Apparently, the Chicago Bears’ firing of offensive coordinator Shane Waldron might have been overdue.
The Bears’ offense is struggling, going without a touchdown in two straight games, and Waldron paid the price this week. He was fired and replaced by Thomas Brown.
While there were schematic problems with the Bears’ offense under Waldron, there was more under the hood. Some Bears players aired some of that out Wednesday.
Receiver DJ Moore has been critical of Waldron in the past. He questioned a bad play-call that contributed to a loss against the Washington Commanders, when there was a goal-line handoff to offensive lineman Doug Kramer and it was fumbled. Later, Moore hinted that head coach Matt Eberflus asked him to keep any criticism in-house.
Without Waldron in that house any more, Moore said that suggestions to Waldron were considered too late to be effective.
“When we wanted a call, it was like a drive too late,” Moore said when he met the media, via Kevin Wells of WGN Radio. “Or when we wanted to make adjustments and we waited ’til halftime to make it. And then we don’t get the same look.”
Bears receiver Keenan Allen said that issues ran deeper than that and went back to the offseason.
“Too nice of a guy,” Allen said, according to Kalyn Kahler of ESPN, via Dan Wiederer of the Chicago Tribune. “OTAs, camp, we fell into a trap of letting things go and not holding people accountable and that’s a slippery slope. Just professionalism and doing things the right way from the beginning.”
Moore told the media in Chicago that some frustrations were shared, presumably with Eberflus, but that he didn’t want to see Waldron fired.
Rookie quarterback Caleb Williams, whose struggles were a huge factor in the decision to fire Waldon, stayed away from any controversy.
“I don’t get to choose decisions, nor do I get to choose whether decisions are good, bad or indifferent,” Williams said, via NFL.com. “My job is to listen, and from there, go do my job.”
The Bears needed to make a change. The offense wasn’t performing well enough, and No. 1 overall draft pick Williams was falling into bad habits. That was obvious. There were some behind-the-scenes issues that made the move even more inevitable.