Bears Player Says 'They Messed Up' Hiring Shane Waldron as OC 'to Begin With'

Amid all of the recent coaching turnover for the Chicago Bears, one player thinks many of the problems started during the offseason with the hiring of Shane Waldron as offensive coordinator.

Speaking to The Athletic's Adam Jahns and Dianna Russini, one unnamed Bears player said the team "messed up" by adding Waldron to the coaching staff "to begin with."

"He just didn't demand things properly," the player said of Waldron.

Even though the Bears decided to retain Matt Eberflus as their head coach after last season, their offensive coordinator job figured to be one of the most desirable openings in the NFL because of the opportunity to work with Caleb Williams, DJ Moore, Rome Odunze and Keenan Allen.

Waldron, who spent the previous three seasons as offensive coordinator for the Seattle Seahawks, was hired by the Bears in January. There were indications long before this season began that he may not be the right person for the job.

Appearing on the CHGO Podcast in February during Super Bowl week, Seahawks wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba gave an awkward answer when asked if Waldron was the right person to get the offense headed in the right direction.

Even though Smith-Njigba tried to pass it off as a joke, it's hard to recover from five seconds of awkward silence and then the first thing you say is "good luck" to the Bears.

There were even some comparisons being made to Waldron and Luke Getsy, who was the offensive coordinator in Chicago in 2023, because they both had experience working in the Sean McVay system.

The Waldron experiment flamed out after just nine games. He was fired on Nov. 12, two days after the offense put up 142 total yards and Williams was sacked nine times in a 19-3 loss to the New England Patriots.

It marked the first time since 1970 that the Bears fired their offensive coordinator during the season. The results under new offensive coordinator Thomas Brown have led to immediate improvements.

Williams has thrown for 827 yards, five touchdowns and completed 64.1 percent of his attempts in three games with Brown calling plays. He threw for 468 yards, no touchdowns and completed 50.5 percent of his attempts in his final three games with Waldron.

The organization continued to break from tradition by making Matt Eberflus the first-ever head coach they fired during the season when they dismissed him on Friday after a 23-20 loss to the Detroit Lions.

This is a lot of turnaround for a franchise that's trying to develop a rookie quarterback, but it's probably better to pull off the Band-Aid now to get it over and know that you are going to rebuild the entire coaching staff in the offseason rather than try to drag things out simply because that's how they've always done things.