Shane Waldron All About Adapting

Analysis: Bears coach Matt Eberflus said he wanted an offensive coordinator who adapts to personnel and game situations and Shane Waldron fits the description.

The hiring by the Bears of Shane Waldron as offensive coordinator follows a plan put down by coach Matt Eberflus.

It might not hurt that Waldron also has Trace Armstrong as his agent, the former Bears defensive end who is also the agent for Eberflus and Ryan GM Poles.

However, what Waldron has done has met with a major requirement Eberflus said he had and that was an ability to adapt. 

"You have changes and you see it during the course of the year, how many backups played this year," Eberflus said when asked of requirements. "You got to adjust your scheme to fit the quarterback, you know, and the skillset that you have available to you be it at quarterback, receiver or tight end and the adaptability to be able to do that during the course of a season is huge. 

"So that would be the thing.”

There are several ways Waldron is an offensive coordinator who has shown he can adapt. It's not just adapting personnel, either. It's adapting within the game plan on a given Sunday, as well.

"It depends on who’s available for the skill, who’s available for that game, I think you have to be multiple that way and who you’re playing," Eberflus said. "Is the team really good at stopping the run and you’re going to have to find other ways to move the ball down the field? 

"I think that’s what we’re talking about, the multiplicity of being able to bend and adjust, not only before the game but also in game."

He called finding explosive plays as critical. 

"Given the explosives, which I think was referred to there, is how you score points, that’s how you score points," he said. "And again we’re going to have to continue to grow that way."

The offense the Bears will run under Waldron is going to look quite a bit different than the one they ran under former coordinator Luke Getsy, personnel aside.

It could look a lot different if personnel changes—specifically at quarterback and receiver—although in general they'll do things differently and emphasize the adaptability end.

Ball Control to Big Play

Big plays and scoring are being sought. The Bears have been a ball possession team on offense, producing little while possessing the ball for long periods of time. That's rather useless, except to keep your defense fresh.

They have also been among the worst teams in yards per play since Justin Fields became quarterback, even though he scrambles sometimes for bigger gains. They haven't been ranked higher than 20th in yards per play since he has been their QB and Getsy's two offenses ranked 20th at this in 2022 (5.3) and 24th (5.0) in 2023.

Waldron's Seahawks offenses never ranked worse than 11th in yards per play. They were 11th in 2023 (5.5), eighth in both 2022 (5.7) and 2021 (5.8). They get the big gains.

How important is the stat? This season the top nine teams were San Francisco, Miami, Detroit, Baltimore, LA Rams, Packers, Bills, Cowboys and Chiefs. In case the commonality escaped you, every single one of the top nine teams at this made the playoffs.

The Bears were third in time of possession this year even though they finished only 18th in scoring. They generally wasted their possessions.

The Bears haven't been in the top half of the league at this since 2016, when Jay Cutler was still their regular quarterback.

Seattle's offenses produced big plays and scored fast. The Seahawks finished last in the NFL in time of possession each of the three seasons Waldron was the offensive coordinator, although their running game has been fairly effective overall.

However, in doing so they put extreme pressure on their own defense due to lack of rest. Seattle's defense hasn't been ranked higher than 26th since Waldron became offensive coordinator, largely because of their own defensive issues. However, it also could be because of this problem as the offense left their defense out on the field too long.

The Seahawks had been 22nd on defense the year before Waldron became offensive coordinator. So it isn't entirely an issue with lack of complementary football.

How They Align

When Waldron came over from the Rams, L.A. had been known for playing a good amount of 12-personnel because it had two good tight ends. They even used quite a bit of 13-personnel. Their three tight ends were Tyler Higbee, Gerald Everett and Johnny Mundt. However, in Seattle, Waldron adapted. They used a little less, which made sense considering the Seahawks had two or even three great threats at wide receiver.  They brought in Everett at tight end but later replaced him with Noah Fant.  

The great example of Waldron's ability to adjust at quarterback is how Russell Wilson didn't work out and then didn't work out in Denver. They went to Geno Smith at quarterback and a journeyman backup QB suddenly began playing the way the Jets had hoped he would in 2013 when they drafted him. 

When Smith got injured this past year, Waldron quickly changed over to Drew Lock. He won a big game over the Eagles for them. 

The Bears could go either way with this quarterback situation but whether it's Caleb Williams or Justin Fields, they will have a coordinator who can adapt to the QB situations. 

They may need to upgrade receivers and even tight ends to have personnel who can give them big plays. They have DJ Moore but not a combination of receivers like the Seahawks had with DK Metcalf, Tyler Lockett and Jaxon Smith-Njigba. They have one tight end who could be counted on in Cole Kmet. Robert Tonyan Jr. is capable but wasn't used much by Getsy last year in an offense he knew from Green Bay.

For having that impressive group of wideouts and a bigger-play offense, the Seahawks finished only one spot ahead of the Bears in points (17th) and gained 5 less yards on the season than the Bears.

Resourceful OC

Another example of Waldron's adaptability is how the Seahawks were having problems with the length of their plays and having time at the line to get plays off. The Bears have had their issues with presnap penalties like delay of game or false starts. It's a headache.

When Seattle was suffering problems with confusion presnap, Waldron had Smith start wearing a wristband with plays by code according to the Seattle Times.

"Having the wristband is something that we can always utilize, especially some of the calls that might get a little wordy,” the newspaper reported Waldron as saying. “And really, it's not for Geno's ability to call the plays. It's really for the quick transition from me giving him the play so I don’t have to regurgitate the entire thing and then he has to do it again."

The overall result was making sure the Seahawks had a "clean operation," Waldron said.

QB Development

Waldron hasn't necessarily been involved in taking over a rookie quarterback and developing him, although he did play a big part in helping Jared Goff improve.

In Washington, he was a quality control coach and not QB coach while a younger Kirk Cousins was the QB.

By the time Waldron began working with Goff in 2018, it was only as the passing game coordinator. He became more involved in 2019 as passing game coordinator and quartebacks coach.

Whether he would be more ideal for developing a rookie quarterback like Williams rather than kick-starting the career of a player like Fields just like he did with Geno Smith is uncertain.

It's one of the unknowns the Bears will need to address as they head toward the draft.

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