We don’t know much about how the Bears offense will operate next season. Offensive coordinator Luke Getsy will have the reins, but he’s a first-time coordinator, and a first-time playcaller. We know he’ll borrow from the Shanahan zone-running schemeー something he picked up while working with Matt LaFleur in Green Bay. We’ve heard the Bears want explosive players making explosive playsー but so does every other team in the NFL. Beyond that, Getsy hasn’t offered many clues about what his offense will look like, beyond saying the team will shape it to the strengths of their best players.
One many in Halas Hall knows Getsy better than anyone else in the building however: new center Lucas Patrick. The two worked together for five seasons with the Packers, especially closely in 2020 and 2021 when Getsy was the team’s passing game coordinator. In a video published by the Bears on Monday, Patrick revealed some details about what it means to be an offensive lineman in Getsy’s scheme.
“When I shifted into this offense in 2019, I definitely had to change my body composition a little bit,” Patrick said. “There is some stuff in this offense that will help if you’re leaner, able to run off the ball and play the game how it’s supposed to be played. It’s something, you’ve got to keep up with your conditioning and look at your body fat composition. But we are going to run the ball and do some things old-school, so you can’t just necessarily be out there all light, not moving people.
“It’s an exciting offense, and it’s one that I’ve really grown to love, and I think that it’s an offensive lineman’s dream offense. We want to run the ball well to set up the pass, and get things rolling, and make things as friendly as we can for No. 1.”
Part of making life easier for Justin Fields will of course be blocking well and keeping him well-protected. That’s something Patrick is confident he can help the team achieve, and his track record supports that. According to PFF, Patrick played 911 snaps last season, and only surrendered one sack.
But the other part of helping Fields succeed is giving him options to play flexibly to best exploit the defense on any given down. Patrick said Getsy’s offense allows for that. Given Patrick’s familiarity with Getsy, he should be able to help bring Fields up to speed more quickly, too.
“There’s different ways to do it, and different calls to make a hot throw easier, or make a protection adjustment easier, by using a different verbiage, or a different principle in the protections,” Patrick said. “So, really just trying to bring a full tool box, and trying to use the best tool at the right time. Because at the end of the day, play clock’s winding down, and to pass information quickly and very concisely is the most important thing.”
