Bear Digest

No One Asked for Benching Caleb Williams or OC Firing Claim Bears

The Bears say they're fully behind Caleb Williams and no one requested Shane Waldron be fired, contrary to a report circulating about strife within the team.

Gene Chamberlain

Caleb Williams explains some point about the offense to wide receiver DJ Moore during the Bears' loss at Arizona.
Caleb Williams explains some point about the offense to wide receiver DJ Moore during the Bears' loss at Arizona. / Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images
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Bears players and coaches went to extremes to make it known reports about demands Shane Waldron be fired or Caleb Williams replaced were entirely false.

That's their story, and they're sticking to it. However, they were adamant no one among their ranks demanded Waldron being fired with Thomas Brown taking over as new play caller.

"That was shocking," wide receiver DJ Moore said. "I don’t think anybody really asked for him to be gone.

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"We expressed our frustration, but never to have somebody's livelihood taken away. I mean, it's hard, but on to Thomas, and we got his back."

It might be naive to think expressing frustration wouldn't lead to some sort of move, but coach Matt Eberflus painted it as a decision he alone made.

"I mean, at the end of the day, the top is going to do what they do," Moore said. "Like, that's out of our paygrade.

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"We just go out there and get to play this game. And whatever happens up there with them making their decisions is what we got to live by and just go with it."

Caleb Williams is the focal point of everything with the Bears offense and it would be reasonable to suspect a quarterback could complain about an OC and cause problems. However, Williams said nothing like that happened beyond him being frustrated with his and the offensive players' efforts.

"I think the frustrations were shown and seen," Williams said. "But input and things like that, there's not much input that I think I put in, being the young guy, being the rook and going out there trying to make plays for the guys and win for the Bears, that could affect much of anything of their decisions."

Williams, himself, was the subject of complaints in one report by ESPN AM-1000's Marc Silverman. He had tweeted some veterans wanted to see Tyson Bagent playing quarterback.

"And look I saw some of the stuff about veterans asking for him to sit," tight end Cole Kmet said. "All those conversations have been about trying to help him out, wherever we can and finding solutions. Look, guys are frustrated."

Asked again if veterans had asked for the benching, Kmet laughed at the thought.

"Yeah, no, that's not happening," Kmet said.

Moore said the Williams situation is actually exactly the opposite of the report and players support their QB all the more with the struggles by the attack, especially after all the sacks he's taken as a rookie.

"You got to have support for him, no matter what," Moore said. "He's going out there, busting his butt, trying to learn everything at once, and the defenses are throwing a lot at him.

"So, you can't really be mad at him. You just got to still back him. Whatever he's doing, he's going to get better at, and he we're with him."

Williams himself said he has had nothing but good backing from veterans.

"I think those guys are good, easy," he said. "We talk about it. I have full support from them. I've gotten texts or calls or people coming up to me, with this situation that just happened, coming up to me and saying we've got your back, we're with you, things like that. And 'let's go.' That kind of mindset and attitude has been what it's been these past couple days. That's kind of what it's only been."

The source of their offensive frustration was obviously not getting to the end zone.

"Just everything in general," Moore said. "We didn't score in, like, three games. Now, we're really seeing that even if we try harder, it wasn't really good enough.

"So, that's where the frustration comes in."

Moore described some of the problems they were encountering with play calling, particularly with something that some players saw that might work.

"I want to say probably when we want to call it's probably like a drive too late, or, like, we wanted to make adjustments, and we just wait til halftime to make it and then we don't get the same (defensive) looks (then)."

The offense has had particular trouble scoring early. It doesn't sound as if the Bears offensive coaching staff was floundering in its preparation, but possibly in its adjustments.

"Nah, because you go through practice and everything looks good, and then you get out there and Sunday, the other team gets paid to do a heckuva job, too, and they come out with new looks," Moore said. "And we just didn't have answer for them back, then."

This one is a bit ironic because it was Waldron's ability to adjust that led to Eberflus wanting him as the offensive coordinator.

Now it's a different coordinator and players are genuinely upbeat about Brown's approach.

"It's a lot of new energy," Moore said. "He's excited to be out there. He's demanding. So, we got to go out there and do the best we can."

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.