Of all the offensive coordinator options that Matt Eberflus could’ve gone with, his choice ended up being a surprise. Nobody expected the new Chicago Bears head coach to target Luke Getsy for the job. One is because he worked for the Green Bay Packers and this organization never hires people from there. Another is his relative lack of experience calling plays. He only did it for one season and that was in college at Mississippi State.
Either Eberflus is getting his buddy a prominent job or he knows something that a lot of other teams don’t. That Getsy might have monumental upside and the Packers were too late to exploit it fully. It is here where comments by Mike Price of Packers Talk become interesting. He broke down Green Bay’s offense based on its four main contributors. While head coach Matt Lafleur and offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett got most of the credit, it was Getsy that took things to another level.
“Getsy is the secret weapon here. While Hackett dabbled in packaged plays close to ten years ago, Getsy majored in them under Joe Moorhead…
…Moorhead (now the Oregon offensive coordinator) is widely recognized as an RPO guru. Moorhead developed the offense out of necessity at Fordham in the early 2010s and brought it to Penn State where at one point the team ran RPOs on 90% of run plays (with Saquon Barkley at running back).
Moorhead’s philosophy to slap a read on every run play, trust the QB to make decisions, and let the players make the offense can definitely be seen in the current version of the Packers’ offense.”
It is hard to deny what he’s saying here.
Prior to 2019, Aaron Rodgers didn’t run a lot of run-pass option plays. While he was still effective as a passer, it felt as if he was starting to lose steam. So Lafleur brought in Getsy to help flush out the RPO section of the playbook. As a result, the Packers were able to give Rodgers several easy completions. This allowed them to take advantage of his ability to read defenses at the line of scrimmage. The results were back-to-back MVP seasons.
This was an RPO, so Aaron Rodgers had plenty of options no matter how the Vikings lined up. pic.twitter.com/t7btWqUtBj
— Jason B. Hirschhorn (@by_JBH) November 1, 2020
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Cobb was always on same page with Rodgers and what they saw. Important on alerts/hot throw, sight adjustments, RPOs, etc pic.twitter.com/XhpxjjG7Sv
— Ben Fennell (@BenFennell_NFL) March 21, 2019
Aaron Rodgers RPO Passing
Last 2 Seasons:
🔹104/119 610yds, 10 TD, 0 INT
🔹87.4% Completions…force teams to allocate resources to stop the run – and let your pass game be easy! Free completions! pic.twitter.com/cQ2a5vSRrG
— Ben Fennell (@BenFennell_NFL) December 9, 2021
The Bears ranked 20th in the NFL in run-pass option usage this past season. Baffling when you consider that Kansas City ranked 5th and Matt Nagy was supposed to be Andy Reid’s disciple. Making it even worse is that Justin Fields threw for 75 yards on eight attempts out of RPOs and ran 11 times for 62 yards. In other words, the rookie compiled 137 yards of offense on just 19 run-pass option plays. An average of 7.21 yards per touch.
Luke Getsy will finally work to set Justin free
One of the keys to making a good RPO offense thrive is having a strong stable of running backs that the QB can hand off too. That is what Green Bay has in Aaron Jones and A.J. Dillon. It is also what the Bears have in David Montgomery and Khalil Herbert. That tandem figures to be a central focus of Getsy’s attack going into 2022. Not just with run-pass options but also the Shanahan-style wrinkles he picked up from Lafleur.
The entire idea for Luke Getsy will be making life easier for his quarterback. Easier completions thanks to various forms of play action. Get the kid into a rhythm. Then when the time is right, take those shots down the field that Justin is so good at. It doesn’t have to be so complicated. Find out what the quarterback does best and adjust the offense to accent his strengths. Nagy barely ever tried doing that.
If nothing else, this proves one thing.
Eberflus came in with a plan. He had scouted Fields prior to his interview for the Bears job and knew exactly what he wanted to do in order to make the QB a success. Getsy might not be the biggest name out there but his background makes him one of the most qualified for this specific job.
