Is it just me or are the Detroit Lions making sure they are set for the eventual early departure of Rob Marinelli. It seems to me that Matt Millan is setting up Marinelli to take the fall if the Lions don’t make a significant improvement in 2007. Rob Marinelli is known as a defensive, hard nosed coaching mind that is more o####eneral than a NFL coach. And if a track record counts for anything it looks to me as if Millan will have no qualms about giving Rob Marinelli the pink slip in favor of keeping Mike Martz around.
This upcoming season will likely unfold like this, the Detroit Lions will win no more than 6 games at absolute best and in all honesty that would be making a vast improvement compared to last years fiasco. But to the Detroit Lion fans 6 wins won’t be enough to keep the boo birds and paper bags from coming out to Ford Field and the fans this year more than any other year will demand a change. Most likely the fans will want the head of Matt Millan on a plate, but if past track records are taken into account the fans won’t get that. What will happen is that Rob Marinelli will take the fall just as Mariucci did before him and Matt Millan will escape firing buy the skin of his teeth……again.
If all this should happen and obviously this is pure speculation, the next coach that will be looked at to take the Lions gig would already be under employment by the organization. That person would be Mike Martz. Mike Martz could be setting up a coup as we speak now that he has legitimate offensive weapons to scheme for. With the drafting of Calvin Johnson and quarterback Drew Stanton in this past Saturday’s draft the offensive coordinator is making his move for more power. As we all know the offensive schemes of last years Detroit Lions was based totally around the mind of Mike Martz. Without Martz the system would have been worse than the defense in terms of productivity. Jon Kitna had a career year last year in terms of statistics, and their best offensive playmaker, Roy Williams, also had a career year which ended him up in Hawaii for the first time. The front office also made some big personnel moves by adding offensive right tackle George Foster and adding a punishing big back in T.J. Duckett. The signing of former St. Louis Rams and Georg Foster says more about where this team is going than anything else. With that signing Matt Millan was following the success of what Martz had in St. Louis. In St. Louis Martz had two 1rst round tackles in Orlando Pace and Alex Barron as he now has in Detroit with George Foster and Jeff Backus. The signing and then the success of Mike Furrey also says a lot about what kind of players can succeed in Mike Martz’ system. Another one of Mike Martz’ disciples, Kevin Curtis, was a highly touted free agent, but ended up singing with Philadelphia. But the attempt at the Curtis acquisition speaks volumes of how much confidence Matt Millan has in Mike Martz and his past accomplishments.
In the NFL, defense might win championships but as we all know offense sells tickets. And believe me when I say this, Mike Martz knows how to sell tickets. He once was the ring leader of “the Greatest Show on Turf.” During that time in St. Louis he was considered a master mind, mad scientist of offensive schemes. If you look at some of the past contenders in the last 5 or 6 years you will see that offensive teams have succeeded and sold more tickets than defensive minded teams. Just look at the success of a few teams like Cincinnati, Indianapolis, St. Louis, New Orleans, Minnesota (1998-2003) and Kansas City (with #### Vermeil) compared to the defensive teams like Buffalo, Miami, New York Jets, Jacksonville, and Washington (except 2006). All of these teams were based solely on scoring more than their opponent. And all of these teams are widely successful in terms of generating funds and profits. Of the five teams I mentioned two are past Super Bowl winners, with St. Louis going to two Super Bowls and three NFC championship games. And who was the offensive mind behind all three St. Louis teams? That’s right, Mike Martz. He might have left St. Louis on bad terms and he might have left the defense in even worse shape, but he still sold tickets. Did you know last year was the first year that a Rams home game wasn’t sold out? That never happened with Martz. Now, I’m not saying that Scott Linehan isn’t a solid coach, but Mike Martz is a proven winner of a Super Bowl as a coordinator and a NFC Championship as a coach.
Take a look at what Mike Martz has to work with in Detroit. First of all he has that veteran presence in Jon Kitna which Martz absolutely loves. But now Martz has Drew Stanton which will now be his new project he can tinker with and mold into his QB of the future, not Marinelli. Martz, in the newly drafted stud Calvin Johnson, now has his two wide-outs just as he did in St. Louis with Tory Holt and Isaac Bruce. His running back situation is a little cloudy, but Martz has confidence in Kevin Jones to succeed in his system. Jones is a very good all around back. Kevin possesses not only the ability to run between the tackles but also has the ability to catch passes and make plays out of the back field just as Mike Martz likes. If he can stay healthy Jones will have no option but to succeed. Martz’ offensive line needs a little work, but with the signing of George Foster that gives him a decent to solid option at the right tackle spot on the o-line. And never mind the tight end spot, because as we all know Martz doesn’t need no stinkin’ tight end.
Okay, I know this is pure speculation, but you can never count out Mike Martz. Everyone knows that Martz loathes being an offensive coordinator and wants more than anything to be a head coach again. I truly believe that his next gig will be the head coach of the Detroit Lions, and I definitely don’t think that is a bad thing for the Detroit fans though. Mike Martz can make you relevant again in terms of offense, he can turn offensive stars into superstars and good players into great players. He can devise game plans that can be very entertaining to the average fan. He might not have a clue on what to do with a base 4-3 or how to stop the run, but damn it he can score 30 routinely. In short Martz can sell tickets and as we all know selling tickets would be considered a success to the Ford family and their adopted son Matt Millan. Martz can only be a background figure for so long before being the main character, this could be his year to break through and steal the coaching job from Rob Marinelli.
