Bear Digest

Luke Getsy's Method for Success

The Chicago Bears ignored one sure way to open up their attack last year and there doesn't seem to be much chance offensive coordinator Luke Getsy will do the same this year.

Gene Chamberlain

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Only days after being hired as Bears offensive coordinator, Luke Getsy made his mission statement with his new team while discussing why he decided to work for Matt LaFleur as Green Bay's quarterbacks coach in 2019.

"The biggest thing that attracted me to that opportunity to work with Matt was the teaching style and the emphasis to committing to the run game, letting the run game drive the play-pass game and then building everything around that," Getsy said. "We'll be a similar type of approach. We'll let one thing drive the next.

"It's all about protecting the QB, everything is about QB. If you can run the ball and you can play pass you're going to have an opportunity to protect your QB."

Running the ball and using play-action passing was about as far from what the Bears did last season on offense as any team could get. It won't be that way this year if Getsy has any say, and he obviously does.

The Bears were 31st in play-action pass attempts last year with 98, according to official league stat partner Sportradar. They finished dead last with 594 passing yards off play-action throws, including RPO (run-pass option) plays.

Sometimes teams won't use play-action fakes and the pass afterward because they simply don't run much—why play-fake when you're behind and passing all the time or when you're simply not a running team? No defense is buying a play-fake if they know you don't run. But that wasn't the case with the 2021 Bears as they had the 11th most rushing attempts.

The Bears simply were not going to run play-action passes under Matt Nagy and offensive coordinator Bill Lazor. They did it the year before, especially after they went to more bootleg plays with Mitchell Trubisky and runs using outside zone blocking. They were No. 4 in the league at play-action pass attempts then and made the playoffs. This can matter. Seven of the top nine teams in play-action attempts made the playoffs in 2021.

Here are the Bears who can be most affected by Getsy's use of play-action. It's easy to see how they could be a drastically different team if they are able to pull this off.

4. David Montgomery

If you're running play-action, the receiver and quarterback obviously benefit from that small amount of uncertainty it puts in defenders' minds. It can cost linebackers or defensive linemen that half step at getting to running backs, as well. Of course, it would help Montgomery if the offensive line simply blocked the run better as well. But anything helps. Montgomery has been a 1,000-yard rusher and one of the leaders in breaking tackles in two of his seasons. The last two years he has gained only 1.9 yards before first contact with a defender according to Sportradar. In 2020 when he broke 1,000 yards, he was 38th in the league at most yards gained before first contact. In 2021 he was 45th. If they can just give Montgomery an extra step to get moving it can make a huge difference. And then actual blocking would make the biggest difference.

3. Darnell Mooney

Mooney has 4.38-second speed but it seemed he rarely got to show this off and instead was displaying excellent route-running or an ability to wiggle free from tackle attempts. He was slippery, but hasn't been the burner the stop watches said. Part of the reason is without play-action, defensive backs are completely free to immediately worry about the receiver. The effect is a receiver with more room when the ball arrives and more yards after the catch. Mooney was among the better Bears receivers at YAC, but could have been much better with some room provided by play-action fakes. He was 18th in receptions among wide receivers, but 27th (4.7 yards) in average yards after the catch for starters. It's the same reason Allen Robinson rarely had any yards after the catch. He was catching passes with DBs on his back all the time. They need to free up receivers for running room and play-action can do this.

2. Cole Kmet

If play-action can help get Mooney more room to operate, it can also do it to an even greater extent for the Bears tight ends. It's how George Kittle ranks so high every year in YAC among tight ends. It's how Mark Andrews, a big player, could average a whopping 10.3 yards after the catch in 2021 for Baltimore.

Kmet often hurt opponents with yards after the catch at Notre Dame. He started out in 2020 doing this with 10 of his receptions coming on 13 play-action targets for 103 yards. Remember, those 13 play-action targets came in a season when he really didn't get started until the midpoint—he had only eight targets for the season of any type, play-action or otherwise, in the first nine games.

In 2021, as his receptions doubled and his targets more than doubled from 44 to 93, it would have been safe to assume he had more play-action chances. Shockingly, the Bears still threw the same 13 play-action passes his way for the entire season even though he played all season with 60 catches. This is obviously the fault of their offensive masterminds and also Justin Fields on RPOs for not sending it Kmet's way. Using this tactic more could even get Kmet more touchdowns, too. That's one of his goals for the year.

1. Justin Fields

What's amazing about the stupidity of last year's offensive Bears brain trust  was they wouldn't let Fields use play-action passes, but when he did he was fairly effective doing it.

The 8.6 yards per his 48 play-action attempts were better than Kyler Murray (8.59), Mac Jones (8.54), Ryan Tannehill (8.44), Matt Ryan (8.39), Jared Goff (8.18), Trevor Lawrence (8.17), Tom Brady (8.07), Dak Prescott (8.07), Patrick Mahomes (7.47), Aaron Rodgers (7.45) and Ben Roethlisberger (6.52).

The play-action effect can freeze linebackers on passes, and it also freezes defensive linemen for a split second to as they try to determine if the ball was handed off. So it helps Bears offensive linemen with pass blocking and Fields no longer becomes a sitting duck behind blockers that allowed the league's most sacks last year.

Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

BearDigest.com publisher Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.

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