The offense was designed by attack oriented offensive coordinator Mike Martz, who advocated mixing both an aerial attack and a run offense in the form of the Air Coryell style offense. Mike Martz, the headstrong coach who orchestrated the “Greatest Show on Turf” while molding Kurt Warner into a Pro Bowl quarterback with the … Jay Cutler should put up similar numbers to what we’ve seen in his career. He points out that the game is about, has always been about, players. Now the ’99 Rams are emulated. Marc Bulger (04-05) was responsible for 2 of those seasons, but Jon Kitna and J.T. He is a current NFL analyst for Fox Sports with Ron Pitts . Martz's St. Louis Rams teams of the early 2000s … For decades the NFL had been slowly inching towards putting a greater emphasis on the passing game, with incremental changes coming every year. How Mike Martz and The Greatest Show on Turf kicked off an NFL revolution During the 1999 season, no defense could stop the Rams' pass-heavy offense. In biology, they call it the punctuated equilibrium theory. That means that the Rams would often run the same play out of several different formations, with a variety of personnel on the field. “Then the next year I leave for the Rams and we started making it up as we went.”. What do the numbers say? “I think the National Football League fell in love with that part of the game and wanted to see more of it because of the reaction of the fans,” Holt says. This presents a problem when projecting for 2010 because the Bears don’t have 1-2 standout wide receivers. Martz spent 2006 and 2007 as the Lions Offensive Coordinator and held the same post for the 49ers during the 2008 season (*Note: Because Mike Singletary took over as head coach and changed the offensive philosophy after the team's 7th game, I will only be including the 49ers first 7 games of 2008 in this analysis). “It was slow. Martz built upon the philosophy, expanded it, tweaked it, evolved it— making it fit his players and his vision. It was also the perfect system for Faulk— a gifted pass catcher, and skilled route runner— who racked up 1,048 receiving yards that year, the most for a running back in NFL history. Some get the receivers and tight end involved. Michael Martz (born May 13, 1951) is a former NFL head coach and currently the offensive coordinator for the National Football League 's Chicago Bears . Unlock NFL Player Grades, Fantasy & NFL Draft, Unlock Premium Stats, PFF Greenline & DFS, Unlock College Player Grades and Preview Magazine, Unlock NCAA Premium Stats & PFF Greenline NCAA. The Chargers were 3rd in this category at 25%, which is right where the average Martz team would sit. Chart 2 tells Martz’s story. Anything that comes after is merely a facsimile, one that will never be able to match the radical innovation that shocked our systems and changed a sport. The first 7 seasons come from his time in St. Louis. He yearned to play for Coryell’s teams, but four years later he found himself suiting up against them as a tight end for Fresno State. The offense was designed by attack oriented offensive coordinator Mike Martz, who advocated mixing both an aerial attack and a run offense in the form of the Air Coryell style offense. The best coaches adapt to their roster. Aaron Rodgers leading the NFL in fantasy points? Chicago Bears. “I told him: this is your baby. Described as the “Greatest Show on Turf”, the Mike Martz offense is easily the biggest story coming out of the Bears camp on the offensive side of the ball. “It all began with Don, to be honest with you,” Martz says. Cutler is better than Kitna and possibly Bulger in his prime, but is not Kurt Warner in his prime. While coaching in Detroit, Martz had Jon Kitna force feed the ball to slot WRs Shaun McDonald (21% of passes in 2007) and Mike Furrey (26% of … Martz, the former Rams head coach, was one of the most aggressive play-callers in the NFL, particularly with his record-setting offense in St. Louis. -Do you expect the Bears to win 10+ games? After the acrimonious end to his tenure as St. Louis' head coach following the 2005 season, Martz tried to run the same offense during two tough years with the Detroit Lions, who fired him Jan. 2. Bruce remembers receivers on other teams longing to play in St. Louis, asking him to put in a good word. Moral of the story here is that you’re going to want to target the speedy, possession receivers who will line up in the slot and catch 6-7 balls a game, especially in PPR formats. The "Martz offense" is really the "have every WR run a slant route, if no one is open dump it to Marshall Faulk who just blocked a blitzing LB to save the QB, but was still able to sneak out into the flat, make a shoe-string catch, and then make 3 people miss a tackle all while gaining 10-12 yards in the process." No matter how many rule changes are made, no matter how much the NFL tries, there will forever be only one Greatest Show on Turf. “Now it’s celebrated.”