Corey Linsley has played a lot of football in his career. He’s had a lot of success too. Most of it came with the Green Bay Packers from 2014 to 2020. During that time, he became an All-Pro center working with Aaron Rodgers. He also had a chance to connect with several different coaches. One of them was Luke Getsy. The two first connected in Linsley’s rookie year when Getsy was a quality control coach. They spent four years together before the young coach left for a big opportunity at Mississippi State. A year later, in 2019, he returned to join Matt Lafleur’s staff as passing game coordinator.
Linsley already knew Getsy had potential as a young coach, but it was those two years where he fully appreciated for how good he is. Though the offensive lineman left in 2021 to join the Los Angeles Chargers, he knew one thing. It wouldn’t be long before Getsy started his ascent towards becoming a head coach in the NFL. Sure enough, the Chicago Bears kickstarted that process by making him their new offensive coordinator. He would be the one to take on the responsibility of quarterback Justin Fields.
According to Jason Lieser of the Chicago Sun-Times, Linsley expects big things.
‘‘I’d bet the house on him to advance Justin Fields and help him grow. I couldn’t think of a better guy to help a young quarterback grow.
‘‘He has a great grasp on every facet of the game. You could sit there and talk O-line play with him, you can talk passing game, play-action, whatever. Being in meetings with guys, you can tell who’s full of [garbage] and who’s not. And he’s absolutely not.’’
To understand that, all one has to do is watch Luke Getsy speak. During his time in Green Bay, he was asked about the critical aspects of what makes a successful quarterback. Without hesitating, he said their feet. Footwork is often what separates the good quarterbacks from everybody else. He went into further detail on that here.
This demonstrates that Getsy has a firm grasp on the intricacies of the quarterback position. Bill Walsh was one of the first to illustrate how important footwork could be. The Hall of Fame head coach made it an essential facet of his West Coast offense in the 1980s. An offense that ended up winning four Super Bowls.
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This is what Fields can look forward to. There is no doubt that Getsy will take advantage of his physical gifts and mold the offense to his strengths. However, he’ll also strive every day to make him a better all-around quarterback. Improve the footwork. Strengthen the pre-snap reads. Adjust protections. Know when to take the check-down and when to take a shot down the field. It is hard not to be excited about what is to come.
