CINCINNATI -- When Lovie Smith went about assembling his first coaching staff in 2004, he pointed to offenses run by Mike Martz in St. Louis and Al Saunders in Kansas City and identified the attacking schemes from the Don Coryell coaching tree as his vision for the Bears.
What the Bears wound up with was Terry Shea, then the quarterbacks coach in Kansas City under Saunders when the Chiefs were setting records. Saunders has now been mentioned as a potential candidate as the Bears seek their third play caller in the Smith era.
Saunders worked this past season as a consultant for the Baltimore Ravens, and his last coaching job was as the offensive coordinator of the Washington Redskins under Joe Gibbs. The Hall of Fame coach Gibbs is working as an analyst for NBC during this afternoon's Jets-Bengals playoff game at Paul Brown Stadium.
"Al has a lot of experience. Just go back to what he did in Kansas City where they set records," Gibbs said. "Al has been around a long time. He is a very knowledgeable guy. I think if anyone were to get Al, you're getting a real polished veteran guy who has been around a long time.''
The Bears are in a win-now mode and one of the problems with Shea was his playbook made Chicago phone books look paper thin. It's a tremendous amount of information to try to install in one season. Could Saunders put his offense in with quarterback Jay Cutler and succeed in 2010?
"That is probably overdone a lot," Gibbs said. "I think he believes in volume, a lot of stuff, but that is hard to defend too."
Photo: Redskins offensive coordinator Al Saunders. (Win McNamee / Getty Images)
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Why? Was Shea his QB coach with the Rams or Skins? I doubt it, but correct me if I'm wrong.
Saunders last coaching job was Offensive Coordinator with the St. Louis Rams last season. Plus if you bring in Saunders then he will want to bring Shea as QB coach.
Not happening...