. This bodes well for whoever ends up playing the slot for Chicago. With Martz calling the shots, the Bears don’t even seem surprised when a screen pass ties the record for the longest gain from scrimmage in Chicago’s 91-year history. Record books that have been razed and rewritten? Well that depends. “I came from arena football,” Warner says, “so I had a different mentality than a lot of people. More important, he … One can understand why Cutler hated Martz’s offense so much. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, SI VAULT: Kurt Warner and the Rams beat the Titans in the greatest Super Bowl ever. Never before had the system approached the level of success that Vermeil, Martz and the Rams achieved with it, largely because never before had the system seen the level or breadth of talent that the Rams possessed. That’s because he’s already planned ahead. In fact, in 8 of the first 10 seasons shown here, the top WR caught at least 21% of the team’s passes. Martz is best known as the offensive coordinator behind the St. Louis Rams high-powered 1999 team that won the Super Bowl. The Wide 9 Defense is bad news for the Mike Martz Offense By Lester A. Wiltfong Jr. @wiltfongjr Updated Oct 12, 2011, 5:00pm CDT / new © 2021 ABG-SI LLC. What does all this mean to the Chicago Bears in 2010 (and possibly beyond)? Brandon Manumaleuna carried it a few times for Martz in the St. Louis days and was signed by Chicago this offseason, but it’s unlikely he’d see a carry at this stage in his career. This will be a bit easier once we get an idea of the roles each player will take on. The Bears then won 7 of 9 games. Although they may only combine for 300 carries, Matt Forte and Chester Taylor still bring fantasy value to the table considering they should combine for at least 100 receptions and close to 900 receiving yards. The burning question will continue to be which of the two gets more of the looks. SI Gambling analyst Roy Larking focuses on two Big 12 and Big Ten conference tournament matchups on his Friday NCAA basketball betting card. It is a misnomer that Vermeil had to be dragged to compliance to allow Martz to install his offense, that he was a begrudging witness to the revolution. Now that might not seem like much of a change if you watched this squad in 2009. Thank the Rams. During the 1999 season, no defense could stop the Rams' pass-heavy offense. NFL free agent rankings with analysis, projected salaries, PFF grades and PFF WAR. And for a few years there, he had a collection of offensive talent that was rare and fleeting. What will the look of the Fleet offense be under the watchful eye of head coach Mike Martz. The Rams were the tornado, the anomaly that compelled a sudden and rapid evolution of football. The so-called “Air Coryell” system is a vertical offensive attack, one that eschewed the traditional pro set formation (one running back, one fullback, one tight end, two wide receivers) by putting multiple receivers on the field at once and spreading them out wide. If you’re thinking about fantasy football right now, you just mentally downgraded Matt Forte and Chester Taylor and upgraded Jay Cutler, Devin Hester, Johnny Knox, Greg Olsen, etc. The next closest was the Patriots at 11%. In Martz's offense, downfield is the name of the game -- receivers run posts, flies and deep outs and crosses. Once the fall rolls around, come back and re-read this article. Although Martz loves to throw, he’s very specific about who gets the looks. The way the Bears offense was to be perceived was supposed to change forever on this date in Bears history when the team hired Mike Martz as its … He was sacked 75 times in 25 games while playing in it. As you can see on Chart 3, completions to the runningback have been both consistent and high. It should help you decide on Hester or Knox, Taylor or Forte, and Olsen or a box of crackerjacks. Considering this will be the case in 2009, the reception splits are worth noting. “I don’t think the league will ever see anything like that again.”