Coaches Not So Smart When They Try It In Detroit

The way I see it, the true genius of Mike Martz was in getting everyone to think of him as a genius in the first place.

Funny how a coach's IQ is directly tied to the quality of players that he has at his disposal.

Martz, canned by the Lions as their offensive coordinator (he latched onto the unsuspecting 49ers a few days later), was a genius when he led the "Greatest Show On Turf" in St. Louis. He wants to be sure you remember his work with the former grocery store employee and current NFL QB, Kurt Warner.

But in St. Louis, with the Rams, the genius Martz had Torry Holt, Isaac Bruce, Marshall Faulk, and a dynamite offensive line. No wonder he was so smart.

In Detroit, there weren't those weapons, to that degree. Jon Kitna was no Warner, circa 1999, and Roy Williams and Calvin Johnson and Mike Furrey were no Holt and Bruce. Rookie Johnson wasn't even Calvin Johnson at times. And Kevin Jones? Bless his injury-plagued heart, but he certainly wasn't any Faulk, that I know of. The offensive lines defy comparison.

So the genius Mike Martz appeared to either be too smart for his pupils, or his IQ diminished once he came to Detroit, and he realized what he had to work with. Either way. Regardless, he's the 49ers' problem now, with his pass-happy ways and mesmerizing lexicon.

Now the Lions have Jim Colletto as offensive coordinator, a promotion from within. And we'll soon realize how little he knows about football, when he tries to work with these slugs. The Lions not only kill coaches, but they make them look dumb first.

For his part, ex-offensive line coach Colletto -- in a not-so-subtle dig at Martz -- says the Lions will, essentially, dumb-down their playbook and run a skeleton version of Martz's offense. "It's about the players, not the coach," Colletto said at yesterday's presser. Zing.

I'm not all that jazzed about Colletto, mainly because I thought the Lions might try to raid one of their more successful brethren for a keen, young offensive mind. Then again, what would that prove, other than no one can win with the talent as it is right now.

Nothing will truly bring dramatic, positive change until the Lions are imploded and begun again, but that has as much chance of happening as, well, the Lions being imploded and begun again -- which is none.

So the application of doomed Band-Aids will continue at Ford Field.

The Lions do not win, not because of the coach, or the system, or the size of the playbook. They do not win because they do not have the players to do so. It's quite simple, really.

You don't have to be a genius to figure that out.