The Bears kicked off Wednesday morning with a ground-breaking development, firing five coaches including offensive coordinator Luke Getsy. However, they opted to retain head coach Matt Eberflus.
Why did they fire Getsy?
"Yeah, just the growth and the development of the offense to me needed to be better than what it was. To me, you look at the passing game, certainly that’s one aspect of it. And that’s where it is. We decided to move on from that. And again, that was my decision, obviously conferring with Ryan and George and Kevin, and we made that decision this morning."
On a side note, Ryan Poles also said he fired Getsy and he had complete autonomy in doing so. Who really made the final decision to axe Getsy? That also begs the question --- who has the autonomy to hire the next offensive coordinator?
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“Yeah, so it’s my call and what I do is I get with George [McCaskey] and Kevin [Warren] and give my input and the nice thing about this is we were all on the same page," Poles said about firing Getsy.
Getsy finished up his second season with the Bears as the team's leader of the offense. Before coming to Chicago, Getsy had zero offensive coordinator experience in the NFL. He did, however, create and lead offenses at three different colleges, including Mississippi State University. Directly before the Bears, he was the quarterbacks coach and passing coordinator for the Green Bay Packers.
Coming into Chicago, Getsy's main priority was to create an offense specifically tailored to Justin Fields and his strengths. The development of their young quarterback was arguably his highest priority.
Chicago Bears
He struck "gold" in 2022, creating an offense for Fields' legs. He helped Fields reach over 1,000 yards rushing and create electric, highlight reel plays that gave Fields another element of moving the football. That was a "gimme" season for the Bears' underdeveloped roster.
This season, the goal for Getsy was to get Fields to move the ball through the air. That didn't happen. Certainly, Fields has responsibility for that. But Getsy shoulders plenty of the blame as he was fired Wednesday.
There were several questionable instances in his play-calling. Most notably, during a Week 3 game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Getsy called three consecutive screen pass plays in the Bears' territory. The last one was intercepted for an easy touchdown, sealing the game for the Buccaneers.
Getsy's short-yardage package was also appalling. Today, the modern league has the "tush push" --- a play under scrutiny and review considering its massive success rates. Still, Getsy crafted head-scratching short-yardage plays; one, for instance, was the idea of motioning Cole Kmet under center for a quarterback sneak.
At times, Getsy was able to culminate in success. DJ Moore became one of the league's best receivers, despite Fields' questionable quarterback play. The rushing game was phenomenal, as the Bears generated the second-most rushing yards per game this season.
But it wasn't enough. Fields is still an underdeveloped quarterback. The Bears finished as the No. 18 offense in scoring. So, what's next for the Bears' offense?
What are the Bears looking for in their next offensive coordinator?
“Yeah, obviously you want to have somebody that’s a great teacher," Eberflus said. "I think that’s important because you know he has to coach the coaches to coach the position. And I think that’s the No. 1 trait of any great coach. You have to be able to have the innovation to really look at the players that you have and be able to help enhance and put those guys in position to succeed and to get explosives and to move the ball down the field. So that right there, I think is the most important thing, the teacher part of it and then the innovation part of it and the creativity I think it going to be the biggest part."
