Chicago Bears Usher In New Era Under Marc Trestman

marc-trestmanThe Chicago Bears found their successor to the Lovie Smith Era on Thursday when the organization introduced the hiring of Marc Trestman to be their new head coach.

Sure, he picked up a couple of Grey Cups while a head coach in the Canadian Football League, but will he be able to lead the Bears to a successful run? The reaction to the hiring seems to be mixed amongst the media members, likely because there isn’t a lot of information that’s readily available about the Bears’ new HC.

He’s not the Big Name Coach that gets snapped up like Andy Reid. He’s not the big name coming back from the broadcast booth like Jon Gruden or Bill Cower. He’s not the hot college coach like Chip Kelly or the "hot" coordinator like Josh McDaniels. He's an unknown that has a lot of columnists asking, "Him?". 

And to me? That’s great.

Why? Those guys above, re-treads and coordinators getting a promotion, aren’t guaranteed to be good (and more often than not, they aren't). Sometimes organizations need to think “outside the box”, as cliched as that term is, to find the right fit for their organizations. When I see the Eagles wanted to “make a splash” when they hired Chip Kelly from Oregon, I see an organization that has their priorities out of order.

Repeatedly, Bears General Manager Phil Emery has stated his desire to build the franchise around 30-year-old quarterback Jay Cutler. I may have indicated an appreciation for Jay Cutler’s skills in the past, and I still believe he has the ability to be one of the league’s top quarterbacks, he just hasn’t had the tools and the organizational structure that some of the more “elite” quarterbacks have enjoyed. The hire of Trestman echoes that thought, considering the coach's success with the quarterback position in the past.

Trestman has coached for over 30 years, including stints in college, the NFL, and most recently in the CFL as head coach of the Montreal Allouettes. He has enjoyed some level of success at nearly every stop, and quarterbacks like Bernie Kosar, Jake Plummer, Scott Mitchell and Rich Gannon have all seen their best seasons when working with the offensive-minded Trestman.

The day before the news broke of Trestman’s hire on Waddle & Silvy, Steve Young (another former player under Trestman) joined the show to give his take on working with Trestman during the 1995-96 season as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks’ coach. He spoke glowingly of working with Trestman, calling him a “phenomenal offensive mind” and a “great game-day play caller”.

The old adage in professional football is that “defense wins championships’. With the offensive surge in the past couple seasons, coupled with the success of teams led by dynamic offenses like those in Green Bay and New England, the Bears’ organization and Phil Emery have deemed Trestman the right choice in moving the Bears, a traditionally defensive-focused organization, into the modern era.

Plus, like I always say: good enough for Steve Young, good enough for me.