Luke Getsy and the Bears OC history

[adam]

*WARNING LONG POST*

The Bears recent history with OCs is one of the main reasons why this team has struggled and caused so many HCs to be fired (Lovie). It has been ugly. It could be tied to the run on bad QB play, but it also could be the reason for that bad QB play.

The last OC to be in position more than 2 years was Ron Turner from 2005-2009. Before Turner, you have to go back to Turner's first stint with the Bears (93-96) to find an OC that was in position for 4 years. So in the last 30 years, Ron Turner is the only OC who was in position for 4 years. John Shoop somehow lasted 3 years. He is the only other OC to be in position longer than 2 years in that window. Every other OC in the other 20 years of that timeframe only lasted 1 or 2 years. I didn't realize how bad it was. Now it would be different if these guys were being promoted or hired as HCs, but most of these guys were fired for being bad and never held a position of OC again.

So there is definitely a chance that Getsy, Fields, and the Bears offense fails. However, I am extremely optimistic that Getsy is the right guy at the right time and comes in with some great experience from GB. I know it is Aaron Rodgers, but he just won back-to-back MVPs and his QB Coach was Getsy. So even if Getsy didn't impact that, he got to see it first hand. 

Not that Bears fans don't already know this but look at how bad the OC and play-callers have been for the Bears over the last 20+ years:

1a. Nagy and Lazor (20-21). Lazor was an analyst at Penn State when he was hired as OC by the Bears. He actually was OC for 2 years with CIN and 2 with MIA previously, so on paper, he was probably one of the best hires for Nagy. However, his best offense was his first season with Miami where they were 11th in pts and 14th in yards with Tannehill as QB in 2014. In his other 3 seasons his offenses were in the bottom 3rd of the league. Everyone knows Nagy's story, he was a full-time OC for one season and he only called 5 games in the regular season and 1 in the playoffs before being hired by the Bears as the HC.  That was a whiff, Frank Reich and Matt Lafleur were both candidates in that hiring cycle. In the last two years, the offense was in the bottom 10 in both pts and yards with Nagy and Lazor running the offense. 

1b. Nagy and Helfrich (18-19). Before the Bears, Helfrich never coached in the NFL. His main influence was Chip Kelly. How did Chip Kelly do in the NFL? The offense Oregon ran was so different than what Nagy had in KC, it didn't make much sense at the time, and makes less sense now. The offense got incredibly lucky in 2018 with the defense giving them so many short fields, it really masked how bad the offense really was. That was on full display in 2019 when the offense finished as the 3rd worst Bears offense since 2004 with the offensive mastermind Nagy at the helm. Helfrich has been unemployed since 2019.

2. Dowell Loggains (16-17). Low-gains! The Kevin James/Paul Blart look alike. The Bears were 8-24 with Loggains as OC. Just a terrible team and OC. He may have been the worst OC ever and that says a lot. Where are you Terry Shea? 2017 was the 2nd worst offense since 2004, Trubisky's rookie year. I think the Bears broke Trubisky. Somehow this guy was given another OC job with Adam Gase twice, once in MIA, then in NYJ. Shocker, the offenses were terrible. He hasn't coached in the NFL since that stint with Gase and the Jets.

3. Adam Gase (2015). Gase reminds me a lot of Nagy. He was brought to the Bears by Fox, who left Denver (ala Reid-Nagy). Gase lucked into being the OC when Manning was on the Broncos. Then when he came to the Bears, the offense was no different than it was the year before (same rankings in yards and pts). However, that was enough to land him a HC job in Miami. Then when he was fired after 3 years, the Jets thought he was good enough for them and hired him the next year. Somehow this boob was a NFL HC for 5 straight years but hasn't coached in any capacity since. Gase was the only OC to ever get promoted to HC from the Bears as far as I can tell. 

4. Aaron Kromer (13-14). The only OC under Trestman. The Bears had a stacked offense in 2013 with Cutler, Forte, Jeffery, Marshall, and Bennett. Pretty unbelievable how that fell apart so fast in 2014 and Trestman/Kromer were gone like that. Just two years for Trestman and Kromer. Kromer is still in the NFL as the BUF OL Coach but has never held an OC position since.

5. Mike Tice (2012). Lovie's last year as HC. He kept juggling OCs and Tice was not good. They really could've used a TE (Olsen) and the offense is what got Lovie fired. Tice never held an OC or HC position again. 

6. Mike Martz (10-11). He traded Greg Olsen (I still hate him for that) and tried to plug his greatest show on turf offense into the Bears without the players to do it. He was only OC for 2 years and even though the team made the NFCC game, the offense was actually really bad and regressed under Martz.  He never coached in the NFL again.

7. Ron Turner (05-09). Turner got the offense turned around in his 2nd season where the Offense peaked in 2006, the SB year. That tailed off quickly with relatively the same personnel in the next two years. He lasted 4 years under Lovie, but the offense was always the problem. He never had another OC or NFL HC job again.

8. Terry Shea (2004). OC'd the only Bears offense that was 32nd in points and yards, Lovie's first year. He was probably the sacrificial lamb because his QBs were Grossman, Hutchinson, Krenzel, and Quinn. All 4 started games and they totaled 9 Passing TDs on the season. Quite unbelievable. This was the only time in franchise history that the Bears finished last in both pts and yards.  Shea never held another NFL coaching position higher than QB coach after this.

9. John Shoop (01-03). The 2nd Dick Jauron hire. Actually had a decent first season with Jim Miller at QB, but the offense quickly devolved to one of the worst in the league the next 2 years before he and Jauron were fired. This offense was famous for the dink and dunk. He got one more shot as OC on the 2-14 Raiders in 2006 for the last 5 games of the season (Nagy-esque) on the last Raiders team to finish 32nd in pts and yards. He never coached in the NFL after that.

