I can’t argue with the decision to fire Marc Trestman. When the Bears hired him, they were a 10-6 team looking to take the next step. He went 8-8 in his first year, and slipped to 5-11 last year. Was there any sign things were going to get better?
But Trestman definitely has offensive skills. He knows how to challenge defenses with offensive design and play calling, and he’s fine-tuned those abilities over the years.
So it’s my belief that Chicago offensively will miss Trestman. Especially Jay Cutler, who’s a mediocre quarterback on his way out of the league but has benefited greatly from Trestman the last two years.
Under Trestman, recall, the Bears ranked 2nd in scoring in the entire league in 2013.
In particular, Trestman knows how to turn drives into touchdowns when the team is in the red zone.
In his two years at the helm, Chicago scored touchdowns on over 60 percent of its drives inside the red zone. Only four offenses were more efficient in that period. And on that front, I think most of the credit goes to Trestman.
He goes to Baltimore now, and I think he’ll help the Ravens score more touchdowns.
As for the Bears, they have Adam Gase running their offense now. He’s supposed to be an up-and-coming Trestman-type guy, but it’s hard to tell. Gase has been the coordinator in Denver the last two years, but it’s hard to know how much credit to give to him, and how much of that is just Peyton Manning (who’s really like his own offensive coordinator, I think).
| RED ZONE TOUCHDOWNS | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Team | Poss | TD | Pct |
| Denver | 129 | 90 | 69.8% |
| Dallas | 102 | 68 | 66.7% |
| Cincinnati | 95 | 62 | 65.3% |
| Oakland | 71 | 46 | 64.8% |
| Chicago | 107 | 65 | 60.7% |
| Detroit | 103 | 60 | 58.3% |
| New Orleans | 122 | 71 | 58.2% |
| Kansas City | 105 | 61 | 58.1% |
| New England | 132 | 75 | 56.8% |
| Atlanta | 96 | 54 | 56.3% |
| Indianapolis | 110 | 61 | 55.5% |
| NY Giants | 97 | 53 | 54.6% |
| Green Bay | 129 | 70 | 54.3% |
| Seattle | 117 | 63 | 53.8% |
| Miami | 114 | 61 | 53.5% |
| Tennessee | 88 | 47 | 53.4% |
| Minnesota | 87 | 46 | 52.9% |
| Pittsburgh | 108 | 57 | 52.8% |
| Tampa Bay | 76 | 40 | 52.6% |
| Carolina | 97 | 51 | 52.6% |
| San Diego | 107 | 56 | 52.3% |
| Houston | 88 | 46 | 52.3% |
| Philadelphia | 116 | 59 | 50.9% |
| Cleveland | 85 | 43 | 50.6% |
| St. Louis | 93 | 47 | 50.5% |
| San Francisco | 99 | 50 | 50.5% |
| Washington | 98 | 49 | 50.0% |
| Baltimore | 115 | 57 | 49.6% |
| Arizona | 88 | 42 | 47.7% |
| Buffalo | 95 | 43 | 45.3% |
| NY Jets | 89 | 38 | 42.7% |
| Jacksonville | 73 | 31 | 42.5% |
—Ian Allan