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The Mike Martz Era: Can He Save This Offense?

Andre Tameta
Jan 29, 2008 at 9:44 PM


As New England inches even closer to perfection, there lies a faint memory of Mike Martz and his powerful St. Louis Rams, a team heavily favored over the underdog Patriots six years ago in Super Bowl XXXVI.

After the Adam Vinatieri field goals and Tom Brady heroics, poor Mike Martz fell into relative obscurity and the New England Patriots kept on winning Super Bowls.

Now in the present day, here we have Martz on Mike Nolan's staff. Martz has a proven track record as an offensive guru but with a great mind comes a great ego. However, at this point, offensive stability is the main concern.

Since Alex Smith was drafted, he has had a different offensive coordinator each year that he has been in the NFL. Hopefully this time he will have Martz to learn from for a longer period of time.

Smith has now learned the West Coast Offense, the Norv Turner version of the Coryell offense, the confused "I'm lost" Jim Hostler offense, and now he will learn Martz's variation of the Coryell offense. While we're at it, we should add in the Run and Shoot and Triple Option just for fun.

I wouldn't exactly call that a recipe for offensive success, but alas we may finally have a savior.

Martz brings a General George S. Patton like swagger and arrogance to the offense that we haven't seen in a very long time. However, our personnel on offense is still a big question mark.

Martz had the likes of Torry Holt, Isaac Bruce, Roy Williams, and Calvin Johnson to utilize. He does have Vernon Davis and Frank Gore to work with, but the receivers' situation needs to be addressed in the off season if we are ever to see the Greatest Show on Candlestick Slop.

Ah, what a sight that would be seeing our 49ers light up the scoreboard again.

Before we get ahead of ourselves now, the offensive line is still a gigantic concern.

Larry Allen's retirement isn't going to make things any better for this inconsistent unit. Jonas Jennings always seems to be hurt and David Baas has been slow to develop. Joe Staley seems like he could be a fixture on the line for years to come, but still has a ways to go.

The offensive line looked good on paper at the beginning of the season but vastly underperformed under George Worhop. If the Martz offense is to click, the line will need to provide enough time to get the ball downfield.

Although concerns are warranted about our personnel and Martz's ego, Nolan is apparently giving Martz full control over the offense. This will allow Martz to work his genius how he see fits without being micromanaged, although Nolan isn't a likely candidate to micromanage his offensive coordinator. Nolan has proven that he does not have much aptitude for offense and should let Martz do his thing.

George Seifert, another former defensive coordinator, let Mike Holmgren and Mike Shanahan do their thing with the offense and it won him two Super Bowls. Although our current talent level isn't even close to the 1989 and 1994 teams, an analogy can be drawn from the past.

Once Martz starts to put the pieces together to his new masterpiece, expect results. At this point, all we can do is speculate but we can rest assure that the offense is now in good hands.

Welcome to the Mike Martz era.
The opinions within this article are those of the writer and, while just as important, are not necessarily those of the site as a whole.


3 Comments

  • Marco from New York
    I hope I am wrong, but Martz looks to be the ultimate hail-mary by an incompetent head coach trying to save his career. Martz has a huge ego that rules over rational thought. The best example of this is in the Super Bowl against the Patriots. The Pats came out from the start in nickle and dime packages and begged Martz to run the ball. What did Martz do, he continued to pass even more, and his 14 point favored team lost. Nolan is an incompetent, and owership could be the worst in team sports. Sadly, this does not bode well for the future of our beloved 49ers.
    Jan 31, 2008 at 6:14 PM
    0
    Response: Have some faith my friend. Martz is a genius in his own right and creative people such as Martz (myself included haha) can be misunderstood for being overly self centered.
  • RonO
    I had a different teacher in every year of my 16 years of full time education -my guess is that you did too - so what's this crap about different coordinators every year. Changing coordinators hasn't seemed to affect your perfect Pats.
    Jan 30, 2008 at 8:27 PM
    0
    Response: The Pats have a system implemented despite the change in coordinators.
  • ricky San Mateo,Ca
    What ever happened to David Baas?He started 8 games last year and is a probable starter next year.I guess you don't watch 49er games,you just write about them?Martz will be a great oc for the 49ers,exactly what they needed.
    Jan 29, 2008 at 10:16 PM
    0
    Response: Baas didn't do anything exceptionally notable in his starts. He was at best, average.

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