Ron Turner’s Wikipedia Bio

Either Ron himself or his agent has written a factually true, but overall woefully incomplete summary of his latest disastrous stint with the Chicago Bears at his wikipedia page here. I went there not in search of more punishment, but at least to make sure that his status had been adjusted to “former” offensive coordinator. Let’s look at it.

Chicago Bears

In his first season with the Chicago Bears, Turner helped Chicago to a overall record while directing the offense in his first stint with the team despite working with a different starting quarterback each season[2]. The Bears team completion percentages in 1994 (61.4%) and 1995 (60.2%) rank as the highest in team history. Chicago’s net passing yard total of 3,743 in 1995 ranks second in team annals while the total of 3,185 in 1996 was pushed to sixth in team history by the team’s totals from 2006 and 2007[2]. With Erik Kramer at quarterback in 1995, the Bears set a team record for passing yards per game with 233.9 while compiling the fifth-most points in team history with 392. Kramer set club records with 29 touchdown passes and 10 interceptions (least among 16-game starters)[2]. The 1995 squad produced the third-most total net yards (5,673) and the second-most first downs (340) in team history. The offense also featured a 1,000-yard rusher and two 1,000-yard receivers in 1995, the only such season in team history. During his earlier four years with the Bears as offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach under head coach Dave Wannstedt, Turner guided some of the most prolific offenses in club history.

Turner was hired for his second stint with Chicago on January 9, 2005, replaced Terry Shea as Bears offensive coordinator. In 2005 season, Turner’s role in Kyle Orton, who was a fourth-round draft pick, to compile a 10-5 record as the team’s rookie starting quarterback. Chicago featured the eighth-ranked running game in the NFL in 2005[2]. The 2,099 rushing yards totaled by the Bears were the franchise’s most in a season since 1990 when the team rushed for 2,436 yards. Chicago also tied for the NFL-lead with 19 runs of 20 or more yards in 2005 after recording just seven such rushing gains in 2004. On the season, the Bears rushed for over 100 yards in 13 of 16 regular season games featuring six individual 100-yard rushing performances[2].

Turner contributed to Chicago’s appearance in Super Bowl XLI by coordinating an offense that ranked 15th in the NFL in total yards in 2006. He has coordinated the team’s offense in each of its last six playoff contests with Chicago owning a 3-3 record in those contests while averaging 25.7 points per game[2]. Turner also holds the distinction of being the offensive coordinator for each of the top two quarterbacks in Bears history in single-season gross passing yardage[2]. Erik Kramer set the franchise record with 3,838 passing yards under Turner in 1995 while Rex Grossman finished 2006 as the runner-up in that category with 3,193 yards[2]. The Bears were the only NFL team with six players with five or more touchdowns in 2006. Chicago’s 38 offensive touchdowns (24 passing, 14 rushing) in 2006 were the unit’s highest single-season total since scoring 44 in 1995[2]. In 2006, the Bears led the NFC while tying for second in the NFL with 427 points, the second-highest single-season scoring total in team annals.

Chicago topped the 30-point plateau twice in 2008, four times in 2007 and accomplished the feat seven times during the 2006 season, the team’s most 30-point games in one campaign since registering eight in 1956[2].. The Bears scored 48 points against the Vikings on October 19, 2008, the most for the club since tallying 48 on December 7, 1986 versus Tampa Bay. The offense has compiled more than 300 total net yards in 25 of their last 48 games after doing so just three times in 2005; the third season of Turner’s first stint with the team. The last time Chicago had six players combine for at least five touchdowns was 1948.

In 2008, the Bears passing offense continued to develop under Turner. Bears quarterbacks threw for over 3,000 net passing yards for the third straight season, a first for the franchise since the 1997-99 campaigns. Chicago has passed for over 3,000 net yards in six of the previous eight seasons under Turner’s direction[2]. In 2008, Turner helped oversee the development of rookie running back Matt Forte. Forte set Bears rookie records for rushing yards (1,238), yards from scrimmage (1,715) and receptions (63)[2]. The passing game was led by quarterback Kyle Orton in 2008. In 2008, Orton recorded the sixth-most passing yards in team history (2,972), fourth-most completions (272), the fifth-highest completion percentage (58.5) and 13th-highest passer rating (79.6) in 15 starts[2]. Orton’s nine starts without an interception in 2008 were tied for fourth-most in the NFL and most by a Bears quarterback since 1995. Orton also threw a team-record 205 consecutive pass attempts without an interception last season. Chicago scored 375 total points in 2008, tied for seventh-most in franchise history. In 2009, Bears acquired Pro Bowl quarterback Jay Cutler. After throwing 19 TD passes and 25 interceptions in the first 14 games, Cutler passed for eight TDs and one pick in season´s last two games against the Vikings and Lions, giving him more TDs (27) than interceptions (26) this season. The Bears offense generated season-highs vs. Detroit with 418 total yards and 22 first downs, giving the unit 718 yards and 41 first downs in its final two games[3]. On January 5, 2010, he and several of his assistants were fired[4]. The Bears qualified for the postseason in three of Turner’s eight seasons with the team.

WOW. They really know how to selectively pick the facts here. If you wrote a grade school book report like this, the teacher would give you an “F”. The teacher would say – I don’t understand how you just write about how great you are, but then in the last 2 lines you finally mention that you were FIRED. Shouldn’t the article lead somewhere, and explain where you started, what you did, and WHY you were fired?

While I don’t have the stomach to do all of this right now some of these are howlers:

- He continually compares himself to the Bears, and not the league. Statistics aren’t self-referential; they serve to show your position relative to competitors
- As we know, Ron typically stacks up in the bottom 20% against his peers. As we consider how this bio ought to be drafted, basically other than the 2006 season, where the offense woke up for half the season (the front half, instead of the back half that mattered), Ron has sucked relative to his peers
- Some key highlights are missing. How about the game in 2009 where we didn’t get a SINGLE FIRST DOWN rushing the football? For about the first time since the Bears began keeping statistics?
- How about the blowout losses to fringe playoff teams like Cincinnati and Baltimore in 2009, when our offense was just pummeled off the field?
- How about the fact that our offensive players wilted here at Chicago and thrived elsewhere under logical offensive coordinator regimes?
- Don’t forget Ron claiming that he “fixed” Cutler with his magical horse-whisperer technique earlier in the season and then watching Cutler fall apart (until the last 2 games, WHEN IT DIDN’T MATTER)
- But let’s not just focus on the disastrous 2009. We have years and years of bonehead, predictable and ineffective play calling to choose from

This is a sad project that we will have to collectively embark upon.