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Adam Gase Has Much To Prove As Chicago Bears’ New OC

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Adam Gase Chicago Bears Offensive Coordinator

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On the surface, it looks like the Chicago Bears might have gotten a steal with Adam Gase as their new offensive coordinator. Gase comes over from the Denver Broncos with John Fox, and will serve in the same capacity under Fox in Chicago that he did in Denver. Gase was a hot commodity as a potential head coach, but failed to land any of the open positions and found himself out of work when John Elway hired Gary Kubiak as the new Broncos head coach.

First of all, the Bears’ offensive coordinator search was much bumpier than their defensive coordinator search that ended with the fantastic hire of Vic Fangio. The Bears may have rushed into a decision and might have wanted to expand their search before settling on Gase.

The Bears were denied interview requests to talk to Jim Bob Cooter and Rob Chudzinski, two of their four leading candidates for the position. That left Charlie Weis and Gase as the two men left standing before the Bears offered the job to Gase.

Plenty of experts around the NFL praise Gase as a great offensive mind and a tremendous hire, but there are questions surrounding Gase that aren’t getting much publicity. First, how Gase does away from Peyton Manning is a major question. Every football fan knows that Manning calls 90 percent of his own plays. His offensive coordinator works with him, but it’s more of a partnership and far less of a traditional coach-player relationship.

How Gase handles play-calling, something that’s going to be critical with Jay Cutler running the offense, is a major question with this hire.Weis is an excellent play caller and was probably a safer choice, but Gase has a larger upside.

Manning’s offensive coordinators have never done much after leaving him. Tom Moore never gained any traction away from Manning (or as a head coaching candidate while with Manning and the Indianapolis Colts); meanwhile, Mike McCoy took the head coaching position with the San Diego Chargers and his offense has finished merely in the middle of the pack in both seasons.

The other question surrounding Gase is simply, “What is the team missing?” Gase was the OC in Denver last year, but if he had a tremendous relationship with Manning, one would assume that Manning would speak with Elway and tell him that Gase needs to stay on staff, or even be promoted to head coach. Clearly, there was no love lost between Gase and Manning, as Elway dismissed all coaches from Fox’s staff without batting an eye.

If Fox loved Gase so much, why was there a need for a full interview process? If Fox knew that Gase was a slam dunk hire, he would have told Ryan Pace in the interview process that Gase would come as part of the package. Fox clearly didn’t think Gase was a slam dunk as he and Pace looked around and weighed their options before offering the job to him. If his own head coach has reservations about him as his OC, then the fans should as well.

With Fox being a defensive-minded coach, his attention will be largely on that side of the ball while the offensive coordinator will be more independent in running his squad. Bringing in a more experienced coach to be the OC might have been wiser, but the Bears are rolling the dice.

That’s not to say that Gase is going to fail; he may finally be the coach to get the most out of Cutler and bring the offense to a level that they have the talent to reach. But while the media wants to say this was another home run by Fox and Pace, a more reserved optimism is a wiser approach.

Bill Zimmerman is a Chicago Bears writer for www.RantSports.Com. Follow him on Twitter, like him on Facebook, or add him to your network on Google.

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