Martz Has Enough In Detroit To Keep Him Busy -- And Off The Market

When the Lions courted Mike Martz to be their offensive coordinator during Super Bowl week of 2006, I don't think many people would have given you a plugged nickel's chance that: a) Martz would come at all, or b) even if he did come, that he'd stay for any appreciable length of time -- like more than a year. Once a head coach ...

But Martz is sounding, to me, like a guy who wouldn't mind sticking it out in Detroit for a few seasons.

You have to have ego to be successful in professional sports. Nothing wrong with that. And there's a difference between having an ego and being egotistical. Egos need to be massaged and challenged frequently -- especially for the best savants. Martz, I think, has enough challenges and potential in certain players with the Lions that he'll shelve any plans of returning to the world of head coach anytime soon.

S0me of this feeling is due to the fact that Martz wasn't a serious candidate for any of the openings that availed themselves after the '06 season. He wasn't jetting across the country, talking to other teams' management people. His name was barely mentioned for even the openings in which he purportedly had an interest. It doesn't necessarily mean that he's lost his luster as a head coaching candidate; it just means that, for whatever reason, teams chose to go in a different direction.

So that contributes to me thinking Martz will be here for this year and next -- and possibly the year after that, too.


Martz is probably looking ahead to a few more years in Detroit

He has some raw stones here to polish. QBs Drew Stanton, Dan Orlovsky, and J.T. O'Sullivan; receiver Calvin Johnson; a new, revamped offensive line. The mystery at running back, with an injured Kevin Jones about to find his job threatened by Tatum Bell. The schemings necessary to find out how RB/FB T.J. Duckett fits into the offense. And more.

All that is enough to keep the genius Martz busy for quite some time, should he decide to see it through. And I think he will -- at least for two or three more seasons.

The other day, Martz was enthused and encouraged by what he saw from the line. Before that he had high praise for his quarterbacks -- especially starter Jon Kitna and newcomer O'Sullivan. He likes Bell a lot. He's eager to see Jones back. And, of course, he can't wait to get his playbook-stained hands on #2 overall pick Johnson.

Offensive savants like Mike Martz can't have idle hands. They need projects and Cinderella stories. It's good for the ego -- and the legacy. How many times have we heard of Martz's influence on the success of Kurt Warner and Marc Bulger? A little bit too much for my liking, but at least it's legitimate praise, unlike the hollow credentials of Marty Mornhinweg, when he was hired by the Lions in 2001.

"He worked with Brett Favre in Green Bay," we were told over and over.

Yeah -- like a hospital orderly "works" with a great heart surgeon.

I'm sorry, but I don't think Brett Favre's emergence and growth would have been stunted had he not had the brilliant Marty Mornhinweg there to hold his hand.

Martz is an NFL coordinator whose reputation precedes him. He'll always be mentioned, at least casually, as wanting to get back onto the head coaching horse. Every January, after the latest batch of coaches are canned, we'll hear Martz talk. That's just part of the package.

And now that I think about it, I can't think of any greater challenge and better chance of sewing up one's legacy than presiding over the reclamation project of ALL reclamation projects: helping turn the Lions into winners with your magic offense.

Maybe he'll never leave.