While the Chicago Bears have yet to make a decision on Luke Getsy and his future with the Chicago Bears, there are plenty of reasons to understand why the team may not want to bring him back. What are the biggest issues from the past two years?
3. Luke Getsy did not set up Justin Fields to succeed
The best offensive coordinators in the NFL are the ones who know who is on their roster and get the most out of them. They do not force players into their scheme if they do not fit, but rather, they mold their scheme around the players. The coordinators have to be the ones who are willing to change. Luke Getsy has been hesitant of that.
You could see from day one that his ideal quarterback is not Justin Fields. Getsy wanted to run an offense where the quarterback was methodical, made quick reads, and checked the ball down to get it out quickly. That is the exact opposite of Justin Fields.
It shows when the team signed Trevor Siemian and Nathan Peterman to be the backups to Fields. They are nothing like him stylistically, but they are everything Getsy wants from backups.
The Bears' offense sputtered for the first six weeks of the 2022 season, and then Getsy started to call plays for Justin Fields' skill set, and they played better. In 2023, the thought was that Getsy learned his lesson, but the first five or six weeks were still the same offense from early 2022.
Even after Justin Fields came back from his injury, you could see that Getsy did not have faith in him. He relied heavily on screens and the run game rather than letting Fields show what he can do.
He held back Justin Fields, and his playcalling is a part of the reason why the Fields' decision is so muddy. That is not what you want to bring back.
2. The additions to the Chicago Bears tied to Luke Getsy were duds
Luke Getsy came from the Green Bay Packers. That is why it was not much of a surprise when the Chicago Bears started to sign multiple former Packers players. First, they signed Lucas Patrick and Equanimeous St. Brown. This year, they added Robert Tonyan and Marcedes Lewis. None of them have worked out with the Chicago Bears.
Patrick was the biggest signing and the biggest dud. Getsy just worked with him the year prior and appears to have vouched for him to be the starting center. That was an awful decision from the jump. St. Brown has been one of the best additions, but that is only because of blocking and special teams. He is always brought up as the reason the Bears do not have enough pass catchers.
Robert Tonyan had a career-low across the board, and while Lewis was fine as a blocker, that is all he brings to the table. The tight end depth was never good enough for this team to lean on the run game in the ways that they should.
Getsy is too stuck on what he knows. He has to run the offense he knows and will not spread his thoughts out with Fields. He has to bring in personnel he knows, even if they could have signed better options. You do not want to hear things like stubbornness or lack of open-mindedness when it comes to the offensive coordinator, but Chicago had that in the past two years.
1. The Chicago Bears have to start fresh on offense
As we noted, Justin Fields's connection with Luke Getsy has to end one way or the other. Maybe Fields stays, and Getsy goes, or Getsy stays, and Fields goes, but they cannot return together after what the offense put together.
So, the Bears could move on from Fields, which is starting to feel more likely. If they do, can they really bring back Luke Getsy? If they move on from Fields, it means drafting a quarterback. Are the characteristics we gave to Getsy in the past slides worth bringing to a rookie quarterback? If they drafted Caleb Williams, he would not fit what Getsy wants from his quarterback.
More than that, the quarterback would be starting fresh with a coordinator on the hot seat. If things did not work for Getsy and the rookie, the staff and front office would have to have a quick leash to pull, considering how things went this time around.
If they draft a quarterback, the smart thing would be to hire a coordinator specifically for him and have them come in fresh together. If they bring back Fields, Getsy is gone. They have to move on from Luke Getsy.