Will the Raiders get a jumpstart on offense with former offensive coordinator Luke Getsy out of the picture?
If it doesn’t happen, it won’t be for a lack of trying.
A report this week indicated the offensive coaching staff spent a tremendous amount of time over the bye week reviewing film. Based on comments from newly promoted offensive coordinator Scott Turner, there will be adjustments to the offense, and portions of the playbook may have already been thrown in the trash.
From the outside, it’s hard to know where things went wrong for Getsy, but team color commentator Lincoln Kennedy shared a few thoughts on the situation this week on his podcast.
“The thing is that Luke Getsy did not have a plan for the people that he was dealing with,” Kennedy said on The Morning Grind podcast.
“I actually think it stems more from the quarterback perspective, because he didn’t have enough time to do anything,” Kennedy continued. “[Getsy] didn’t have enough time and there wasn’t enough creativity in his play calling and his ability to create plays that would open those things up.
Kennedy went on to say his assessment was “tongue in cheek” because the best coaches in the league are able to make adjustments to fit their personnel during the season.
That was something Getsy was never able to do, Kennedy said.
Looking back, the Getsy hire wasn’t one that made a lot of sense in the first place. He had just been fired by the Chicago Bears and wasn’t even close to being the Raiders first choice for the job.
Getsy also didn’t hire a very impressive staff.
According to CBS Sports insider Johnathan Jones, very few members of Getsy’s staff had familiarity with each other prior to joining the Raiders. They also didn’t have a lot of experience.
“Let’s look at how this coaching staff is constructed. You had offensive coordinator Luke Getsy, who was not their first choice. We know their first choice was Kliff Kingsbury and then he dipped out…” Jones said on Pushing the Pile podcast.
“This was a group of staff that was a hodgepodge, that was all kind of thrown together,” Jones continued. “No one really had a lot of familiarity with more than one or two other members on that offensive staff, and when you have that, and when you have bad quarterback play… as bad as it is right now, honestly, I think it’s probably going to get worse for the Raiders.”
Maybe the most bizarre detail to Getsy’s short tenure in Las Vegas was the way he seemed to find success early in games but was rarely able to field a competent offense beyond the first drive of the game.
“I think the nail in Luke’s coffin was the fact that they have done well on these first drives. They scored touchdowns for the last five games. And after that, they were terrible,” The Athletic’s Vic Tafur said on the Just Win podcast last week.
“So I think you can’t just say, ‘Hey man, these guys suck. I can’t score.’ Because, obviously, you can score at some points. So some of those breakdowns, I don’t know what the adjustments are. If they knew the answer, they’d fix it. But clearly something’s wrong with that formula where you can score early and then you’re toast the rest of the game. So I think that really was the last draw for Antonio and the guys above him as far as making a change.”
The next chapter for the Raiders begins on Sunday against the Dolphins.
Will the new coaches be able to clean up the mess on offense or will the next eight weeks be more of the same?
Answers are coming soon.
x: @raidersbeat