Martz to Detroit

Mike Martz is going to be the offensive coordinator for the Detroit Lions. The former St. Louis Rams head coach accepted the job on Wednesday. This is the best thing to fix an underachieving Lions offense. The pieces of the puzzle seem to be in place in Detroit, the last 3 years they have selected a wide receiver in the first round of the NFL draft (Mike Williams, Roy Williams, and Charles Rogers), the year before those 3 they selected quaterback Joey Harrington, and in the second round a few years ago they took running back Kevin Jones. But the offense has continued to struggle and the Lions, who always look promising on paper, have yet to make the playoffs with these players in place. In fact, they have yet to compete for the playoffs.

Mike Martz seems like a good fit to me. He is one of the better offensive minds in the NFL, and has had a knack for developing quaterbacks (look at the years Kurt Warner and Marc Bulger had in his offense. Plus look at how well Ryan Fitzpatrick faired last year when Bulger was injured). Rams fans seemed to despise Martz, and I was never able to really understand why. I'll admit I haven't seen many Rams games, but I have noticed their record. Martz was 51-29 in the regular season and 54-33 overall, according to the Missourian's article on this event. As a fan of the Chicago Bears, a franchise that has struggled mightily in recent years, I would gladly have Martz as my head coach. And as a Bears fan, I am very scared of what he might be able to do with the Lions offense.

Publish Date: February 9 in the Missourian.