Bears finally hire Mike Martz for offensive coordinator position

After a 27-day germination, the Chicago Bears' offensive coordinator search finally bore fruit. Oddly enough, the man chosen for the job was rumored to be a front-runner as soon as Ron Turner was released. The polarizing Mike Martz will step into what boils down to be the offensive head coaching job.

Jerry Angelo and Lovie Smith exhausted a list of potential candidates which included: Jeremy Bates (Seattle), Rob Chudzinski (San Diego), Ken Zampese (Cincinnatti), Kevin Rogers (Minnesota) and Hue Jackson (Oakland) over the month-long PR debacle. Candidate after candidate turned down the Chicago job for (supposedly) greener pastures all while Mike Martz sat idly by, waiting for even an interview. Last Friday, Martz finally sat down with Bears brass, followed by a trip to Tennessee to have dinner with Bears franchise QB Jay Cutler. After Jay expressed his support for Martz, Lovie Smith hired the man he wanted all along.

After reaching success as the OC of the Super Bowl champion St. Louis Rams, Martz took over as head coach and took the Rams back to the big game but fell short of the promised land. During that tenure he groomed Kurt Warner into an MVP and brought Marc Bulger to a Pro Bowl level. (Where he hasn't been since.) After an unceremonious dismissal (drama I won't get into), he had brief stints in Detroit and San Francisco as OC. Then he took a job as an analyst on the NFL Network, where he made some comments about Cutler's composure that may have ruffled a few feathers and necessitated the Tennessee meeting.

After being informed, Martz met with already-installed offensive line coach Mike Tice to begin preparations for filling the rest of his offensive staff. Aside from the running backs and wide receivers coach that is. He'll look to turn around an offense that failed to utilize its weapons successfully last season behind a suspect offensive line.

For me, the Martz hiring brings plenty of positives but a fair amount of negatives as well. He's an offensive genius, that much is obvious. He's shown plenty of skill in bringing along quarterbacks, but he's never had anyone with the raw talent of Cutler. He'll be a heavy hand in dealing with Jay, providing that discipline the quarterback lacked in 2009. I like the hire at this point in the process, but would not have liked it if Jeremy Bates was still on the market. With the pickings so slim, Martz was the only candidate that can bring immediate impact.

Unfortunately, Martz has the reputation of being a control freak. That may not mesh extremely well with Cutler, but I'm not all that concerned. They'll work together well for this year. Unfortunately, Mike's offense features a heavy dose of seven-step drops which forced Warner and Bulger to take too many hits. This Bear offensive line he's inheriting may not be able to protect long enough for Cutler to take that many steps. I need my Jay kept upright!

As in NOT this.

What this leaves in Chicago is three former head coaches on the staff, two of which would be frothing at their likely opportunity to take over for a possibly departing Lovie Smith. I imagine the manufactured Martz/Cutler drama will also provide plenty of entertainment during an otherwise expectation-less season.

Obviously I've just gotten started discussing Martz's impact on my Bears, but that's a start. Now, onto a pointless defensive coordinator search!