Chicago Bears Hire Marc Trestman

UPDATE: The Chicago Bears made the news official early Wednesday morning.

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Turns out Jimmy Johnson was right all along. Many in the sports community scoffed at Johnson when he confidently tweeted that Marc Trestman would be the next head coach of the Chicago Bears. Less than a week after that tweet, Trestman has been hired as the next head coach of the Bears, per Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune.

Trestman emerged as the leading candidate of a group of three coaches in Chicago. Along with Trestman it was believed that Colts offensive coordinator Bruce Arians and Seahawks offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell were also finalists to get the job. Bevell has drawn interest from Arizona and Arians may become a bigger player in Philadelphia and Jacksonville as the Cardinals, Jaguars and Eagles are the only teams left without a head coach.

But for the Bears, Trestman seems to be their man. He was a dark horse when his name was first brought up and while he’s an unconventional choice, that doesn’t mean he’s the wrong one. Trestman lead the Montreal Alouettes of the CFL to three Grey Cup in the last five years and has come away victorious twice.

While it may just be the Grey Cup, Trestman has done a lot more winning than the Bears have lately.

It’s largely believed that Trestman will hang on to defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli. Keeping Marinelli means that an aged defensive unit will have some continuity heading into next season and Trestman can put off worrying about totally rebuilding that side of the ball until next offseason at the earliest.

Hiring Trestman is a gutsy call by Phil Emery and the Bears. But Chicago’s focus in this search was to beef up their offense, and Trestman’s resume speaks for itself. He started as the quarterbacks coach at the University of Miami under Jimmy Johnson where he produced Bernie Kosar. After moving onto the NFL, Trestman was behind the success of Scott Mitchell in Detroit and Jake Plummer in Arizona,  he worked with Steve Young in San Francisco and guided Rich Gannon in Oakland during his MVP season in 2002.

Trestman may not be the flashiest hire, but given what the Bears need and what Trestman brings to the table, the move makes total and complete sense.