DBWI: No Bears Five-Peat in the 1980s...

It's been 20 years since Mike Ditka left the Chicago Bears head coaching job - and did so as the coach who pulled off a Super Bowl Five-Peat.

The two big faces of that Bears dynasty were running back Walter Payton and quarterback Joe Montana. That duo almost did not happen: The only reason that it did was because Bob Avelinni got arrested for driving drunk after the 1978 season, and Halas shipped him off to San Francisco for a third-round draft pick in 1979, and a conditional pick in 1980 (which also became a third-round pick). That third-rounder became Montana, who they thought would just compete with Vince Evans to back up Mike Phipps.

Let's just say things did not go as planned for the Bears. Montana was flashing brilliance in 1979 and 1980, often subbing for Vince Evans and Mike Phipps those years. In 1981, Montana took over the starting quarterback job as Mike Ditka took the reins as coach of the Chicago Bears, and that was when things took off. Eventually, it was five Super Bowls in a row from 1984-1988, and Montana got three more (1990, 1991, and 1994) with the Bears.

Stanford coach Bill Walsh, who coached San Francisco from 1979-1982 until he resigned to return to Stanford, where he stayed until being diagnosed with leukemia in 2004, says that he advised against the trade. He wanted Montana real bad, and thinks he could have won a Super Bowl in three years with him at quarterback instead of the DeBerg/Avelinni combo.

Suppose DeBartolo had listened to Walsh? So do you buy Walsh's big talk of winning a Super Bow in three years with Montana without a back like Payton to back him up?

Or do you think that Montana's success only came about because he was teamed up with the best running back to ever play in the NFL, and that 46 defense with players like Dan Hampton, Steve McMichael, Richard Dent, and Mike Singletary?

Would Payton have still become the NFL's all-time leading rusher, with 19,046 yards, as 5,638 receiving yards (netting 24,684 yards from scrimmage - still the NFL's best total), and 152 total touchdowns in his career, which ended in the 1988 season? Would Montana have matched his 252 touchdown passes in his 16-year career with the Bears, or the 38,188 passing yards?
 
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The whole period would've been dominated by Marino and the Dolphins, and Elway and the Broncos, and both would've won rings against just about any team but the Montana-led Bears. Now of course it's no question, Joe was the greatest QB of all time and Sweetness the best RB. But imagine if Montana had really had a great receiver - it could've changed the game forever, it could've made the template for a great passing game like Marino always ran.
 
The whole period would've been dominated by Marino and the Dolphins, and Elway and the Broncos, and both would've won rings against just about any team but the Montana-led Bears. Now of course it's no question, Joe was the greatest QB of all time and Sweetness the best RB. But imagine if Montana had really had a great receiver - it could've changed the game forever, it could've made the template for a great passing game like Marino always ran.

Walter Payton filled some of that role: He average 70 receptions from 1981-1986, and those went for about ten yards a catch. People forget, Payton was a running back, but Montana made him more deadly because he'd send Payton out on a flare or a flat route, get the ball to him. More than once, some poor cornerback got run over as Payton picked up 15-20 yards for a key reception.

The thing is... Payton and Montana made each other greater than they would have been as individuals. Payton's threat as a running back often lead to eight or nine guys in the box... and Montana would find an open receiver. If teams tried to defend against the pass, Payton ran over them. And the Montana-to-Payton flare route was often lethal.

But the Bears had some receivers that were good. Emery Moorehead had an average 50 receptions a season from 1981-1988. Dennis Gentry averaged 45 catches a season from 1983-1990, and was solid. Dennis McKinnon got 40 catches a season from 1984-1990. Willie Gault averaged 35 catches a season - and was seen as a bust by some, but he was better suited for the vertical passing game, and Montana, while he could lob bombs, was much more comfortable with possession receivers.

Perhaps the best receiver he worked with was Tom Waddle. Undrafted free agent from Boston College (due to running a 4.79 40-yard dash), but once Montana realized how sure-handed he was, he became a favorite target. Waddle averaged 75 catches a year from 1989 to 1995, when Montana retired. Waddle was a great one - that playoff game against the Dallas Cowboys during the 1991 season was EPIC. He had 14 catches, 158 yards, and two touchdowns, including the game-winner with 26 seconds left. Tom Waddle was fearless and reliable. Their signature play was "13 wing jet" - and it was a game-winner more than once, including in Super Bowl XXXIX.

What receiver should Chicago have picked up? They did miss some good ones in the NFL draft in the mid-to-late 1980s and early 1990s.
 
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Dils

If the 49ers didn't have a third-rounder in 79, I could see them using their second round pick on Steve Dils, a QB who Walsh was high on.

If not Dils, then maybe he offers to send Avellini to Miami for Guy Benjamin, his QB at Stanford, and Miami's second round pick in 78. The Dolphin players really weren't into him because, in their words, they didn't want a "Stanford Hippie" taking over for Bob Griese.
 
Well, the Chicago Bears of the era were the biggest arguement for a salary cap the owners could make, and it was a pretty darn good one. I simply couldn't have seen the 49ers, Cowboys, Dolphins, Jets, or Broncos winning multiple Super Bowls or consistantly going 15-1 in the regular season even with Montana at San Francisco.

With Montana somewhere other than Chicago, I suspect that contract talks will break down over owners' demands of a salary cap, and the entire 1987 season will be down the tubes. The USFL will eat the NFL's lunch that year, and it's the '60s all over again sportswise, but uglier since both leagues have struggling teams that can't survive the merger, and there are several good (or at least well attended) teams that overlap markets (Like the Generals with the Jets and Giants, or the Bandits with the Buccaneers).

Also, no NFL salary cap probably means no NBA or NHL salary caps either, which means that the playoff picture in the former will be locked in (barring some freak injury or draft turkey) permantly with Boston, New York Knickerbockers, Chicago, Seattle and LA Lakers, and the latter will implode in 1996 back to a pre-80s size.
 
Well, the Chicago Bears of the era were the biggest arguement for a salary cap the owners could make, and it was a pretty darn good one. I simply couldn't have seen the 49ers, Cowboys, Dolphins, Jets, or Broncos winning multiple Super Bowls or consistantly going 15-1 in the regular season even with Montana at San Francisco.

With Montana somewhere other than Chicago, I suspect that contract talks will break down over owners' demands of a salary cap, and the entire 1987 season will be down the tubes. The USFL will eat the NFL's lunch that year, and it's the '60s all over again sportswise, but uglier since both leagues have struggling teams that can't survive the merger, and there are several good (or at least well attended) teams that overlap markets (Like the Generals with the Jets and Giants, or the Bandits with the Buccaneers).

Also, no NFL salary cap probably means no NBA or NHL salary caps either, which means that the playoff picture in the former will be locked in (barring some freak injury or draft turkey) permantly with Boston, New York Knickerbockers, Chicago, Seattle and LA Lakers, and the latter will implode in 1996 back to a pre-80s size.

That said, they did add the "Montana rule" - allowing teams to go over the cap to keep a player they had under contract.

That said, I think the exchange of free agency in return for a salary cap in 1990 was a good move. The 1987-1989 period was one with some turbulence in the NFL. The NFL tried Plan B from 1987-1989, and the decision to do that prevented a strike in 1987.

That was just one year Montana was heroic in the playoffs. Remember the 1987 NFC Divisional Playoff Game against the Redskins? Montana moved the Bears down the field for the winning touchdown with 53 seconds to go - a nine-yard touchdown pass to rookie wideout Glen Kozlowski.
 
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