On Thursday, New Chicago Bears offensive coordinator Shane Waldron spent most of his introductory press conference dodging questions about Justin Fields and Caleb Williams. But he offered a contradictory answer in his evaluations for the Bears 2024 roster.
Waldron confirmed he sent messages to Justin Fields and several other Bears players when he was hired. He said he was not allowed to meet with Fields or any players due to NLFPA rules.
Justin Fields isn’t watching tape like he said he usually does
For some reason, Waldron’s current QB1 on the Bears roster said this week he typically watches film at this time in the offseason but isn’t currently. Per CCS Media, here are Fields’ comments on his film study habits and how they’ve changed in an offseason they changed the OC while evaluating quarterbacks in the draft:
“The biggest thing with all of this going on, right? I just want it to be over,” Fields said. “Like, just let me know if I’m getting traded. Let me know if I’m staying, this and that. Because I like watching film in the offseason, I like watching offense, seeing what they are going to do and all that.”
Shane Waldron dodges questions on the current roster
One of the big questions Waldron dodged was who on the current roster intrigued him before taking the OC position. Waldron said he couldn’t comment on that because the roster isn’t set with a month to go before free agency. The Bears have a lot of work to do in free agency, the draft, and possibly a trade before the coaching staff can gauge how their roster is shaping up.
The Chicago Bears have exciting potential draft picks in April
Fair enough, except Waldron had sort of a subtle theme going on in his press conference. He consistently mentioned how excited he was at the possibility the Bears have to take top prospects with the first and ninth overall pick in the draft.
“It just felt very comfortable very quickly, with meeting [GM Ryan Poles and HC Matt Eberflus],” Waldron said. “And then having that piece of the draft puzzle where you get the chance to evaluate so many top players around the college game with those two high picks made it totally appealing.”
Right after that answer, Mark Potash, with the Chicago Sun-Times, asked Waldron if he had evaluated Fields and what he made of the quarterback’s third season in the NFL.
Did Waldron even evaluate Fields?
In a span of 30 seconds after Waldron gushed over the opportunity to evaluate top draft talent, the new offensive play-caller all but said he hadn’t done a full evaluation of Fields since coming to Chicago.
“I think for [Fields] and talking about individual evaluations, it’s been much more to build a staff, build our base of what we’re going to do. We started to get into our personnel and started to meet with the scouts and having a full evaluation of what our roster is going to look like,” Waldron said.
“So then moving forward over the next several weeks will allow us to make some decisions, not just at that spot but at all the spots because free agency is right in front of us right now. So, being able to put all that together is part of the process.
But for us, too, there’s that process of having a foundation as coaches and knowing what we want to be and how we want to present this so when we do talk about the players, how are they fitting in and everything that we’re looking to do.”
So sure, Waldron dodged that answer too. But Waldron dodged more questions about the current roster than the roster he can build in April.
That’s pretty telling.
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