Bear Digest

Shane Waldron Proud of Little Things Like Week 1 Bears Offense

Analysis: It's going to take more than 148 yards for Shane Waldron, Caleb Williams and the Chicago Bears offense to keep up with C.J Stroud and Texans.

Gene Chamberlain

Bears offensive coordinator Shane Waldron had to explain Sunday's fewest yards by a Bears offense since 2021.
Bears offensive coordinator Shane Waldron had to explain Sunday's fewest yards by a Bears offense since 2021. / Photo | Chicago Bears video
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Questions, questions and more questions for Bears offensive coordinator Shane Waldron after his offense arrived DOA for the season opener, with the fewest yards by the Bears since the mistake by the lake in Cleveland when Justin Fields made his first start against the Browns in 2022 without blockers against blitzes.

And Waldron skated around it all like a defenseman trying to kill time in the closing minutes of a Stanley Cup clincher.

What did the Bears do right on offense?

“For us on offense, starting with the no turnovers, we're always going to take pride in that,” Waldron said. “Being able to finish the game with flipping the field in a four-minute situation, those were positives we were able to take away.”

So Waldron was proud of the little things, which actually describes his offense well for the opener.

There won’t be many more attempts to kill the last four minutes of a game off with 148 yards of offense, at least until the Bears get to the soft underbelly of their schedule against Carolina, Jacksonville, Washington, Arizona and New England in succession. And Jacksonville is in London but they definitely can’t count that as an easy battle.

So Caleb Williams is going into a noisy, indoor stadium where they haven’t had a Sunday night game in five years and he just threw for 93 yards. What does the OC think he needs to do better, watch and imitate C.J. Stroud?

“I think for him, just going out there and playing with clean eyes, clean feet,” Waldron said.

There it is. Bears fans on opening day were most likely sitting at home or in Soldier Field thinking, if only Caleb had clean eyes and feet. A wash cloth perhaps is the answer?

“First chance to get out in a road environment which I'm sure will be rocking on Sunday night, to be able to get to operate that way,” Waldron said. “Great communication with his guys up front, and the receivers, the running backs, the tight ends, everyone supporting him and knowing that as an offense, we want to keep improving every single week.

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“What's that look like? Again, results will speak for themselves as we go out there, work at it, clean it up. The thing that gives us so much confidence as coaches, as players, is you come in here on Monday, we had a great week last week by our defense, by our special teams unit. I heard Tyrique talking about it, too, what a great brotherhood these guys have formed. Everyone has each other's back.”

The defensive and special teams guys will no doubt have sore backs if they keep carrying around Williams and Waldron’s offense in the future without improvement.

“Yeah, I think for Caleb it’s about reps and the more time he is out there, like anything, anyone that’s playing any of the positions, anyone that’s coaching, the more reps that we are able to accumulate, the slower it becomes each week in and out,” Waldron said of Williams. “I know Caleb had mentioned the tempo of his feet. I think just playing with that good clean tempo, and we mentioned clean eyes, clean feet and sticking to that.

“That’ll obviously lead to an improved accuracy on a couple throws here and there.”

The running game wasn’t exactly wearing people out, although they did get a key 20-yard run late by D’Andre Swift after a 14-yard end-around by wide receiver D.J. Moore, to account for 34 of the 80 yards they amassed.

“I think for us, that’s just part of the offense as a whole with what we want to be as a balanced system and starting with running the ball,” Waldron said. “(Line coach) Chris Morgan and the offensive line have done a good job talking about a group that started out yesterday bringing the right attitude, bringing the right effort.

“Those guys set the tone for practice like they will every day. Excited to see what those guys go out and do next week.”

The general questions went nowhere so the more specific targeting occurred. Like, why didn’t they play their top three receivers more on the field. They didn’t even get to 12 plays together.

“Yeah, I think just in terms of the flow of the game, I think starting with me, stuff we can do a better job of coaching is getting us into a better rhythm,” Waldron said. “I think we get in some of those games where we get in a little bit of an up-and-down rhythm throughout the course of a game, some of those personnel pairings that we’re looking to get to really didn’t play out the way we were hoping to as far as the course of the game.

“And it’s going to be tough each week, obviously, to have a perfect distribution of everyone’s reps right there, but it’s something we look at as a staff to how we can do a better job to help our guys, get in that rotation and get those guys out there together more often.”

Then again, getting them reps together might not be a problem this week because it might be the Big 1 because of injuries and not the Big 3.

Speaking of reps, the tight end from Barrington, Cole Kmet, who had 70 receptions last year, only had 27 plays to 34 for the backup tight end. 

“Yeah, to piggyback right off that, we know Cole is one of the top tight ends in the league,” Waldron said. “He does a great job for us. He has done nothing but the right thing ever since I’ve been around him.

“So, that’s more on us, starting with me, getting the reps a little bit more balance. But it also goes back to playing efficient football. And when we’re doing that, not getting titled out of some of the plays we wanted going into that game.” 

So, it’s a bit of a chicken-and-egg dilemma. They need to get Williams more reps to be a more effective passer, didn’t get Kmet enough reps or have the Big 3 on the field together more because of a lack of available reps, and the lack of reps results from not being successful enough and moving the sticks.

They’re right back to that annual identity crisis for the offense Matt Nagy and then Luke Getsy used to talk about.

They need to establish their identity.

“Each year is its own year,” Waldron said. “So, when we’re building the offense, the identities might form a little bit quicker.

“I think with our group right now, with the amount of newness and moving young players at certain positions, I think it’s something we know what we want to be, what we want to look like, and as we move forward, I think we’ll get closer and closer to that. I expect us to be there sooner rather than later as far as what our identity looks like. We know we want to be an attacking offense. We want to be able to feel the tempo, feel the rhythm of the game right now, and then be able to maximize the usage of all our different personnel.”

It needs to be an offensive identity with more than 148 yards.

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.