Bears hire CFL coach Trestman, hoping he can get most out of Cutler

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This Nov. 22, 2008 photo shows Montreal Alouettes head football coach Marc Trestman during a press conference in Montreal. The Chicago Bears have hired Montreal Alouettes coach Marc Trestman to replace the fired Lovie Smith.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

CHICAGO - The Chicago Bears hired Montreal Alouettes coach Marc Trestman on Wednesday to replace the fired Lovie Smith and gave him two basic tasks — fix the offence and lead the team to the playoffs on a consistent basis.

How he meshes with quarterback Jay Cutler could go a long way toward determining his success.

It's the first NFL head-coaching job for Trestman, 57, a long-time assistant in the league who spent the past five seasons coaching the Alouettes, leading them to a 59-31 regular-season record and three Grey Cup appearances, winning twice.

Prior to arriving in the CFL in 2008, Trestman spent time in the NCAA coaching at Miami and North Carolina State and served in the NFL as a quarterback coach, running back coach and offensive co-ordinator with Minnesota (twice), Tampa Bay, Cleveland, San Francisco, Detroit, Arizona, Oakland, Miami.

Chicago general manager Phil Emery cast a wide net in his search, meeting with at least 13 candidates. Besides Trestman, he also brought back Seattle Seahawks offensive co-ordinator Darrell Bevell and the Indianapolis Colts' Bruce Arians for second interviews.

Trestman wasted little time starting to assemble his staff.

A person familiar with the situation said the Bears hired New Orleans Saints offensive line coach Aaron Kromer as their offensive co-ordinator, hoping to revive a unit that often sputtered with Mike Tice calling the plays. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because the move had not been announced.

Kromer served as the Saints' head coach for six games this season while interim coach Joe Vitt was suspended for his role in the bounty scandal. Saints coach Sean Payton had to sit out the year.

The Dallas Cowboys, meanwhile, reported on their website that special teams coach Joe DeCamillis was leaving to become Chicago's assistant head coach/special teams co-ordinator.

For Chicago, the moves come after a 10-win season in which the Bears fell apart after winning seven of their first eight games.

Smith was let go after nine years, ending a run that included a trip to the Super Bowl but also saw Chicago miss the playoffs five of the past six seasons. That move did not sit well with some players at the time, but Cutler and star receiver Brandon Marshall are looking forward to working with Trestman.

"He's been successful wherever he's been," Cutler told the Bears' website. "He's from the West Coast coaching tree, which I'm familiar with. It's what I came into the league with, with (Mike) Shanahan (with the Denver Broncos in 2006), so I'm looking forward to it.

"He understands quarterbacks. He understands their thought process and the minds of quarterbacks and what we have to go through. It's going to be a quarterback-friendly system and I can't wait to get started with him."

On Twitter, Marshall made his feelings clear.

"Heard so many GREAT things about Coach Trestman can't wait to follow his lead," he wrote. "Reading his book now."

Trestman wrote "Perseverance: Life Lessons on Leadership and Teamwork," a motivational biography released in 2010.

The Bears, who have scheduled a news conference for Thursday morning, are turning to the 57-year-old Trestman in part because of his background with quarterbacks.

Trestman is regarded as an offensive guru and a quarterback technician. Alouettes veteran passer Anthony Calvillo, 40, has flourished under Trestman, passing for more than 5,000 yards three times since 2008 and that year he also had a career-high 43 TD passes.

Since 2008, Calvillo, pro football's all-time passing leader, has also won two Grey Cups, two CFL outstanding player awards and been named a league all-star three times.

He worked with Bernie Kosar as an assistant at the University of Miami and again when he was on the Browns' staff in the 1980s. Trestman helped the Raiders reach the Super Bowl at the end of the 2002 season with an offence he geared for Rich Gannon, the league's MVP that year.

In recent years, Trestman has worked as a consultant in the NFL and in the off-season helped quarterbacks entering the league — including Cutler for a few days. His biggest task will be maximizing the man behind centre and getting the offence to click.

That's something that never really happened under Smith, who oversaw a top defence with stars such as Brian Urlacher and Lance Briggs but could not solve the issues on the other side of the ball. The Bears' offence never ranked higher than 15th under Smith, and the problems in that area along with the post-season misses ultimately led to his dismissal.

The Bears have big holes on the offensive line and at tight end, but the No. 1 task is connecting with Cutler. As gifted as he is, questions remain about his makeup and demeanour. He has one year left on his contract, and the Bears have to figure out if he can lead them to the top. In Chicago, the deck at times has been stacked against him.

His relationship with former offensive co-ordinator Ron Turner seemed icy, and he took a beating in Mike Martz's system. Cutler will now be working in his fourth system since the Bears acquired him from Denver in 2009.

Besides the issues on the line, Cutler also lacked a go-to receiver his first three years in Chicago, but that changed in a big way before this season. The Bears hired Emery to replace the fired Jerry Angelo as GM after a late collapse last year, and although he was given a mandate to work with Smith for at least a year, he was able to retool the roster.

The biggest move? That was the trade with Miami for Marshall, Cutler's favourite target in Denver.

Marshall set club records for catches and yards, but the Bears still ranked 28th on offence.

It didn't help that receivers Alshon Jeffery and Earl Bennett missed time with injuries or that running back Matt Forte was banged up and uninvolved at times, whether it was in the running or passing game.

More than anything, Cutler would like to see some continuity.

"It's hard," he told the team's website. "You start back at zero every year with the entire offence, so it's definitely challenging. I think if you look across the league at elite and very good quarterbacks, they've all been in systems for numerous years. That's what our goal is here, for coach Trestman to come in and install his system and us win games and keep him around for a long time to be able to grow year in and year out in this system and get everyone better."

— With files from The Canadian Press.