Bear Digest

Thomas Brown Reveals Secret to Week 1 Success as Coordinator

The new Bears offensive play caller has a philosophy aimed at matching the attack to the talent he as available.

Gene Chamberlain

New Bears offensive coordinator Thomas Brown is getting accustomed quickly to his new position.
New Bears offensive coordinator Thomas Brown is getting accustomed quickly to his new position. / Daniel Bartel-Imagn Images
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The real question Matt Eberflus needs to answer these days is not why they avoided putting the ball at the right hash mark for Sunday's ill-fated kick.

Instead, it is you interviewed Shane Waldron and Thomas Brown for offensive coordinator and determine Waldron should get the job? And you did this because...?

Brown has suddenly become a Bears fan favorite because of a few things he has said or done in his week as coordinator, and players have loved how he put them in position to make plays.

Maybe the most distinctive statement Brown made Thursday during the offensive coordinator's weekly press conference was his answer to how he balances his own offensive style with rookie Caleb Williams' knowledge of Shane Waldron's attack? After all, he is still using Waldron's offense.

"Yeah, I think it's simple," Brown said. "It doesn't matter what I'm comfortable with. I don't play. So, I can always adapt or adjust.

"To me, it's my job as a coordinator to adapt and adjust to our players, to what our guys are doing. So, whether it's Caleb, whether it's the O-line, whether it's the receivers, tight ends or backs, it's our job to design a plan to obviously attack a defense but also to play to what we do well."

Ding, ding, ding, ding, bells, whistles and people on social media bowing down to pay homage to someone for saying something people have been demanding of a Bears offensive coordinator for decades. 

This was what Luke Getsy said he believed in when Matt Eberflus hired him as offensive coordinator, and he bent the attack badly to compensate for having a quarterback who read his first option in the progression, and then took off running. Getsy turned it into a college running attack good enough to finish first and second in rushing in two years and mired the team hopelessly near the bottom of the league in overall offense.

The Bears upgraded with Williams, and Keenan Allen and Rome Odunze in the receiver corps, added a back who can catch passes in D'Andre Swift and Waldron coached them exactly like he coached a veteran offense in Seattle when he had been entrusted by Ryan Poles with a rookie quarterback. Of course it didn't work.

Brown had an inkling early in the week their attack could improve.

"It felt good," he said. "That all starts with how you prepare, to me, when you get to game day. You've either done enough to give yourself a chance to play well or you didn't. So I kinda had good peace of mind based on what we did during the week, the game plan put together.

"My goal is always to put us in the best spot for our guys to make plays based on tendencies, based on how we set the game up, based on formation, motion, variations. So I definitely believe in marrying the run and the pass, marrying formations and motions."

The presnap motion is a key

"Trying to do a really good job of putting a seed of doubt in the minds of the defenders  before the ball is snapped to give us an advantage to go play more aggressive," he said. "The sequence was about, obviously, attack the defense to get our guys involved early in the game, spread the wealth around.

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"Obviously make those guys have to defend every blade of grass when it comes to the vertical passing game, to keepers, to screens, to the run game as well, and also ball out plays."

Brown really enjoyed the final drive of the first half Sunday, when they took the clock all the way down and scored on Roschon Johnson's TD run, then came back and had the ball right away.

"I thought it was methodical, I thought we took our time, nobody rushed," he said. "I think any time you're able to use up all the clock at the end of the half, not put the defense on the grass in that two-minute scenario and use the clock the right way, I think it's about us always playing urgent but never panicking, being calm, cool and collected in the moment and deliver. We did a good job on the goal line, on the 1-yard line.

"Roschon playing behind his pads as he’s done all year, and we find a way."

The key for Brown to it all is keeping communication open with Williams because he is only a rookie.

"I think it's a work in progress throughout the week, in making sure I'm communicating clearly and concisely with him," Brown said. "I'm also asking him for his feedback as far as if he wants some reminders in his headset about a particular play, or if he wants a reminder from an emotional standpoint–that's my job to alleviate the stress off of him.

"As an offensive play caller, it’s my job to alleviate stress from the two most stressful positions, which is the O-line and the quarterback."

Brown's job will be plenty stressful this week, as will Williams' and anyone else on offense. The Vikings' blitzing and different looks tests even veteran quarterbacks.

"Regardless of position, down and distance, it;s hard to find weaknesses in this defense," Brown said. "They do a really good job. I don’t know Brian Flores all that well, but I've met him a couple times.

"I think one of the biggest compliments you can get as a coach is your unit takes on your personality. They are aggressive, they are attacking, they are opportunistic, and so it's going to be important for us to go into the game, first and foremost, and play with no fear."

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.