The Bears are busy trying to build an offense. Here’s how Matt Eberflus might influence it

INDIANAPOLIS – Over the past month, Bears head coach Matt Eberflus has had numerous “lengthy conversations” with offensive coordinator Luke Getsy.

Don’t expect that to end anytime soon.

While Eberflus comes from a defensive background and spent his entire career coaching the defensive side of the football, he fully plans to be involved in all aspects of his football team – offense, defense and special teams. Getsy will be in charge of the offense and second-year quarterback Justin Fields, but Eberflus will have a heavy influence.

Eberflus is excited to learn Getsy’s system and provide his own input. Right now, he’s dabbling in everything.

“I’m a guy that likes to go around during the course of the day when they’re done meeting in the mornings – because that’s when we put our time in on the systems, in the morning – and I’ll go around and ask all the coaches, ‘How’d it go?’” Eberflus said. “You know, ‘Tell me what you guys are doing.’ Then I get questions that way and get feedback that way.”

Offensively, the past month has been devoted to building a staff that can create an offense of its own. Getsy is a huge, huge part of that effort. He has surrounded Fields with a hungry, young quarterbacks coach in Andrew Janocko and a guy with 20 years of experience in passing game coordinator Tyke Tolbert.

“We want this thing to be ours,” Getsy said last month. “This isn’t going to be somebody else’s or a copycat of somebody else’s. This is going to be ours. We all have our experiences and we’re going to put them together and we’re going to build this thing together.”

Eberflus has spent his career studying offenses and figuring out how to stop them. That is valuable to an offensive coordinator and a young quarterback. While Eberflus has never built an offense, he certainly knows a good offense when he sees one.

The Bears wouldn’t have made him a head coach if they didn’t believe that. Being an NFL head coach is more than just being an offensive or a defensive guru. With free agency and the draft coming up, the evaluations the Bears are making right now will be huge for the future of the franchise. Eberflus’ voice is going to carry a lot of weight, no matter what position a prospect plays.

Offense, defense or special teams, it’s all in the tape, Eberflus said.

“You look at the tape,” he said. “So as a coach, your resume is the tape. That’s just the way it is. You want to know how I coach football? Look at the tape. You want to know how a guy plays football? You look at the tape. Because a lot of guys can say certain things, which is great, words are important. But action is more important. So I think that you just look at the tape and do they fit?”

Eberflus has received some advice from several of his coaching mentors about dealing with a young quarterback. In his NFL coaching career, he has never really dealt with the quarterback position.

The modern NFL is all about the quarterbacks. Everybody knows that. Having a good relationship with the quarterback doesn’t necessarily equate to wins, but it sure makes life easier. Just look at the commotion that Kyler Murray is causing in Arizona this week after requesting a contract extension and erasing much of the Cardinals content from his social media pages.

This staff’s relationship with Fields is going to make or break this era of Bears football, and it has to start with the head coach.

“Be yourself,” Eberflus said. “I don’t think there’s any one particular thing you want to say or do. I just think be yourself and be genuine. I think building a relationship is always that. When you go look someone in the eyes and tell them the truth, then they can be on the same page. And be vulnerable sometimes. Say, ‘I made a mistake. I didn’t do that right.’ Say that to them. I think that’s how you build trust and how you build a relationship.”