bears/2010/02/in_his_own_words_martz.html#more

On the Bears' receiving corps:

"Boy they've got some speed. And that really is kind of a diamond to me.
When you look at that group, they can be a real strength of this
football team. With Aromashodu and Knox is really a diamond to me, and
Hester, what he can do whether he's outside or in the slot, the
matchups on these guys are extreme. When I went to St. Louis from
Washington, Isaac Bruce was too skinny. They weren't real happy with
him. He was always hurt. They drafted this little guy, Oz Hakeem, and
they didn't know what they were going to do with him. And Ricky Proehl
was a slow white guy. That's three-quarters of the Greatest Show on
Turf. And really what we'll do with these guys. I think there's plenty
of talent there. I'm real excited about their speed and the potential,
and what we'll do is give them every opportunity to explore that and
not make a definition on what any one of those guys can do but let them
prove to us and put no limits on them."

The guy is already ahead of frickin Ron Turner. Finally someone who sees that Knox is best suited outside & Hester is a slot guy. Thank God. We will finally be stretching the field on a regular basis

[Magilla_Gorilla]

Great article from Pompei:

Many coaches are hired because they are from a prestigious coaching tree, or because they follow a proven program.

Mike Martz is from the tree of Don Coryell, who could be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Saturday.

But that isn't why the Bears hired him.

Martz is that rare coach who uses the system as a foundation but is not bound by it. He is as much an artist as a coach and is more likely than most to attack a defense in a manner in which nobody suspected.

In many ways, he is the offensive equivalent of Jets coach Rex Ryan. Like Ryan, he is going to take risks, attack and force the opponent to leave its comfort zone and adjust to his calls.

I have known Martz since his heyday with the Rams and have been fortunate enough to talk with him quite a bit over the years about offensive football and his vision of it.

Assuming Martz will do what he always has done, his offense will be very different from Ron Turner's. The language will change completely, from words to numbers. There will be more motions and shifts. Checks and audibles will be cut to almost none. Martz will spread the field much more and use more four-receiver sets — which were almost unheard of with Turner.

As different as Martz' offense will be from Turner's, there is a philosophical connection. Martz worked for Turner's older brother, Norv, in Washington, and both the current and former Bears offensive coordinator have been influenced by the Chargers' coach.

Whereas Ron Turner usually plays the notes that are on the sheet music, Martz is more likely to play what he feels. Unlike about 99 percent of the play-callers in the NFL, he does not script the first 15 to 20 plays. You won't complain about the lack of halftime adjustments this season. And when his team is in a two-minute drill, he never looks at a call sheet, he once told me.

"You just go by feel," he said.

He believes in never running the same play twice in a game — not even from a different formation.

Martz is an instinctive play-caller who goes into games with hundreds of play possibilities, then picks and chooses based on circumstances. And even with all the game plan has to choose from, it isn't always enough for Martz.

Remember the game-winning, 73-yard touchdown bomb from Kurt Warner to Isaac Bruce in the final two minutes of Super Bowl XXXIV? That play wasn't in the game plan — but Martz called it anyway.

"You don't want to say this is what we are, this is what we're going to do," Martz said. "You may have to change some things because of what the [opponent does], you may want to move in a different mode. But once you settle in on things, we try to be less reactive and just take charge and do it."

If the Bears under Turner ran to set up the pass, the Bears under Martz will pass to set up the run. The idea is to be more aggressive in the first half and more conservative in the second.

Martz doesn't go into most games planning to throw 60 times. He goes into games planning to do what is necessary to take a lead and put away an opponent. If that means throwing it 60 times, so be it.

When I asked him once about criticism he was facing for not running enough, he said: "I could care less how many times we run the ball. The whole logic is to win the game. I could care less about balance. When I call a game, it's based on what's going on out there and what I see."

Percentage of runs and passes, as well as time of possession, are inconsequential to Martz. Whereas Turner says the most important measure of the running game is number of runs, Martz says the most important measure is yards per carry. He would rather have Matt Forte run it once for 6 yards than three times for 6.

The most important aspect of a Martz offense? His pass protections. "That's first and foremost for me," he said.

When he was with the Rams, Martz once had 37 protections in his playbook. And he wasn't timid about using them. In one game he showed me on tape, he called five protections on the first five plays.

A Mike Martz offense can be unconventional. It can be unbalanced.

But it can't be uninteresting.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/fo ... 985.column

[Cliff Levingston]

Let's hope the offense is very interesting in a good way. Cliff Levingston has his reservations, but considering how badly the Bears screwed up in order to drive literally everyone else away, you can't do much better than Martz.