Spring brought a sense of hope and renewal to Chicago.
The season itself can certainly accomplish that task, but more than anything else that sense of hope and renewal came on the gridiron. With Ryan Poles adding a ton of talent during free agency, and then adding quarterback Caleb Williams with the first-overall selection and pairing him with wide receiver Rome Odunze with the ninth pick in the draft, there was a belief in Chicago that the Bears could make a realistic push for the playoffs.
Now, fresh off a loss to the lowly New England Patriots at home, big changes are coming to the Bears.
Offensive coordinator Shane Waldron, who was tasked with getting the most out of Williams, has been fired. Thomas Brown, the team’s passing game coordinator, will step into the offensive coordinator role. Brown has experience under his belt as an offensive coordinator, as he served in that capacity both at the University of Miami, as well as last season with the Carolina Panthers.
Under Waldron’s stewardship, the Bears offense has floundered, and Williams’ development has languished. As of this moment, the Chicago offense has gone 23 offensive possessions without a touchdown, and their 277.7 yards per game is the third-worst in the NFL. The Bears rank 24th in the league in scoring offense, averaging just 19.4 points per game.
As for Williams, the rookie QB is near the bottom of many passing metrics. He ranks 30th in the NFL in Adjusted Net Yards per Attempt, with a mark of just 4.46. That places him behind fellow rookies Jayden Daniels (who ranks fifth in the NFL in that category), Bo Nix, and Drake Maye. Sacks have also been an issue for the rookie passer, as Williams has been sacked a league-high 38 times.
With Williams and the Bears losing to Maye and the Patriots on Sunday, that might have been the final straw for Waldron.
