When Matt Eberflus took over as head coach, his first big decision was arguably the most important of his coaching career. He needed to find an offensive coordinator that could help quarterback Justin Fields overcome his rough rookie season. The easy decision for a “defensive guy” like him would be to hire someone with prior coordinating experience. Eberflus decided to take a calculated risk, luring Packers passing game coordinator Luke Getsy away from Green Bay.
The Bears head coach had multiple reasons for his choice. He’d extensively researched possible assistants if and when he got his own team. Getsy’s name kept coming up and somebody he respected. There was also the fact he had experience in an offense Eberflus wanted to run in Chicago. The famed Shanahan wide-zone that dominated the NFC playoffs with teams like Green Bay, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.
Such an offense is terrific for helping a quarterback.
History proves it. Steve Young, John Elway, Jake Plummer, Jay Cutler, Jimmy Garappolo, Aaron Rodgers, and Matthew Stafford have all played their best seasons in it. Fields is the type of talent that should fit it like a glove. Longtime insider Peter King has seen many young coaches during his decades covering the NFL. After visiting Halas Hall, he is convinced the Getsy-Fields combination has a great chance to succeed. For two reasons. Fields’ work ethic and Getsy’s natural coaching talent.
“Worker beeー which you have to be when you’re learning a new offenseー and eminently coachable…
…I think he’s got a really good chance. It’s in Justin Fields’ hands, period. He can do this. I love the offense he’s in. Luke Getsy is a rising star in this business. I think he’s in a really, really good position.”
Fields expressed similar sentiments about his new coordinator, calling him a “mastermind” and the best quarterback coach he’s ever worked with. That is high praise coming from him. Their connection appears strong right out of the gate. Fields is buying into what Getsy is selling, and the adjustments are already noticeable. His footwork is different, his delivery is different, and how he reads the defense is different.
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Luke Getsy is approaching Fields the right way.
It started by asking the obvious question. What does his new quarterback do well? The past few months were spent figuring that out. Now that he has answers, Getsy has set about structuring the scheme around those strengths. In his mind, the best thing to do is to cater to your players’ strengths and hide their weaknesses. Flexibility is critical to a successful NFL offense. That is why guys like Sean Payton, Sean McVay, Matt Lafleur, and Kyle Shanahan have so much success.
It is also why Matt Nagy crashed and burned. No matter who played in his offense, the scheme rarely changed. He was going to run the system exactly how he wanted it run, regardless of whether the players could execute it. That is why it looked like Fields was running an offense meant for Andy Dalton most of last season. Luke Getsy won’t fall into that same trap.
So already, he’s off on the right foot.
The rest is about patience. Both he and Fields are convinced that this thing can work. It is a matter of time. Learning an offense isn’t an overnight thing. It requires constant mental and physical reps against actual NFL opponents. That will come. The belief is that by the end of this season, positive results will start to really show.
I think Pace and Nagy shared the same fatal flaw and you heard them say it often: “conviction”. Pace would believe in a guy so much he’d give up too much to get him. Often his “conviction” was misplaced and cost too much. Nagy was convinced his offense was the very best way to run an offense. This conviction led to his downfall after it was demonstrated several times over that he was dead wrong and he still would not waver from his path. Conviction is great when you are doing things the right way but when you aren’t you’re… Read more »
I still can’t understand why Nagy never got that concept of flexibility. I know. He was mostly interested in building his record wins for a future job elsewhere. Thus the push for Dalton without competition. He is also a Taurus that is characterized by stubbornness of the bull.
Hopefully he isnt Crowton 2.0 come in all hyped up and was a massive failure same with The Genius Trestman and the washed up Martz