Bears fire Luke Getsy and other offensive assistants

 

Bears offensive coordinator Luke Getsy has been fired.

Getsy and other members of the offensive staff were fired this morning, according to NFL Network.

There’s still been no confirmation about whether head coach Matt Eberflus will be back for the 2024 season, although firing the offensive staff without making mention of Eberflus also getting fired would seem to suggest Eberflus is likely to be back.

If Eberflus is back, he’s going to be hiring two coordinators: An offensive coordinator to replace Getsy, and a defensive coordinator to replace Alan Williams, who resigned under mysterious circumstances early in the season. Eberflus took over most of Williams’ responsibilities for the rest of the season but will presumably hire a defensive coordinator this offseason.

The biggest question for the Bears’ next offensive coordinator is who his quarterback will be. Justin Fields is the incumbent starter, but with the Bears owning the first overall pick in the 2024 draft, Caleb Williams may soon be coming to town.

Source: Bears fire offensive coordinator Luke Getsy

The Bears fired offensive coordinator Luke Getsy and quarterbacks coach Andrew Janocoko on Wednesday, a source confirmed to NBC Sports Chicago Bears Insider Josh Schrock. NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero were the first to break the news.

The Bears began this season with hopes that the team would take the first step in their rebuild, and from a purely wins and losses standpoint, they’re much better. The Bears finished 2022 with a league-worst 3-14 record. After their 17-9 loss to the Packers in Week 18, the Bears finished with a 7-10 record in 2023. But that jump in the standings is largely thanks to an enormous leap on the defensive side of the ball. Getsy’s offense lagged behind much of the year, with little spurts of progress throughout the year.

It appeared Getsy and the Bears had figured out a recipe for success near the end of the 2022 season by designing clever runs for Fields and getting him on the move in the pass game. The offense seemed to go back to square one to start 2023, however, with Fields staying in the pocket more often than not working in a rhythm and timing based passing attack. The offense was ineffective and Fields eventually said coaches were giving him too much to think about. He wanted to play more freely.

Then there were questions about playcalling. One of Getsy’s worst moments came in Week 2 against the Buccaneers when he called three screen passes in a row with the Bears backed up in their own territory. The Bucs undercut the third attempt and returned it for an easy pick-six to essentially end the game. After the game, the Bucs said they knew exactly what was coming on the play, which added insult to injury.

It wasn’t just that moment, however. The Bears didn’t have a reliable short yardage play they could count on consistently, and cycled between tight end sneaks, option pitches or end-around trickery. Other decisions earned scrutiny, like making fullback Khari Blasingame a primary read as a pass catcher to start a game.

Getsy’s gameplans didn’t appear to be good enough to win some weeks, too. At times, Getsy had answers for an opposing defense to help the offense put up points. He did a good job gaming up the rushing attack no matter if Khalil Herbert, D’Onta Foreman or Roschon Johnson was the lead back. But too many times the protection plan wasn’t up to snuff, and we saw things like leaving rookie Darnell Wright or a tight end on an island against a premier pass rusher. Getsy failed to make necessary adjustments in other games, like failing to find anything that worked against the Browns defense, or dialing up 20+ passes near the line of scrimmage against the Vikings.

It wasn’t all bad for Getsy this season. He figured out how to make DJ Moore the central figure of the passing attack, as needed, after a slow start. He helped to get Fields going towards the end of the year. The run game was effective for a second year in a row. Getsy also brought great position coaches with him, like Chris Morgan (OL), Tyke Tolbert (WR) and Jim Dray (TE) who all oversaw growth at their various position groups.

In the end the bad outweighed the good for Getsy. Now we wait to see if the Bears will decide to pair a new QB with their new OC.