He passed on even interviewing for the Bears offensive coordinators job in 2010. Now, Jeremy Bates is working for the Chicago O.C. as quarterbacks coach, getting back together with quarterback Jay Cutler, with whom Bates worked three years while the two were with the Denver Broncos.
The biggest issue with the move, along with the switch from Mike Martz to Mike Tice, is what it will mean for Cutler and the Chicago offense overall. The Bates-Cutler record suggests that the change could be a very, very good one.
Cutler is on his third offensive coordinator in four Bears seasons and third quarterbacks coach as well. The Bears have to hope that this association goes more smoothly than previous ones.
Im very excited to be working with Jeremy Bates again, Cutler told the Bears website Tuesday. We got the right guy for the job.
Cutler didnt have the same to say for Pep Hamilton in 2009 nor even Shane Day in 2010 when Day came in under Mike Martz.
His history with Jay was a big thing, said coach Lovie Smith, who interviewed Bates in Tampa as part of the process. And not just history but a good history, a productive history with him helping Jay as a quarterback.
Bates hiring still leaves the Bears without a passing-game coordinator or offensive line coach. And it suggests some interesting possibilities for where the Bears offense will be going.
NFL
New O directions?
Installing Tice as offensive coordinator to replace Martz takes the offense in new directions from the Martz years, which were marked with growing Tice influence in 2010 and 2011. Adding Bates, who is a far more NFL-offense-savvy quarterbacks coach than his immediate predecessors, points to the position coach having input into more than just Cutlers techniques.
Bates comes from working with Mike Shanahan in Denver and Pete Carroll at USC and Seattle. Those are coaches from a West Coast foundation, closer to the balance favored by Tice and Smith.
And the scheme should more than agree with Cutler despite his bad relationship with Ron Turner, a West Coast practitioner, in 2009. The reasons were not all his quarterback coach, but Cutlers release and health were both better under Bates.
Cutlers three-year passer rating under BatesShanahan was 87.1. He has failed to reach that level in any of this three Chicago seasons.
With BatesShanahan, Cutler was sacked a total of 51 times in three Denver seasons. He was sacked 52 times in 2010 alone.
In 2008 Cutler threw for a Denver franchise record 4,526 yards. The Broncos had the second-best offense in the NFL in terms of yards per game (395.8). Cutler completed 762 of 1,220 passing attempts (62.5 percent) for 9,024 yards, 54 touchdowns and 37 interceptions for an 87.1 passer rating in 37 starts in Denver while Bates was there.
The last couple years he had full control of my development and our plays coming in, Cutler told ChicagoBears.com.
Hes a grinder. Hes a guy thats going to work extremely hard to find weaknesses in defenses and hes going to be able to present it to us in a way we can understand and will be able to make plays where we can take advantage of those weaknesses.
Rapid-fire career changes
After the three successful years in Denver, Bates career path took sharp turns.
Bates left the Broncos when Shanahan was fired after the 2008 season. He went to USC under Pete Carroll as quarterbacks coach in 2009 but that lasted just a year. Carroll left to become Seattle Seahawks head coach and took Bates as his offensive coordinator.
But that lasted only a year and Bates was let go over differences of philosophy with Carroll, a curious problem to have after two years with Carroll.
Bates joins the Bears with eight years of coaching experience with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2002-03, offensive quality control; 2004, assistant quarterbacks), New York Jets (2005, quarterbacks), Denver Broncos (2006, offensive assistant; 2007 wide receiversquarterbacks; 2008, quarterbacks), USC (2009, assistant head coachquarterbacks) and Seattle Seahawks (2010, offensive coordinator).