Bears Blitz

Published by Ed Leiser on July 18, 2010
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Chicago Bears

Along with the fact that the Los Angeles Clippers will always be terrible and the Northwestern Wildcats will never make a trip to the NCAA tournament, there remains one constant in the world of sports:

The Chicago Bears offense will not be a juggernaut.

Why, even in the 1985 Super Bowl season, there were six offenses better than the Bears.  Of course, their famed 46 defense took on a life of its own, and the Bears coasted to an eventual Super Bowl XX victory.

That offense was good, but the Bears have gone 20 plus years without a dynamic, high-scoring offense.

With a firm belief in a powerful, efficient rushing attack, and stingy defense, the Bears make no secret as to how they want to win football games.

But the 2010 offense has some interesting pieces in place that could make the Bears take to the air—and put points on the board.

It’s no secret that Jay Cutler wants to put the ball in the air (hopefully, for Bears fans, it won’t go into the arms of as many defenders this season) and new offensive coordinator Mike Martz seems to be willing to give the car keys to Cutler early and often in the 2010 season.

Martz has turned around three NFL offenses over the last decade, and it stands good reason to believe he can do it again with the Bears.

You know about his tenure in St. Louis as the mastermind of “The Greatest Show on Turf” where he led the 1999 Rams to the fourth-highest point total in NFL history.

That Rams team won Super Bowl XXXIV, and the 2001 version appeared in another Super Bowl. 

The 2001 Rams led the league in yards, points, and passing yards, among others, before their loss to the New England Patriots.

His time in St. Louis eventually fizzled out, but he would go on to lead the Detroit Lions to the seventh-best passing attack in 2006 under journeyman quarterback Jon Kitna (yes, Jon Kitna).

Blamed for a pass-happy offense, he was eventually removed from his offensive coordinator position in Detroit, but Martz soon landed another gig in San Francisco.

Martz led a mediocre 49ers roster to the 13th-best passing offense with J.T. O’Sullivan and Shaun Hill leading the way under center (yes, J.T. O’Sullivan and Shaun Hill).

You’re obviously wondering why, if Martz was such an offensive genius, would he be let go by three NFL franchises over the last eight or nine seasons.

But you certainly can’t argue with the improvement seen in his offenses upon his arrival (and their decline in production upon his departure).

The 2010 Chicago Bears have enough talent on offense to give Martz hope that he can produce a top-15 overall offense (which would only be better than half the league, but for the Bears would seem like so much more).

In Jay Cutler, he has a Pro Bowl-caliber arm to run his complex passing schemes.

In running backs Matt Forte and Chester Taylor, Martz has versatile backs that are capable of 1,000 yard rushing seasons and seasons in which they could haul in 50 plus receptions.

His deep tight end pool features Greg Olsen (a dark-horse for the Pro Bowl just a season ago), sturdy veteran Desmond Clark, and newly-signed veteran blocker Brandon Manumaleuna. 

It’s at the wide receiver position that Martz figures to earn his paycheck.

He once made Lions’ wideout Shaun McDonald a 943-yard receiver (yes, Shaun McDonald), so a reasonable person would suggest a more-talented athlete like Devin Hester, Johnny Knox, or Earl Bennett could produce a 1,000-yard season—the standard for elite NFL receivers.

The Bears are without a tall, physical wide receiver (unless Devin Aromashodu continues his development as an above-average NFL receiver), so Martz might have to get more creative with deep routes that play to the Bears’ potential speed advantage—Hester and Knox are two of the faster NFL wideouts.

Cutler’s arm is strong enough to let Knox and Hester out-run opposing cornerbacks, but Martz can also use his talented trio of tight ends to settle into the middle portions of the field and make camp at the first-down marker.

With the presence of Forte and Taylor and their pass-catching abilities, Martz can even design “safety” routes for Cutler to use if his primary reads are covered.

The idea is to give Jay Cutler as many toys to play with, and Martz will do the part to make sure all the right toys are on the table for Cutler.

His track record proves he’ll make an impact in some form, and with an aging defense, the time could be now for the Bears offense to take the burden off of the once-dominant defense.

Perhaps the biggest wild card in all of this will be how Cutler and Martz gel in the teacher-pupil role.

Martz essentially created Kurt Warner and made Jon Kitna a relevant NFL quarterback, so what can he do with a former first-round talent like Cutler?

Cutler can be broken down in two parts.

One, his pure talent and ability to play the game, which puts him among the top-third of quarterbacks in the league.

Two, however, is his professionalism and makeup, which unfortunately could put him near the bottom-third of today’s quarterbacks.

Without a leader on the offense already, the default leadership role goes to Cutler—which hasn’t always been a positive.

Martz can do wonders with his plays, routes, schemes, etc.

It will be his ability to work with Cutler and keep the prima donna gun-slinger happy that could make this a 10-win team (or, a six-win team).

What he does with Cutler will trickle down into the role set for Matt Forte.

Forte, who rushed for 300 less yards in his second NFL season, will be a much more valuable asset if Cutler’s passing attack takes off like it did for Kurt Warner’s Rams and Jon Kitna’s Lions.

Martz has come under scrutiny in recent years for feuding with players and running an un-balanced offense, but if he can re-establish his credibility in one of the NFL’s proudest cities, you will be seeing a new monsters of the midway—one lined up on the “other” side of the ball.

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