Ron Rivera thinks Ditka set up Wannstedt up to fail
Dave Wannstedt has a dubious reputation these days. While most don’t find the former Bears head coach unlikable as a person, they do feel he was a prolonged disaster at his job. In six seasons he went 40-56 in Chicago, making the playoffs just once. He ran the show most of the 1990s and it was a long stream of mediocrity.
According to Rivera though, a lot of that wasn’t his fault. Talking with Dan Pompei of The Athletic, he revealed that much of what happened during Wannstedt’s run was brought on by what his predecessor Mike Ditka did prior to his exit in 1993.
“One of the things coach Ditka and I talked about when I was getting into coaching is how we had gotten old at the end of his tenure. I said, “That’s because you were so loyal to so many of us.” If you go back and look at that group of guys who transitioned from Mike Ditka to Dave Wannstedt, there were a lot of eight, nine, 10 year players. That was a problem. It was tough for Dave Wannstedt to rebuild something when expectations were so high.”
He’s not wrong. In 1993 when Wannstedt took over the Bears roster had 14 players who were 29-years old or older. Eight of them were starters. It was apparent that a rebuild was right around the corner and that the team had done a poor job of refilling the pool with young talent. Wannstedt kept things afloat for three years, going 9-7 in 1994 and 1995 but things finally fell apart after that.
Even NFL Films realized what was coming when he arrived.
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Wannstedt was a coach that could only win if he had talent
Of course part of the collapse was his own fault. He had a hand in personnel decisions through the first couple years of his tenure. From 1993 to 1997 they failed to draft a single Pro Bowler. The two players who did reach one didn’t do so until they were with other teams. That calls his coaching ability into question.
At the same time he inherited a strong roster with the Miami Dolphins in 2000 and made the playoffs his first two years. So what Rivera says holds merit. Ditka failing to usher in a new breed of players after his initial run in the ’80s made it so Wannstedt inherited a car that was almost out of gas.
So while the guy was never a great coach, he may deserve a little less criticism than what he got during his run.
