Forget quarterback, Luke Getsy may be key to Raiders offense

New offensive coordinator must be creative to take advantage of team’s weapons

The battle between Aidan O’Connell and Gardner Minshew will garner plenty of attention. The pair are slated to compete for the all-important starting quarterback gig for the Las Vegas Raiders and the team’s success or failures offensively lie heavily on their shoulders.

But forget about O’Connell and Minshew for a second.

Offensive coordinator Luke Getsy is slated to be the true key to the Silver & Black offense. He’s the person in charge of putting the Raiders offense in the best possible position to succeed which means he’ll have his a heavy hand on the entire group, not just quarterback. With the weapons general manager Tom Telesco added in the draft — namely first-round pick tight end Brock Bowers — and in free agency, the onus is on Getsy to be creative to take full advantage of the roster.

We’ll find out of Getsy’s two-year stay with the Chicago Bears(2022-23) dialing up plays was a failure on his part or if he was saddled with a signal caller that didn’t suit him, per say. What we’re able to glean from orchestrating the Bears offense, though, is Getsy likes to run the football and uses multiple tight ends — 12 personnel (one running back and two tight ends was a calling card for the coach. As were 13 personnel (one tailback, three tight ends) and 22 personnel (two halfbacks, two tight ends), as well as 21 personnel (two running backs, one tight end). Getsy also deployed the standard 11 personnel (one tailback, one tight end, three wide receivers) so his playbook can be varied to take advantage of matchups.

Getting more than one tight end on the field in Las Vegas is going to be vital for Getsy’s role as the chief architect of the Raiders offense. The team has spent two early-round picks on Bowers and Michael Mayer (second round, 2023) and the duo provide something distinctly different.

Mayer is the more physical brute at 6-foot-4 and 265 pounds and has a season under his belt against NFL competition after a stellar career at Notre Dame. His blocking improved over the course of the year and he showcased the hands that made him a weapon for the Fighting Irish as he racked up 304 yards and two touchdowns on 27 grabs his rookie season.

Bowers is more in the mold of a move tight end at 6-foot-4 and 230 pounds. He’s the much sleeker and faster receiver who has the long speed to catch the ball, make a defender miss, and take it to the house. While Bowers isn’t a shabby blocker, he won’t be mistaken for the more physical Mayer. Yet, he’s the more dangerous receiver who glides past a defense and is a threat for long gains or touchdowns.

If Bowers proves he can block NFL defenders, it makes the tag team he’ll have with Mayer even more fruitful as it won’t be obvious what each will do any given snap. While Mayer doesn’t have the fleet feet, he’s still a capable receiver who has the ability to lower his shoulder, keep his feet moving, and gain the tough yards. And Mayer is fast enough to make a mockery of slower linebackers and safeties who try to cover him. But if both prove they are worthy blockers, they can be assets in the run game, too.

That portion of the Raiders attack is slated to be a committee led by Zamir White — a power runner with good speed — and buoyed by veterans Alexander Mattison, Ameer Abdullah, and rookie Dylan Laube, to name a few. The aforementioned trio providing a pass-catching component out of the backfield that can give Getsy even more creativity.

Then there’s the wide receivers paced by elite Davante Adams with the steady and capable Jakobi Meyers opposite him. Speedy youngster Tre Tucker is there too along with veteran additions Michael Gallup and Jalen Guyton. Undrafted free agent Tulu Griffin provides interesting speed and yards after the catch ability, too. Getsy is quite familiar with Adams during their respective stints in Green Bay and the play caller should have a sense of how best to use the wide out while also knowing what Adams likes to do best.

Of course, James Cregg and his offensive line are vital to Getsy and Telesco did bolster the group with second-round pick Jackson Johnson-Powers, third-round selection DJ Glaze, and veteran free agent additions Andrus Peat and Cody Whitehair (a player Getsy is familiar with from Chicago), while re-signing center Andre James.

But it’ll be Getsy dialing up the plays. But his history and tendency show he’s a philosophical fit for head coach Antonio Pierce. The Raiders head honcho wants to be physical and Getsy has the ground acumen to make that happen. It’ll be intriguing to see if Getsy can bring out the other aspect — the deep ball — to Las Vegas. He didn’t have the most accurate quarterback in Chicago but gets better options in that department in O’Connell and/or Minshew. Hence, we’ll see if the problem in Chicago from 2022-23 was play caller or quarterback.

The well-traveled 40-year-old Getsy previously served as the Bears offensive coordinator and had two separate stints with the Green Bay Packers as an assistant coach. The Chicago gig was Getsy’s first as a pro play caller with his other offensive coordinator roles in college at Mississippi State (2018); Indiana (2011-12); West Virginia Wesleyan (2009).

Hiccups are expected, especially for a new play caller heading into new territory. Defensive coordinator Patrick Graham had a tough first season orchestrating the Raiders defense before having an exponentially better second season as play caller.

But if Getsy doesn’t have the same upward trajectory as his defensive counterpart, he may be more bottleneck than key