While the Chicago Bears players receive all the attention as training camp begins, the coaches have to bring it as well. It is especially true for offensive coordinator Shane Waldron.
As the Chicago Bears players report to camp, the fans and the NFL world want to see how they perform. Will the offense be as high-powered as many expect it to be? Will we be seeing the points pile up on the scoreboard? There are a lot of expectations for this offense and a lot of pressure on the players to perform.
The players are not the only ones with the pressure, however. The coaches have their pressure as well. They are trusted with the job of putting their players in a position They put in a system that emphasizes the players’ skill set.
Take Luke Getsy for example. He was unable to utilize his players’ best skills. That was especially true with the most important player on the roster — quarterback Justin Fields. He tried to turn Fields into what he envisioned, not for the one he had. Trying to change Fields turned him into a robot overthinking everything.
As a result, both Getsy and Fields lost their jobs. Getsy is now with the Las Vegas Raiders and Fields with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Now the Chicago Bears have Shane Waldron and Caleb Williams. Yes, there are a lot of other better players on the offense. However, WIlliams is the leader of that offense and Waldron is in charge of making the system successful.
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Waldron was hired to complement the new faces with the old. He has the advantage of having so much talent to work with. He has a lot of talent in every position. At wide receiver, he has an embarrassment of riches. He has D.J. Moore, Keenen Allen, and Rome Odunze to work with.
There is a lot of pressure on Waldron. We have seen other coaches fail despite having a lot of talent. Waldron wants to ensure that does not happen to him.
Waldron will run a markedly different offense than what Getsy did. Getsy was the old-school type of coach that matched the old-school franchise that the Chicago Bears were stuck in. He had a “run-first to assert your will” offense. The Chicago Bears have always been a run-first team. However, this is the modern day and to succeed you need to throw the ball.
The Chicago Bears started to move into the modern age of the NFL when they hired Ryan Poles to be the new general manager. He has been busy transforming the team. He has done a great job of it as well. He took a roster filled with aging veterans and bloated contracts and turned it into one with young athletic players and a great financial situation. The franchise is shedding its old-school ways.
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Waldron will help Poles get the team deeper into the modern age of the league. He has a modern offensive system. We will see a lot more of a two-tight-end scheme. The Chicago Bears will still run the ball, but passing with Williams will now be the priority.
We should expect Waldron’s offense to try to move the ball downfield as much as possible. WIlliams will have plenty of targets to choose from. Additionally, the running back situation will have an impact.
In the last two seasons in Seattle, Waldron gave Kenneth Walker 219 and 228 carries. He divvied up the rest of the carries among the backups. It will be interesting to see if things change with the Chicago Bears. Chicago has three talented backs in D’Andre Swift, Khalil Herbert, and Roschon Johnson.
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How will Waldron handle a running back unit like that? Will he continue to give the top guy most of the snaps and the backups the scraps, or will he distribute the snaps more proportionately?
From what Swift sees so far, he feels there are plenty of snaps available for the entire group.
Nowadays, you need that one-two, two or three, you need multiple guys. It’s a long season and there’s long games played. You need kind of multi-back system for the season to keep guys fresh and that sort of thing… For all the playmakers, for receivers, for backs, there’s a lot of opportunities out there in this offense.
It is Shane Waldron’s job to put everything together. He needs to be a better signal-caller (not a high bar to jump over) and have his players in a place to succeed. If his players understand his offense and he does a good job of calling the proper plays, it will be a fun-filled season.
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