With running back Matt Forte signed to a new contract, the Bears will have all of their key offensive pieces in place when they gather for training camp on Tuesday.
That includes new offensive coordinator Mike Tice, who is being charged with getting more out of the offense than Mike Martz was able to during his tenure in the job. With a healthy Forte and quarterback Jay Cutler joining new wide receiver Brandon Marshall, Tice has more talent at his disposal than Martz had. Now he just needs to make it work.
During an interview with Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune, Tice said that he feels like he’s a better coach and teacher now than he was earlier in his career. One way that manifests itself is in Tice’s confidence in his ability to build a plan for the offense that he thinks will lead to the greatest amount of success.
“I’ve helped establish some good offenses over my career and I’ve played in some good offenses over my career. I think I know what a good offense looks like,” Tice said. “At the end of the day, we’re going to have a certain personality and at the end of the day it will be one of explosiveness and one of intelligence and one of rhythm and one of tempo and one of enthusiasm. You have to have all of those to be an elite offense.”
That sounds good and Cutler, Forte and Marshall give the Bears pieces that could be part of very strong offense. There are still questions about the offensive line that need to be answered in camp and beyond, though, and the best-laid plans of many an offensive coordinator have died after getting the wrong answers to those questions.