Matt Eberflus Reportedly Tried To Weasel His Way Into Keeping Waldron

Shane Waldron is out. It took nine games for the Chicago Bears to realize they made a huge mistake hiring him as their offensive coordinator. His bland personality, passive voice, and lack of common sense as a play-caller led to a realization that things couldn’t continue. Coming out of the bye week, the Bears have scored just 27 points in three games. Caleb Williams has been sacked 18 times and has not thrown a touchdown pass during that stretch. Something had to change. The decision fell to head coach Matt Eberflus.

For everybody outside the organization, dismissing Waldron was the easiest solution. However, it appears Eberflus wasn’t keen on that idea. In fact, it took until Tuesday for the announcement to come down because the head coach was actively pushing for a way to keep the embattled coordinator. Yes, really. Tom Pelissero of NFL Network appeared on The Rich Eisen Show, where he shared details of Eberflus’ proposed compromise. Let’s just say it was as weak as you’d expect.

“My understanding, as of last night, was that the plan was going to be: Waldron would stay. They’d potentially move him upstairs, change some things operationally, but that he was going to remain the offensive coordinator. But Shane Waldron got called in by Matt Eberflus around 7:30 Central this morning, and [was] told that they were indeed going to make a change. They had a staff meeting at eight, everybody found out that it was going to be Thomas Brown now taking over as offensive coordinator.”

Matt Eberflus trying to keep Waldron doesn’t feel like a football decision.

Remember that multiple players are said to have approached him and GM Ryan Poles asking for a coordinator change. They realized almost immediately that Waldron was utterly out of his depth. For Eberflus to still try to keep him in charge and propose a “solution” of moving him to the booth is incredibly ignorant. Waldron still would’ve called plays and been asked to lead the offensive locker room. Nothing would’ve been fixed. The truth is this effort by Eberflus feels less like a football decision and more like pure optics.

Let’s not forget the Bears head coach already fired one offensive coordinator earlier this year. That is in addition to most of the offensive staff. No fewer than eight assistants under Matt Eberflus have been fired or resigned since he took over in 2022. The fact he couldn’t pick a new offensive coordinator to last more than nine games reflects incredibly bad on him. Eberflus probably hoped his proposed solution could give Waldron one last chance to get things going.

However, if that happened, it is almost certain he would’ve invited a full-on mutiny from the players. As a result, Waldron was fired.