Bear Digest

Apparently Some Bears Need More Playing and Less Talking

Analysis: A disturbing report by the team's flagship station said demands were made by players to fire Shane Waldron and to bench Caleb Williams, conduct which only can lead to chaos.

Gene Chamberlain

A report says Bears were making demands of coaches about getting rid of Shane Waldron and also benching Caleb Williams.
A report says Bears were making demands of coaches about getting rid of Shane Waldron and also benching Caleb Williams. / Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images
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Just when you thought it couldn't get worse comes worse.

According to ESPN AM-1000, the Bears flagship station, everyone is not in lock and step behind Caleb Williams. Someone with the team wanted to see backup quarterback Tyson Bagent start.

Marc Silverman of Waddle & Silvy posted on Twitter: "There have also been a few veteran players requesting Bagent starts."

This sounds like a classic case of the inmates running the prison.

"After talking to a few people with knowledge of the situation, players went to Matt Eberflus & Ryan Poles asking them to make a change at offensive coordinator," Silverman tweeted.

What this doesn't say is when it all occurred.

Eberflus already conducts meetings with players on Mondays so most likely this would have occurred then. By then, Eberflus was already pondering a change at coordinator, anyway. In fact, he said as much when asked about it three times in various ways immediately after Sunday's loss. He said they were going to "look at everything."

If these demands happened before the game was played, then it's easy to see why they lost. Whoever would have been worried about anything other than their assignments on the field before a game should be sitting with Nate Davis on the inactive list every week.

This all goes back to the end of 2022.

When Eberflus and Poles were having exit interviews with players after the 2022 season, the thing they were told was they needed to listen more to players.

This was from the mouth of former Bears defensive tackle Justin Jones.

"I guess, just making this a better place for a lot more players to speak what's on their minds," Jones said referring to what players told coaches in discussions before leaving for the offseason. "You know, if a player doesn't agree with some of the things that we are doing, I think there should be an open space for you to air it out and say 'hey, I don't know why we are doing this,' and just be able to explain to them 'hey, this is what we are doing, this is why your job is so important and this is what it means for our defense.' "

Since that point there has been plenty of talk by coaches about communicating better and discussions with the players leadership council and the captains.

What did it all bring? Inmates are running the prison, that's what.

If this is what communicating with players means, then the age of the autocratic coach needs to return.

Imagine players with such demands of Mike Ditka in the day.

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How fast could someone be put on waivers?

As for the report some veterans asked for a QB change, this sounds either untrue or a totally stupid on the part of the players who are said to have done it if it is true.

Offensive linemen aren't going to coaches asking for such a move, especially none of these linemen. They don't know what's going on behind them or downfield, and more than half of them are injured.

It would be difficult to picture anyone doing it except possibly the veteran wide receivers.

They don't exactly have an abundance of veteran wide receivers so pinpointing who it could be if true is not difficult.

Such a thing would be a huge mistake on their parts.

Keenan Allen doesn't have a contract for next year. If he made such a demand, he could just about be certain he wouldn't be here after this season. He might not, anyway.

If it's DJ Moore, it's also a huge mistake. Williams isn't leaving. He'll be here next year. No one wants to be labeled a locker room cancer and persona non grata but that's what someone would deserve if they urged coaches to dump the rookie No. 1 overall quarterback pick, a passer who hasn't really had time to throw lately with all of the offensive line injuries, and has had an offensive coordinator who is now fired because of incompetence.

Or maybe it was 40-year-old Marcedes Lewis. If he made such a demand it would make even less sense beause it's unlikely he'll even have a role here after this season.

That's why this portion of the report doesn't even sound logical or accurate. It's just hard to believe someone would make such a ridiculous demand when it' was obvious they were going to change coordinators but that Williams is going to be here all the time.

If any of this is true, what Eberflus should do but definitely won't is disband the "leadership council," use captains only for the coin flips and henceforth all players worry about football rather than politics. Maybe he should tell them not to go on radio shows during the season, too. A lot of divisiveness comes out of those appearances they make, as well.

One thing they can all be sure of: Whoever comes in after Eberflus is gone is going to know exactly who the troublemakers are, if there really were any.

Twitter: BearsOnSI

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

BearDigest.com publisher Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.