How Luke Getsy wants to build new offense around Fields

Share

One of the biggest questions this offseason has been, what will the Bears offense look like in 2022 and beyond? After firing Matt Nagy, the Bears decided to move forward with a defensive-minded head coach in Matt Eberflus. Leading the offense will be Luke Getsy, who comes to Chicago after acting as the Packers quarterbacks coach/passing game coordinator. In Green Bay, Getsy worked under OC Nathaniel Hackett, and the offensive-minded head coach Matt LaFleur. He also had future Hall of Famer Aaron Rodgers at the helm. So it’s fair to wonder what the hallmarks of Getsy’s offense will be.

On Thursday, Getsy met with the Chicago media for the first time and shed some light on his vision for the team.

“The systems that I’ve been a part of, specifically these last three years, too, these are quarterback-driven systems, right? So everything is about tapping into that position and building the offense around it.

“It’s gonna be the same thing here. We’re gonna build this thing around this quarterback position.”

The system Getsy worked under most recently is LaFleur’s, which is typically associated with the Mike Shanahan offense. The “Shanahan offense” gets a lot of buzz these days as his Washington staff was filled with future head coaching superstars: Sean McVay, his son Kyle Shanahan, and LaFleur. Without getting too deep in the weeds, the hallmarks are a West Coast style passing game, and outside zone run schemes.

So when Getsy says they’re going to build the offense around the QB, it doesn’t mean Justin Fields is going to be throwing the ball 50 times every game. It means connecting everything in the offense to help him succeed.

“The biggest thing that attracted me to that opportunity to work with Matt (LaFleur) was the teaching style and the emphasis to committing to the run game, letting the run game drive the play pass game and then building everything around that. We’ll be a similar type of approach,” Getsy said. “We’ll let one thing drive the next. It's all about protecting the QB. Everything is about QB. If you can run the ball and you can play pass you’re going to have an opportunity to protect your QB.”

When speaking about his new QB, Getsy didn’t dig into X’s and O’s, but he did share his impressions of Fields from when the two met during Combine interviews last offseason.

“Super impressed with the man, the person,” Getsy said. “You can feel the determination, the will inside of him as he was communicating to me. He was super sharp with what they did at Ohio State. And then just again just the brief conversation that we were able to have together here the other day, the same exact thing just jumped back out at me again.

“I’m looking forward to getting to know him deeper, obviously. But I’m very optimistic about the type of person that he is and I think the will and the desire that he wants to be a great leader too, so I think it’s a really cool opportunity with a young guy who I think has a really good drive.”

When the players take the field in Week 1 there will probably be outside zone runs. There will probably be designed plays to accentuate Fields’ strengths too. Some of it will be familiar and some of it will be new. But as the offense develops, Getsy emphasized he wanted it to be unique.

“We want this thing to be ours. This isn’t gonna be somebody else’s or a copycat of somebody else’s. This is gonna be ours.  We all have our experiences and we’re gonna put them together and we’re gonna build this thing together.”

Click here to follow the Under Center Podcast.

Contact Us