The Mike Tice Promotion is Doomed to Fail

That's right, I said doomed. But before you furiously type out some rant-like rebuttal in the comments section, read through my reasoning behind this. And no, it has nothing to do with me disliking Tice as the Bears' offensive coordinator. To err is human; to jump, divine.

Tice's promotion to OC is a good move for the Bears' next year, in my opinion, so don't go into this thinking I hate the decision. Keeping the terminology the same as it was (or markedly similar at least) under Martz dismisses the fear of Cutler having to learn a new offense and new terminology. Instead, Tice will cater his offense to the personnel he has, letting common sense dictate the offense instead of ego. Makes sense, and is a practical step necessary to help the offense succeed next year in finally (possibly) not sucking under Lovie.

However, I'm looking at this move in terms of how it affects the Bears' long-term, and frankly, it's a no-win situation. Look at next year for a second and there are two possible outcomes: Bears do well and Lovie gets another extension (or at least comes back lame duck style) or Bears underachieve and Lovie gets the boot. If Lovie gets canned next year, then Tice is likely gone and Cutler is learning a new offense again (I think that would make seventy-trazillion in 5 years, approximately).

If the Bears have a successful 2012 season (which all of us non-Lovie haters are openly rooting for now that Jelly's gone) or at least don't do poorly enough to get Lovie fired (yeah mediocrity!) then we're left wondering if Tice will still be with the team. He was a former head coach with the Vikings (if you recall) and made the list of interview candidates in Oakland this offseason, so it can be assumed that if Tice can right the offensive ship, he'll get more looks for head coaching gigs (and possibly not just NFL, but college as well).

Whether or not Tice is still here in 2013 depends on a lot of bigger pieces falling a particular way, but the situation the Bears are left with is in another year or two having to go through this offensive coordinator musical chairs game again. That's why this is a doomed long-term situation; even if the team does well we're going to be stuck looking for another O.C. either next year or the year after.

And that is a part of the bigger problem that many of our commentators have had with keeping Lovie and tying the hands of the incoming GM; the organization shows a willingness to make change (finally), but slowly pulls at the bandaid rather than ripping that thing clean off. Lovie staying, I understand and accept, but that move could have affected the GM search process (hard for any of us to know for sure until the rumors start coming from credible sources) and will affect the assistant coaches that we're counting on next year to turn this thing around.

Tice and Toub are practically irreplaceable coaches for Lovie for totally different reasons; Toub is superb at what he does and Tice is needed to correct the Bears' ongoing offensive issues. But keeping Lovie now may leave us in a year or two with Lovie, Hot Rod, and little else that we can have confidence in from a coaching standpoint. So even if next year is a success, look out ahead for some treacherous ground underfoot.