Thursday, March 28, 2024

Luke Getsy Has No Favorite Plays. His Reason Why? Quite Refreshing

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In 2015, former head coach Jon Gruden revealed during an interview with top QB prospect Marcus Mariota what one of his favorite play calls was during his career. It was called “Spider 2 Y Banana.” He considered it a staple of his offense. An offense he ran no matter where he coaches from Philadelphia to Oakland, Tampa Bay, and finally Las Vegas. He is far from the only offensive coach to have similar feelings. All of them probably have that one play call they love. Well, all except Luke Getsy.

The new Chicago Bears offensive coordinator sees things differently. That much has been evident from the moment he stepped in front of the cameras. He is a coach who believes an offense’s success isn’t about the scheme. It’s about the players. A scheme is only as good as how effective it is at maximizing the players’ strengths. During a conversation with Jeff Joniak of Bears All-Access, the 37-year old made a rather profound comment about why he has no specific plays he likes.

“You bring a play-style mentality philosophy to the table and then evaluate what the player does best. How I’ve been brought up in this business is you build it around the quarterback first, and then you tailor everything else to match what everybody else does well. That process is just ingrained in my soul. We’re not going to just run this concept because I like it or it looks great on film. If the player can’t execute that, then we’re not going to have much success.”

That comment, more than any to date, offers a look into how Getsy thinks.

In his mind, having a “Spider 2 Y Banana” play means nothing if he doesn’t have the necessary players to run it. That is why an offense must be almost amoebic, morphing into different shapes depending on the talent available. If a system is rigid in how it’s supposed to be run, its effectiveness is bound to diminish when key players aren’t available. Everybody saw what happened to Mike Martz and his iconic Greatest Show On Turf. As the players on the roster changed, the offense didn’t. Thus it became far less effective.

Luke Getsy has no plans to be a passing fad. He knows the key to longevity in the NFL is constantly changing and constantly reinvent. Never stop working on different ways to get the best out of your players. This is how the best offensive minds in the league do it. There is no telling whether this coach is equipped to accomplish that goal, but nobody can argue his thinking is flawed.

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