Chicago Bears: Offensive Coordinator Woes Still Haunt Them
By Erik Lambert
Look back through history and the Chicago Bears hold a who’s who list when it comes to great defensive coordinators. Several of them went on to be head coaches.
George Allen was one of the first defensive coordinators to hold that actual title in Chicago. Buddy Ryan ushered in the iconic “46” defense in the 1980s and went on to considerable success in Philadelphia afterwards. Ron Rivera helped build the great units of the mid-2000s and is now a successful head coach in Carolina. Even guys like Vince Tobin and Greg Blache would have success before or after they left Chicago.
Such is not the case for their offensive coordinators. Too often this franchise has scarcely shot for the moon on that side of the ball. Instead they’ve settled for mostly no-name coaches who were “good enough.” Think about this. The Bears have had a top 10 scoring offense exactly four times since 1990. Three of those times they had a winning record, the other was 8-8. Know who their coordinators were for each?
- 1990: Greg Landry
- 1995: Ron Turner
- 2006: Ron Turner
- 2008: Aaron Kromer
Not exactly an inspiring group. Landry was probably the best of the bunch. He had some success after Chicago at Illinois and Detroit before retiring. Turner was always in that good-but-not-great category. He’d have one or two good years and then vanish for the remainder. It was true during both his stints in Chicago and at other jobs. Kromer? He was merely a subordinate to Marc Trestman who called the plays as head coach. His offense was great in 2013 and then vanished by the next year as defenses figured it out.
Dowell Loggains continues a long trend of unimaginative OCs
The most frustrating thing is the Bears never seem to hang onto the offensive coordinators who actually have a knack for the job. The guys who can game plan well, coach up, adjust and above all call plays. Dowell Loggains shows week after week that he’s another disappointing member of that club who fills the giant voids between brief glimpses of life beyond “the Wall.”
Think about it. Adam Gase was there for one season, got Jay Cutler to his best year as a Bear and then was gone to head coach Miami. Mike Martz helped them to an NFC championship in 2010 and had Cutler heading towards MVP conversations in 2011. Then Jay got hurt and Martz was fired because he couldn’t coach up an offense with Caleb Hanie at quarterback. They even had Sid Gillman, the Hall of Fame coach for one year in 1977. They finished 3rd in yards, 13th in points, went to the playoffs and then lost him the next offseason because head coach Jack Pardee resigned.
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Part of why this job has underwhelmed for so long is because the Bears never truly invest in it. Many of their coordinators over the years were guys they promoted from within like Loggains. Rarely did they actually seek out somebody with qualifications and experience. You know. Like they did with Vic Fangio, Rivera, and Ryan.
People talk about the quarterbacks and the personnel a lot, but offensive coordinators cannot be overstated in their importance.