Bear Digest

Shane Waldron Pinpoints Key Growth Point for Caleb Williams

Analysis: Bears offensive coordinator Shane Waldron cites the faulty helmet mic situation and how Caleb Williams and the offense adapted as an example of their ability to be effective under fire.

Gene Chamberlain

Caleb Williams' ability to overcome the helmet mic fiasco against the Bengals is being called a key point for the Bears offense.
Caleb Williams' ability to overcome the helmet mic fiasco against the Bengals is being called a key point for the Bears offense. / Daniel Bartel-Imagn Images
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The preseason struggles suffered and then solved by the starting Bears offense against backups from Cincinnati ultimately indicated real progress by quarterback Caleb Williams and others in the attack.

At least this is how Bears offensive coordinator Shane Waldron interpreted it when three straight three-and-outs occurred to start that game.

It was the sequence of plays, caught on HBO's Hard Knocks, when Williams' helmet speaker stopped working. Waldron thinks it showed how well they can handle pressure situations.

"Throughout the years, every now and then a headset goes out for whatever the reasons," Waldron said.


Someone needs to tell Waldron it seems to happen in Chicago an awful lot, or at least it has in the past. Sometimes it seemed Jay Cutler would have been better equipped for this if they'd given him old-fashioned walkie talkies from Radio Shack.


Williams pulled things back together in that preseason game and led two scoring drives before leaving at halftime.

"When you have a foundation of communication in terms of building relationships with people along the way, that just builds that armor for when stuff gets difficult in the course of a game like that situation that presented itself," Waldron said. "There is no panic. We can get through it."


Waldron saw it as a triumph of the team and their communication process. Williams was able to talk it all through on the sidelines.

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"Defense, special teams held their own and did a great job," he said. "We had a little bit of a slow start right there, and (were) able to get right back there and he's able to lead a touchdown drive after we worked through some of those things early on.

Waldron sees being around veteran players and coaches as a key to this quality for Williams.

"I think it's a credit to the coaching staff and whet they are able to do, being able to talk it through with veterans like Keenan Allen and DJ Moore," Waldron said. "These guys have been great, Cole Kmet, Gerald Everett."

The experience of veterans with this has been critical, but Williams experienced no problem picking up on this. Waldron had commented on this right after that win.


"it's a great trait that he has, like when we get over to the sideline and you look at the surface but before you even look at the surface he can already tell you the why behind each read and I think, to me, that’s the most important part," Waldron said then. "If he’s not seeing it clearly or something like that, that’s where you really need to go back and go through it."

It's all about the communication. Williams is not too big to step up and talk about problems on the sidelines.

"One of the things about growing as a player or as a coach is that good two-way communication with everything," Waldron said. "If there was something that we were teaching initially that might have been done differently at another place, having a good conversation–we had those good conversations throughout the offseason and feel like we are at a good spot now where we were able to bring all that together."

They just need to make sure they're actually able to communicate with the helmet mic during the game. It makes things easier.

Maybe having another functioning helmet with a mic and speaker ready and waiting might make the job easier for everyone even if they are good at communicating.

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.