In retrospect, asking Danny Abramowitz to make the quantum leap from special teams assistant to running an NFL offense as OC, for the first time in his career, was watching a slow-moving train disaster in the making occur very gradually. Ditka failed for many reasons, not least of all because the game and being a HC, had passed him by probably by the early 1990's when he was still Bears HC. His huge, oversized ego, holier-than-thou attitude and self-righteous hypocritical actions like telling his Bears players in late 80's to stop concentrating and focusing on doing commercials, when he himself goes out and stars in a Chunky Soup commercial. That decision, according to several longtime Bears defensive stars, usually diehard Ditka supporters, was where the team pretty much stopped listening to him and began ignoring him.
Plus, Ditka really, in all honesty, didnt build those great 80's Chicago Bears teams. Some pieces of the puzzle were already in place before he got there, in 1982, like Dan Hampton and IIRC, Mike Singletary and Otis Wilson. Former Bears GM Jim Finks and an outstanding college scouting department chose those great players and Finks left because he felt Ditka wasnt the sort of NFL-ready HC who could successfully and consistently long-term run an NFL team with his firebrand, blustering yet confrontational attitude. Ditka succeeded in Chicago because he stayed out of the way for the most part until his last couple of seasons and that he had a great corporate franchise structure behind preventing him from screwing up and a large portion of the 85 Bears defensive talent was in place and already developing. Ditka didn't have those pre-existing factors in New Orleans when he was hired here after the 1996 season ended.