Luke Getsy's Second Chance

Luke Getsy's unveiling for Raiders media and fans might have left anyone who followed the Bears somewhat confused.

The chief complaint in Chicago during Getsy's time was how he didn't play enough to Justin Fields' mobility and ability to throw the deep ball but while talking to media he emphasized how important it is to play to his players' strengths and how he did this in Chicago.

"As you talk about the vision of the offense, listen, you always have to play to the players that you have and your best players have got to be shining on Sunday," Getsy told reporters. "And so, it's always about finding what everybody does best and finding cool and unique ways to emphasize those things each and every week."

"I found my way to get to the process a little bit cleaner each and every week and from Season 1 to Season 2 and the way we were able to help those guys in Season 2, the guys like DJ (Moore) and Cole (Kmet) have the best seasons of their career."

The Raiders will be looking at quarterbacks in the draft to challenge Aidan O'Connell or possibly even Jimmy Garoppolo Getsy much like the Bears will be looking at QBs and Getsy didn't want to get pinned down on what type of player he prefers.

"I think you've got to play into the players that you have and the things that they do really well," Getsy said. "I think that's what's cool about this draft, like we talked about, there's a lot of different types of guys.

"It's about who can do things to the level that's a difference-maker. Right? You try to get as many dynamic guys on your team as you can. I wouldn't ever want to box myself into a corner with one particular style."

There are many who wonder if Fields actually was used this way.

The games against the Vikings, when Getsy called one screen pass after another, or particular efforts like the season-opening loss to Green Bay when they wanted Fields throwing from in the pocket seemed to contradict this statement.

It wasn't just at quarterback where Getsy felt he helped use players to their greatest strengths in the offense, but he believes he grew as a play caller and head of an offense in this regard while being with the Bears.

"I mean, experience is like the best thing you can get," he said. "Right? I'm talking about with quarterbacks all the time you getting on that game film there's nothing like it. And that game experience gives you the most to grow from.

"It's the same with me. Every game I found my way. I found my way to get to the process a little bit cleaner each and every week and from Season 1 to Season 2 and the way we were able to help those guys in Season 2, the guys like DJ (Moore) and Cole (Kmet) have the best seasons of their career. Like, that's something that was a really cool thing that we were able to do and continue to grow there. And like it's always about getting better every single day, right? So whether it's upstairs as an offensive staff or whether it's when you're with your players, everything is always about getting better every single day and being able to stick to that and hold true to that was something that I was really proud of."

Getsy had high praise for Fields, whether he actually really got extreme use out of his skills or not. Responding to a question at the press conference from Pat Finley of the Sun-Times, Getsy said Fields definitely improved.

"Tremendous growth for Justin," he said. "Like I said when I was there, he's one of the best human beings I've ever got to work with. It's just the mentality that he brought every day, the consistent approach, the kind of man that he is. Just really, it was a blessing to work with him and he was someone that just came to work every day to get better and better, and I think he'll continue to do so."

Fields' scrambling ability often saved the Bears offense, although it sometimes led to their high number of sacks. Raiders reporters wanted to know if Getsy wants a mobile passer like this because it's rumored they're looking for a QB even with Garoppolo and O'Connell on the roster.

"Kind of like anything, you'd like to have a litlle bit of everything and in this game I think it's really important that you have some type of escapability," Getsy said. "It doesn't mean you have to be as dynamic as Justin was but I think you've got to have escapability."

Patrick Mahomes showed this in the Super Bowl win by leading the Chiefs in rushing.

"When you're trying to go win games you've got to be good at the third down in the red zone and when you're good at those two things it's usually because your quarterback has some kind of cool dynamic to spread the ball around, which we were pretty good at that thing the last two years," Getsy said.

They were decent at red zone scoring and on third downs but it had little to do with spreading around the ball. Moore had more targets last year than all of their other six wide receivers combined.

They 32 first downs from Fields' scrambling in 2022 and 26 in 2023 while they were 13th and 10 on third downs in 2022 and 2023 and 13th and 15th in the red zone in those seasons.

Ironically, it was Getsy's game against the Raiders last year without Fields, a 30-12 Bears win with undrafted Divsion II QB Tyson Bagent starting, that might have helped him get Las Vegas job. He said it was a big part of his Raiders interview.

"I think there was a part of the interview where we sat and watched that game and we all watched that game and we talked about the whys and what we were doing and how we were doing it," Getsy said. "And I think all that stuff resonated with them (the Raiders) and I think they kind of talked about how, you know, we (the Bears) kind of exposed a few things that helped them turn into the defense that they turned into."

Bagent struggled and the Bears lost the previous game 19-13 to Minnesota after a game-deciding strip sack and TD return following Fields' third-quarter departure with a dislocated thumb. The Bears were 2-2 in Bagent's starts, the other win coming over Carolina.

Bagent against the Raiders went 21 of 29 for 162 yards and a TD in a 30-12 win, one in which the defense intercepted the Raiders backup QBs three times and the Chicago running attack accounted for 173 yards without Fields' running ability.

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