For some time, it's been known that a copy of Mike Martz's Rams playbooks had found its way to the Internet. Not that this is reason for alarm or to worry that any magical secrets are making their way around the NFL. It's just nice that common folk have one variation of an NFL playbook to scroll through, try to comprehend and use to better understand how an NFL offense works.

It's actually kind of cool. Here's a link, if you want to check it out yourself.

This specific playbook is broken down into a lot of sections and subsections. Considering the playbook is made up of 410 pages, this makes sense. Some are overwhelming and back up former players who say Martz's system is complicated; other sections contain such simple concepts that I would feel like including them in a fifth graders playbook would be talking down to them. For example, the phrase "Eyes on QB!" is all over the place; at the NFL, one would think they know this already.

This playbook also goes hand in hand with a lot of what was said about about Martz and his offense when he was hired-- he's controlling, hard to please, his offense is complicated, etc. But beyond the anecdotes, I think Bears fans can learn a lot from these 410 pages.

Although, there's only so much context that can be brought to this particular playbook. Other NFL playbooks are floating around the Internet; I've read some to compare, but I haven't seem them all, of course. Still, compared to the other things Bears fans know about Martz, a lot can be learned from this book about his concepts and ideas.

Here's the first section.

General Offense

The first nine pages of the book are titled "General Offense" and they don't go into specific positions. It just tells people where to stand in the huddle; how his teams utilize snap counts and cadences; what are the holes along the offensive line called; how should backs and linemen align on the ball; audibles; and what each type of personnel group is called.

It's all basic stuff and for the most part these first nine pages won't affect how we as Bears fans watch the game -- we're not on the field to grade the huddle or hear the cadence.

But what I gathered from this part of the book is how detail-oriented Martz is about every aspect of the offense. When I said that some things in the playbook come off as condescending, I was mainly referring to this first section.

Everything from how players should align on the field, to how they stand in the huddle is included. And no details are spared. This describes how to lineup in the huddle: "Front 5 -- Center and guards back parallel to L.O.S. Tackles turned in at approximate 45-degree angle! Good squared up position -- eyes on QB!"

(Oh, yeah, the playbook contains a lot of exclamation points. Kurt Warner said Martz yelling at him was frustrating early on; and Martz does his best to yell at you, even in writing.)

Looking at the QB seems like common knowledge to an NFL player to me. It's almost insulting to think he needs to remind them of this on every other page.

Overall, though, it's easy to see where Warner and others are coming from -- Martz wants his players to know what their supposed to be doing from the beginning of the play to the end. Controlling, as many have called Martz, seems like a fair description.

Until the season starts, I'll continue breaking down the 2000 Rams Playbook section-by-section. Just trying to gather anything and everything I can about the Bears' new offensive coordinator.