. Mike Martz was the offensive coordinator and then the head coach of the St. Loui The architect of one of the greatest offenses of all time believes Adam Gase can build something special with the Jets. “There’s times we do say, oh man what would we do if we were in this league,” Warner admits. Although the 2-runningback system and wide receiver depth chart questions pose a projection nightmare, there are still a lot we can learn from Martz’s trends. They scored touchdowns on 7.4% of those first down passes, nearly twice the league average across all pass attempts. I consider 8,757 plays over 10 seasons to be plenty. I was too. The offense will still pass a lot, but they’ll sit around the 56% mark. Martz subsequently served as the head coach of the Rams from 2000 to 2005, where his teams reached the playoffs four times, won two division titles, and achieved a franchise-best 14–2 record in 20… Turner, then the Redskins head coach, sat beside Martz, his offensive coordinator, dissecting film and debating ways to make their football team more competitive. From 2004 on, Martz has not seen a sack% under 4.95% and has seen two as high as 7%. The tight end carried the ball a few times for Martz, but nothing significant. Tight end is pretty simple: avoid at all costs. As a result, offenses had become entirely predictable. Cardinals’ tight ends combined to catch 6% of the team’s passes. The system proved to be an ideal fit for Warner, who took over as starter after Trent Green was injured in the team’s third preseason game. ), “That was unheard of,” Holt says, repeating a common refrain. WR O – Includes all Other wide receivers who caught a pass. In those instances the evolution is rapid, sudden and without warning. The San Francisco 49ers today announced the hiring of Mike Martz to the offensive coordinator position. Now, it’s fallen all the way to 74th, surpassed by three other seasons by Warner himself. The “zone dog” blitz concept, popularized by Buddy Ryan, had been regularly giving offenses fits, and in an attempt to combat it, teams were forced to keep their running backs and tight ends in to block, oftentimes sending only two receivers out on pass patterns. Mike Martz presence in our pass offense? The INT rate will be better than in 2009 and his completion rate should improve slightly. Last season, the Atlanta Falcons scored 540 offensive points, which tied the Rams for seventh most in NFL history. QB, RB1, RB2, FB, WR, TE – Self Explanatory – Carries by that position on the depth chart Actually, of the top 20 highest scoring teams in NFL history, 17 are either teams that came after the Rams three-year run or those Rams teams themselves. Now that we covered the tight end debate, let’s focus on some other positions, starting with running back. “Let’s be honest,” Warner says, “we had a collection of talent that was ridiculous.”. He has the history of being an offensive minded coach, so the Fleet. Martz is the first to admit that coaches always look smarter when they have great players at their disposal. Some say to avoid him at all costs as he’ll be a non-factor. It was also a collection of talent that all possessed a rare quality, an ineffable quality, a borderline cliché quality, that allowed the Coryell system to operate at a level of efficiency and efficacy that had never before been seen: high football IQ. Warner put up incredible 8.6, 9.4, and 8.9 YPA marks during those 3 seasons and had TD/Att marks above 6.3% and as high as 8% as well. How exactly did that offense, spearheaded by offensive coordinator Mike Martz, come to be? Virginia pulled out of the ACC tournament on Friday morning after a player tested positive for COVID-19. PFF's Big Board for the 2021 NFL Draft offers three-year player grades, combine measurables, position rankings, and in-depth player analysis for all of the top draft prospects. (Hence why Pace, the left tackle, and the entire offensive line was so imperative to the offense’s success, sometimes needing to bide the quarterback three or four seconds in the pocket for the play to develop. Cutler comes up short in every category aside of INT%, but remember that the Martz average includes those crazy Warner years. In fact, the stat that pushed Aaron Rodgers to the top of my pre-season fantasy rankings both last season (turned out well, eh?) Martz was the man behind “The Greatest Show on Turf,” the high-scoring turn-of-the-millennium Rams micro-dynasty. The Rams did end up using their third-down plays on first down, just like Turner had joked, passing on a league-leading 59% of such downs. “They took what we were doing and tried to transition the game and make things easier for offenses.”