LAKE FOREST, Ill. -- All season long, Bears offensive coordinator Luke Getsy has talked about evaluating himself, quarterback Justin Fields, and the unit as a whole on their "17-game process," not their weekly performance.
To Getsy, what's important is that the individual players, coaches, and offense make daily improvements to climb the big mountain in front of them.
On Thursday, Getsy addressed the media for the final time this season ahead of the Bears' Week 18 season-finale against the Green Bay Packers. While Getsy said he'd evaluate everything after the season, his belief in the process and his partnership with Fields was clear.
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"The going-forward part, that’s something that’s bigger than where we’re at right now, because we’re thinking about Green Bay.," Getsy said when asked for the big-picture look on his partnership with Fields. "We’re all in that mindset. We have a great relationship, we work really well together. He inspires me daily with his mentality, his focus, his faith, all that stuff. We have a really good relationship, and I think Justin’s future is super-bright."
CHICAGO BEARS
The Bears' offense got off to an atrocious start. Through three weeks, the Bears averaged 15.6 points and 250 yards per game. Fields looked like a broken quarterback, the run game that was so dominant in 2022 was nowhere to be found, and Getsy didn't appear to have the answers needed to spark a turnaround.
Getsy kept harping on the process and his belief that everyone- from himself to Fields on down- would keep improving.
Seventeen weeks later, the Bears' process has resulted in them ranking 16th in scoring (21.9 points per game), 17th in yards per game (331.4), and second in rushing yards per game (145.3). The offense has improved, but there is still work to be done. The Bears rank 27th in passing yards per game, 21st in EPA per play, and 19th in success rate.
The arrow is trending up for Getsy's unit. That doesn't mean everything is fixed. That doesn't mean he doesn't need to keep growing and evolving as both a play-caller and game-planner.
Another year in Getsy's system -- should he return -- should benefit a young team with the arrow pointing up. Fields has pointed to the continuity and familiarity in the system as the reason for his late-season surge and Year 3 growth as a passer.
The process has been successful, even if it also must evolve.
"I think as our progress has gone this year, you’ve heard me say it countless times: it’s just really important that we just get better each and every day," Getsy said. "I feel like no matter what it looks like sometimes to the outside world, when you’re inside and you’re diving deep, you really know if it is or isn’t, and I think the guys in the room all feel it, they know it, they’re excited about what’s to come and I think we can say that we have continued to do that."
The Bears have swam through a sea of adversity this season.
They lost left guard Teven Jenkins to a leg injury in training camp. He didn't return until Week 5. Defensive coordinator Alan Williams resigned and running backs coach David Walker was fired. Wide receiver Chase Claypool publicly criticized the coaching staff before being traded in early October. They lost left tackle Braxton Jones for over a month. Fields dislocated his thumb in Week 6 and missed a month. The Bears didn't have their fully healthy offensive line until Week 9.
They kept plugging away. Kept chopping. They stayed afloat, somehow, and things slowly turned around.
Fields returned in Week 11, the run game got humming, and the Bears have now won four of their last six to enter Week 18 at 7-9. They are firmly in the NFL's middle ground with a green arrow pointing straight up.
While Fields' improved play takes up most of the oxygen around the Bears, Getsy has shown growth as a play-caller and game-planner.
The Bears' Week 17 win over the Atlanta Falcons was a prime example of how the process is helping Getsy and his unit.
With wide receiver Darnell Mooney out and tight end Cole Kmet limited, Getsy had to get creative to get the Bears' passing game off the ground against the No. 8-ranked pass defense in the NFL. He did so by moving star receiver DJ Moore around more than usual. Moore played a season-high 19 snaps in the slot against the Falcons. Per Next Gen Stats, Moore caught a career-high seven passes out of the slot for a career-high 115 yards on Sunday.
Getsy's ability to devise a game plan to free up Moore while largely missing his No. 2 and No. 3 pass-catchers allowed the Bears' offense to get off the ground and sparked an impressive day from Fields.
"It's getting better, right?" head coach Matt Eberflus said of Getsy's growth as a play-caller and planner. "It certainly was really good yesterday. I thought guys stepped up. Like [Robert Tonyan] stepped up really well and did a nice job. And the players really stepped up well too. And again it was a well-called game as well."
Getsy's future in Chicago is up in the air. There's a sense in league circles that Getsy will return, but the Bears will evaluate everyone after the season concludes.
They'll evaluate how they went about things during a roller-coaster 2023 season that saw them come out the other side, speeding toward a bright future and high expectations for 2024.
"It’s been a fun journey, right?" Getsy said Thursday. "We’ve experienced a lot of different things. But the coolest part about it is the foundation that Flus has set within our entire organization. We all lean on that. That’s our foundation. We all fall back to that. Every time there’s any type of challenge, I think everybody is falling back to that. We stick together. The coolest part is that any time there was any type of adversity, this team just kept getting closer and closer together. I think that’s been a huge key to what we’re able to continue to grow and go where we wanna go and be sustainable."