The Chicago Bears wanted to go with somebody who had more experience as an offensive coordinator after firing Luke Getsy this off-season. After an extensive search, they opted for Shane Waldron. He’d done three years at the job with the Seattle Seahawks, during which he got good production out of both Russell Wilson and Geno Smith. He’d learned under top offensive minds like Sean McVay and Josh McDaniels. He seemed like a safe bet. So naturally, he turned out to be the exact wrong choice.
At least, that is how it looks at present. There aren’t many good things to say about the Bears at the halfway point. They are 28th in total yards and 19th in scoring. They’re 29th in passing and 23rd in rushing. Their 3rd down conversion rate of 31.48% is second-worst in the NFL. It is a mess. Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune decided to reach out to various people across the league to get their opinions on Waldron. The responses he got back were not encouraging. He explained on 670 The Score.
“People I’ve talked to that have watched them play look at it and they see a series of play calls. They don’t see a plan. Like, okay here’s the clear strategy. People who do this for a living, they can pick up on it. This was the opponent. Here’s what they were trying to do. And it’s seemingly more difficult to determine for these folks when they’re looking at Waldron. Obviously, what they’re doing is not clicking with a whole lot of success. You’ve got talented skill position people. D.J. (Moore), Rome (Odunze), Cole (Kmet), Keenan (Allen), D’Andre Swift. There’s no valid explanation for the inability to get more production out of them.”
Biggs has already reported that several players in the locker room are losing faith in him. They would welcome a change to the offensive coordinator position. His one solace is head coach Matt Eberflus can’t afford to do that because it would be a glaring indictment of his own ineptitude. That means Waldron has some time to possibly save himself before it’s too late. The best thing for him is to return to whatever he was doing in weeks 4-6. The offense functioned much more smoothly during that stretch, and Williams played better.
One thing he needs to focus on is getting Cole Kmet more involved. The tight end has one target over the past two weeks. That is inexcusable. Chicago is 5-3 in the last eight games where he was targeted at least five times. They are 3-5 in the last eight where he wasn’t. Shane Waldron still doesn’t seem to have a firm grasp of his personnel. Moore and Allen aren’t being used in ways that accentuate their strengths. Odunze leads the team in receiving despite having 16 fewer targets than Moore. It’s a mess.
Waldron needs to clean it up before it’s too late.
