Chicago Bears: The offensive process and Shanahan scheme

The Chicago Bears and Justin Fields better get ready for something different again. New Chicago Bears head coach Matt Eberflus said he wanted to bring the Shanahan offense to Chicago. Matt Eberflus had a plan for Justin Fields, and he is bringing it in spades. I thought the first-time head coach might have had a solid plan on paper but would have to adjust on the fly and work with what he got. As of now, that doesn’t look to be the case.

Eberflus has way more connections than most expected. Each offensive coach on the Chicago Bears has ties to the Shanahan offense. Each head coach that learned under the great Mike Shanahan runs a different variation of the Shanahan offense. Kyle Shanahan runs fewer zone concepts than Sean McVay and Matt Lafleur.

Mike Lafleur (Matt’s brother) puts the quarterback under center more and runs fewer RPOs than Matt. Sean McVay runs a bit of a hybrid concept. He Learned from both the Gruden brothers and Mike Shanahan. McVay is the one to focus on when talking about the Chicago Bears’ new offensive coordinator Luke Getsy.

Getsy, much like Nathanial Hackett, had multiple coaches to learn under during their career. Getsy has Mike McCarthy, Matt Lafleur, and some Joe Moorhead systems in his mind. There is zero doubt in my mind that Getsy will have a foundation of the Shannahan West Coast wide zone running game as his offensive scheme. The question is, what will his flavor become with the Chicago Bears?

Compliments of Bearlissimo of The Tape Never Lies Network. Below is an example of what Luke Getsy would bring.

With Matt Eberflus as head coach, the mindset is always to attack and be aggressive. Mike McCarthy’s offense is all of that and a bag of chips. The gas pedal will go from 0 to 100 fast. Tempo will be used when things are looking good and wildly aggressive deep shots from the passing game. That offensive style feels more like how Luke Getsy will attack outside of his base Shannahan system. Justin Fields will be the Lieutenant, Captain, and General.

The offense will thrive or bust based on what he can do as the Chicago Bears leader. I expect most designed running plays will always have an RPO designation in the play call. Justin Fields will either play like Philip Rivers in 2016 (hopefully with a better record) or play like Baker Mayfield in 2019. I expect more interceptions than one would hope, but hopefully, that comes with double the touchdown production.