. Martz was also one of the great closers. Martz clearly liked having Warner dump the ball off to Marshall Faulk, with Faulk catching a majority of the 24-28% of the passes to the RB from 1999-2002. It was officially set in motion with the heist of Marshall Faulk, in a trade from the Colts as a result of a contract dispute; and it culminated with the selection of Torry Holt with the sixth pick in ‘99. SPORTS ILLUSTRATED is a registered trademark of ABG-SI LLC. Note that the average Mike Martz Quarterback runs on 9% of the team’s run plays. Much has been said about the Bears hiring of Mike Martz as their new Offensive Coordinator. Roman Gabriel, the Rams quarterback that season, threw for 2,549 yards and completed 54.4% of his passes—good enough to be named NFL MVP. Page 3 of 3 < Prev 1 2 3. Not systems, not coaches. Key: Many have surmised that the two receivers have only been snubbed by the Hall for this long because of how good those Rams teams were, claiming that their success was merely a result of the conditions on the team they played for. They say: go with the former. Although we see a 10% dropoff from 2002 to 2003, the rate bounces back several times with 6 of the 10 seasons ending up over 23%. ScipioCowboy More than meets the eye. Could this be a preview of 2010? Earl Bennett and Devin Aromashodu will also be looking to find a spot on the field, but neither seem likely to make the impact Hester and Knox could. Note that I only include the games from 2005 and 2008* in which Martz was on staff. Jay Cutler made it clear he didn’t hate Martz the person. I think some coordinators have those kind of plays in mind, but it’s another thing to have the confidence in the players to call those plays. I had Forte (47%) and Taylor (34%) combining for 81% of the carries, the other RBs accounting for 7%, Cutler handling 11%, and the WRs combining for 1%. RB O – o stands for “other”. He quipped that maybe they should run their third-down plays on first down, to pass when NFL dogma dictated that coaches should run. Olsen will be lucky to see 9% of the targets this season, which means 35 receptions is probably pushing it. Take a look at the team’s records and pass:run:sack splits during those 10 seasons. “I saw the evolution,” Vermeil says. We’ll get to it later), but also note how close his pass:run ratio is to what the Bears put up in 2009. In 2007, McDonald’s 21% was the highest mark on the team. Every year teams threw a little more, scoring went up a little more. While the 1999 team shocked the football world with their sudden arrival—a nine-win increase over the previous season, a record-setting offense and a Super Bowl win—Vermeil had really been assembling the pieces to make the system hum for a while. These numbers are all but useless without perspective, so let’s look at the 2009 season again. Garrett is a Coryell guy. Marshall Faulk was Martz’s RB1 from 1999-to-2004, which covers every full season Martz spent there. all carrying it a few times a season. This all bodes well for Devin Hester, who is a perfect fit to carry on the Az-Zahir Hakim/Dane Looker/Kevin Curtis/Ricky Proehl/Furrey/McDonald/Battle/etc tradition. The splits in Chart 1 show an obvious trend for Martz. Where we need to focus most of our attention is the last few seasons, when Martz focused more on the team’s slot receivers. I say pleasure because, as you can see from Chart 2, Warner’s dominance from 1999-2001 significantly inflate Martz’s career passing stats (if you will). This may not seem overly relevant, but something many people forget to incorporate into fantasy projections is rushes by the quarterback. Re-grading the 2014 NFL draft, three years later. The Rams passed a whole lot, and by using the pass to set up the run, Martz reversed the common thinking at the time. When he took inventory of his vast menagerie of talent in the offseason prior to the ’99 season, he realized he could no longer be a ground-and-pound coach. The process started by retaining Isaac Bruce, a second round pick for the Rams in 1994. If he plays most passing downs and is in the slot, he’s PPR gold and could approach 85-90 receptions. Faulk, the vet, carried it 51% of the time, while the 2nd year man Jackson carried it 35% of the time. In fact, the average Martz team threw to the RB 23% of the time–25% if you include the fullback. Rams, Rams, Rams. There was a lot to be learned from this study, but all of the questions cannot be answered without a better idea of what the depth chart will look like. “This offense is designed to have explosive plays like that,” Forte said. This was mainly a result of not having elite players at WR1 and WR2. Before I dig any deeper, let’s take a deeper look at my sample size. The wide receiver was always involved a little bit, with Torry Holt, Isaac Bruce, Az-Zahir Hakim, Roy Williams, etc. It emphasized the passing game, forced defenses to defend the entire field, and, above all else, was exciting as hell to watch. The 2 receivers split out wide should be expected to catch around 30% of the passes, where as the 2 guys coming across the middle will end up totaling a figure around 40%. All I’ll do is support you.”. For his first move as head coach, Vermeil traded four picks to acquire the New York Jets first overall pick in the 1997 draft, widely considered a weak draft.