Mike Martz was a top NFL offensive mind; Where is he now?
LOS ANGELES (BVM) – Back when the Los Angeles Rams had their home in St. Louis, the team in the late 1990s was known as the “Greatest Show on Turf.” The offense was loaded with future Hall of Famers with Kurt Warner, Marshall Faulk and Isaac Bruce, but the man calling plays was equally important to the unit’s success. The offensive coordinator for the eventual Super Bowl-champion team was Mike Martz, and following the team’s triumph, he would take over as the Rams head coach, leading the team to another Super Bowl appearance during his time at the helm.
While Martz is mostly remembered for helping unleash the Greatest Show on Turf offense onto the NFL, not many people remember that he remained in the league long after his St. Louis days, working as an offensive coordinator for the Detroit Lions, San Francisco 49ers and Chicago Bears before leaving the NFL coaching ranks after the 2011 season. Today, Martz still keeps tabs on the NFL as an analyst, watching a pass-happy league he helped create.
Early career and coaching start
Martz’s football journey is similar to that of many NFL coaches as he played the game all the way through college, playing tight end for San Diego Mesa College, University of California-Santa Barbara and Fresno State University. Martz went on to Washington University in St. Louis in 1972 and upon graduation began coaching back in his native California as an assistant coach for Bullard High School.
In 1974, Martz landed a job with his former team at San Diego Mesa and, as a typical college assistant coach, bounced around in the college ranks coaching at places like San Jose State, Fresno State and Minnesota until 1983 when he landed with Arizona State. Martz stuck with the Sun Devils for the next eight years, coaching quarterbacks and wide receivers from 1983-87 before working as an offensive assistant from 1988-91.
NFL coaching career
The coach got his first shot at the NFL in 1992 when the Los Angeles Rams hired him as the team’s quarterbacks coach, a position he held for three seasons. When the Rams moved to St. Louis in 1995, Martz moved positions to wide receivers coach, helping Bruce become one of the top weapons in the league.
After a two-year stop in Washington where he helped mentor future Ram Trent Green, Martz rejoined St. Louis as the team’s offensive coordinator for its historic 1999 season. That year, Martz coached his relatively unknown quarterback Warner to league MVP honors and his running back Faulk to offensive player of the year honors while helming the top–ranked offense in the NFL.
After head coach Dick Vermeil retired following the 1999 season, Martz was named the Rams’ new head coach. Under Martz, the Rams offense continued its stellar ways with Faulk winning both MVP and Offensive Player of the Year in 2000 and Warner winning another MVP in 2001. The Rams went 24-8 over Martz’s first two seasons, going to the playoffs both years and winning the 2001 NFC Championship, though the team would lose Super Bowl XXXVI to the New England Patriots and new quarterback Tom Brady, 20-17.
Over the next four seasons with Martz, the Rams struggled going a combined 29-24 and winning only one playoff game in two appearances. With the offense becoming more middling, specifically struggling on the ground, Martz was fired following the 2005 season where he missed coaching the final 11 games due a heart ailment and the Rams fell to a 6-10 record in his absence.
Fortunately for Martz, he was still seen as a top offensive mind in the league due to his high-flying passing attack and was quickly hired as the offensive coordinator for the Detroit Lions. However, the Lions never fully adjusted to Martz’s scheme and, although he put Detroit in the top 10 both seasons in passing offense, the team’s total offense never got higher than No. 19 while the team finished 3-13 and 7-9, respectively.
Martz spent the 2008 season with the San Francisco 49ers where the team finished No. 23 in total yards and he was dismissed following the season. The offensive guru would not coach in 2009.
In 2010, Chicago Bears head coach Lovie Smith, Martz’s former defensive coordinator, brought the coach in to run the offense, hoping to get more out of the team’s big investment–quarterback Jay Cutler. The experiment didn’t work however as over two seasons in the Windy City, Martz led the Bears to a No. 30 finish in total offense in 2010 and a No. 24 finish in 2011. He resigned following the 2011 season.
Post-NFL life
Following his time coaching in the league, Martz joined the NFL broadcast team at Fox where he was an in-game color analyst. In 2019, Martz made his return to professional football coaching when he took the job as head coach of the Alliance of American Football’s San Diego Fleet. Unfortunately, the team didn’t perform well, finishing the season 3-5 and in last place in the Western Conference in the league’s only year of existence.
During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Martz launched the “Run It Again Podcast” with former NFL player Ron Pitts. The podcast’s most recent episode was posted in February.
In 2021, Martz hit the silver screen when he was portrayed by actor Chance Kelly in the biopic “American Underdog” that follows the rise of Warner to Rams’ Super Bowl winning quarterback.
Though mostly out of the limelight these days, Martz ruffled some feathers in Chicago during a recent appearance for new sports-website “The 33rd Team.” During a ranking of the NFC North’s signal-callers, Martz didn’t hold back in his criticism of Justin Fields and the Bears’ roster as a whole.
“Fields is a guy that makes a lot of mistakes and is not particularly accurate at times,” Martz told the site. “He’s not a quick read-and-react guy, and he’s on a horrendous team. But I don’t know if I’ve seen an offense that bad in talent since the 0-16 Detroit Lions (in 2008). They just don’t have anybody there. … It’s a bad football team right now.”
Hard times in Chicago 😬 pic.twitter.com/MyPwrLAmFx
— The 33rd Team (@The33rdTeamFB) August 24, 2022
While Martz certainly hasn’t won any fans in Chicago, he has shown he isn’t afraid to speak his mind when it comes to football. Though fans may not agree with Martz’s assessments, the fact that he was able to have a respectable career in the NFL helps his cause. It remains to be seen where Martz will end up next, but given his pedigree and connections in the NFL, expect him to keep football nearby.