10. Gary Crowton (99-2000). Jauron's first OC. The offense ranked 25th and 28th in pts the 2 seasons with Crowton. He never coached in the NFL again.

That is 23 years and only one top 10 offense in pts and yards, in 2013 with Trestman/Kromer (2nd/8th). The Bears were 2nd in pts and 15th in yards in 2006, but the scoring was due to the short fields the defense was giving the offense. The Bears had a similar team in 2018 with Nagy as they finished 9th in pts but 21st in yards. 

So we could blame the GMs and QBs for this ineptitude, but you have to place some blame on the OCs and playcallers. We just have not gotten this position right in a very long time. My hope is Getsy is the guy and we can get a few years with him before he jumps to a HC position. If he does, that means the Bears are making strides on offense with Fields.

 

[DABEARSDABOMB]

Thank goodness it is Friday - I need something to balance that stink of OC's you just wrote about Adam. I will say - proof is in the puddy - but there was something extremely refreshing from Getsy's press conference and the snippets of quotes.  

[Bill]

So one could say the Bears are the team OC's go to die.

[adam]

1 hour ago, DABEARSDABOMB said:

Thank goodness it is Friday - I need something to balance that stink of OC's you just wrote about Adam. I will say - proof is in the puddy - but there was something extremely refreshing from Getsy's press conference and the snippets of quotes.  

That's what got me on this kick. I haven't heard anything like what Getsy has said from other OC's before. 

[adam]

43 minutes ago, Bill said:

So one could say the Bears are the team OC's go to die.

Yes, and WRs. All correlated too. 

[Alaskan Grizzly]

46 minutes ago, adam said:

That's what got me on this kick. I haven't heard anything like what Getsy has said from other OC's before. 

Ok now that you’ve done all that work (and yes I read all of it…lol).  What is Getsys background?  I mean before he came to GB to watch…er…I mean coach Rodgers?  I’m curious and will look it up too.  Wondering if he had some clout from the college ranks? Who has he developed?  What playing experience does he have (not that it matters a lot but still, curious)?  
 

Was listening to an interview with Deion Sanders last night where he says he thinks his experience at playing both Offense and Defense has made him a better coach.  So far he’s 12-2 so maybe there’s something to it.  He definitely is a players coach what with his ability to lure the top recruit to his school this year.  

[Mongo3451]

The one thing in common with all of our terrible offenses is that the coaches and GM's never truly addressed the OL.  Follow the money...

 

"It all starts upfront!"

[AZ54]

4 hours ago, adam said:

1b. Nagy and Helfrich (18-19). Before the Bears, Helfrich never coached in the NFL. His main influence was Chip Kelly. How did Chip Kelly do in the NFL? The offense Oregon ran was so different than what Nagy had in KC, it didn't make much sense at the time, and makes less sense now. The offense got incredibly lucky in 2018 with the defense giving them so many short fields, it really masked how bad the offense really was. That was on full display in 2019 when the offense finished as the 3rd worst Bears offense since 2004 with the offensive mastermind Nagy at the helm. Helfrich has been unemployed since 2019.

Au contraire... Helfrich has been enjoying his time as a broadcaster for Pac12 games but I get your point he isn't coaching.  The funny thing is I had watched several ASU games and kept feeling like the announcer's voice was familiar but I couldn't figure out why.   I didn't actually see his name on the screen until near the end of the season.  I figure he's just doing the same thing he did in Chicago....talking about offense and not actually doing anything about making it better, albeit for much less money.  

[adam]

1 hour ago, Alaskan Grizzly said:

Ok now that you’ve done all that work (and yes I read all of it…lol).  What is Getsys background?  I mean before he came to GB to watch…er…I mean coach Rodgers?  I’m curious and will look it up too.  Wondering if he had some clout from the college ranks? Who has he developed?  What playing experience does he have (not that it matters a lot but still, curious)?  
 

Was listening to an interview with Deion Sanders last night where he says he thinks his experience at playing both Offense and Defense has made him a better coach.  So far he’s 12-2 so maybe there’s something to it.  He definitely is a players coach what with his ability to lure the top recruit to his school this year.  

Interestingly enough, he had more time as a position coach than Nagy did before becoming an OC. Getsy had 2 years as the GB WR's Coach, went to Mississippi State for 1 year as their OC, then came back to GB with LaFleur as their QB Coach where he did that for 3 more years. Nagy only had 3 years total as a position coach before becoming an OC. 

Getsy is a former QB who actually led the Akron Zips to their first bowl game (ever). He also was a UDFA for SF in 2007, then went right into coaching. So he has been coaching at the collegiate or pro level since 2009 (13 yrs). Nagy had only 7 years of coaching before becoming the Bears HC and only 5 before becoming the KC OC. 

Getsy was credited in grooming Davante Adams as his WR Coach in 2016 and 2017. In Adams' first two years in the league, he totaled 88 receptions for 929 yds and 4 TD. In 2016 that jumped to 75 receptions and 997 yds and 12 TDs under Getsy. In 2017, he made his first of 5 straight Pro Bowls. 

Getsy was hired by McCarthy, then again by LaFleur. Very similar to how Eberflus was hired by McDaniels, then retained by Reich. They are not good ole boy hires.

Look at GBs record with Getsy on staff, the one year he was in Mississippi State, the Packers went 6-9-1 and their lowest win total since 2008. 2018 was even worse than 2017 when Brett Hundley got 9 starts. In 2018, Rodgers started every game and the Packers still finished with 6-9-1 wins, which is what got McCarthy ultimately fired. 

 

[Bill]

8 hours ago, adam said:

Yes, and WRs. All correlated too. 

What does that say about our QB search the last 100 years.  

How far does one go with hope, believing they just might have all those finally together?