Courtney Cronin, ESPN Staff Writer January 23, 2024, 8:10 a.m. ET
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- Courtney Cronin joined ESPN in 2017 and originally covered the Minnesota Vikings before moving to the Chicago Bears in 2022. Courtney is a frequent panelist on Around the Horn and host of Best Week Ever on ESPN Radio. She also co-hosts the Chicago Bears Podcast on ESPN 1000. She previously worked as a multimedia sportswriter at the San Jose Mercury News.
CHICAGO – The Chicago Bears know who will be calling offensive plays in 2023, and now they have to figure out which quarterback will execute them.
The Bears plan to hire Shane Waldron as their next offensive coordinator, a source told ESPN, less than two weeks after beginning an extensive search that included interviews with nine candidates.
Waldron replaces Luke Getsy, who was fired on Jan. 10 along with four members of the Bears' offensive staff. Waldron, 44, comes to Chicago after three seasons in Seattle, where he was offensive coordinator and playcaller for the Seattle Seahawks.
In Chicago, Waldron will either accompany Justin Fields into his fourth season or help a rookie like USC's Caleb Williams, whom the Bears can select with the first overall pick.
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Waldron's NFL career began in 2008 under New England's Bill Belichick, continued in various roles under Sean McVay in Washington and Los Angeles and spanned the last three years under Pete Carroll, whose tenure with Seattle ended earlier this month after 14 seasons ended. He will now play under Matt Eberflus, who has taken over as head coach.
Waldron's three years of playing experience and working with multiple quarterbacks were an asset to Chicago. As the problems in the Bears' passing game became more apparent toward the end of a 7-10 season, so did the questions surrounding Fields. While the 24-year-old quarterback improved in his third season, Fields finished the season ranked 24th in QBR (46.2) and 21st in EPA/Play (.054).
While the Bears haven't committed to Fields for the 2024 season, nor do they want to put the No. 1 pick on a rookie quarterback, the guiding principle in the Bears' search was to find an offensive coordinator who could maximize his talent while also being a more balanced one A unit that ranked second in rushing (141.1 yards/game) and 27th in passing (182.1 yards/game) can create offense.
“The ability to adapt to existing personnel is critical,” general manager Ryan Poles said Jan. 10. “We’ve seen this throughout the league.”
“There are some teams that have actually gotten better through a lot of changes. If you don’t have the ability to adapt to the talent you have at that position, it’s going to be really difficult.”
While the hire doesn't reveal which direction the Bears prefer at quarterback, here's a look at Waldron's track record and what it means for the Bears' offense.
How have other quarterbacks performed under Waldron?
Waldron has worked with a variety of quarterbacks with unique skill sets, from Jared Goff to Russell Wilson to Geno Smith.
Goff had two of his best seasons in terms of pass production with Waldron as the Los Angeles Rams' passing game coordinator (2018-20) and quarterbacks coach (2019). During the Rams' run to the Super Bowl in 2018, with McVay calling the shots, Goff – the top pick in the 2016 draft – threw for a career-high 4,688 yards (8.4 yards per attempt), 32 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. His 2019 season recorded a similar output – 4,638 passing yards – with 22 touchdowns and 16 interceptions while leading the league in pass attempts (626).
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Waldron was named Seattle's offensive coordinator in 2021, taking on playcalling duties for the first time. During his only season as Wilson's offensive coordinator, the quarterback recorded his second-lowest throwing time (2.78 seconds) and finished in the top 10 in QBR rating (60.6) and passer rating (103.1), as Waldron in this one As the Seahawks' offense made its mark this season, Seattle ranked 11th in rushing and 23rd in passing.
Waldon's greatest success came in 2022 when Smith became Seattle's quarterback. After four seasons with the Jets (2013-16) in which he completed 57.9% of his passes for 5,962 yards, 28 touchdowns and 36 interceptions, Smith thrived in Waldron's offense last season, leading the league in completion percentage (69, 8%) of passes for 4,282 yards, 30 touchdowns and 11 interceptions while also being named Comeback Player of the Year.
What are the basic requirements for a crime cited by Waldron?
The Seahawks led the NFL in play-action usage (27%) from 2012 to 2021, but after trading Wilson to the Denver Broncos, they ranked 15th in Waldron's final two seasons, according to ESPN Stats & Information. Seattle used multiple tight end formations at the fourth-highest rate in the league from 2022 to 2023 after finishing 19th from 2012 to 2021.
When it comes to playcalling, the Bears and Seahawks have been at opposite ends of the spectrum in passes and runs called over the last two seasons. As of 2022, Seattle ranks seventh in passes designed (64%) and 26th in runs designed (36%), while Chicago ranks 30th in passes designed (55%) and third in runs designed runs (45%).
The contrast extends to designed runs for the quarterback. Seattle had just eight from 2021 to 2023, the fifth fewest in the league, compared to Chicago's 82, the third most.
How different will the Bears offense look?
Signing Waldron means the Bears' offense will operate in some ways similar to what it did under Getsy, who was also part of a variant of the Kyle Shanahan tree and coached under Matt LaFleur in Green Bay.
One area where this is prevalent is outside of the bag games. From 2021 to 2023, Seattle quarterbacks left 16.5% of dropbacks, the fourth-highest rate in the league. From 2021 to 2023, the Bears had the highest rate (18.1%) of dropbacks involving QBs playing outside the pocket.
Both Chicago and Seattle averaged 20 points per game in 2023, but the Bears had the second-highest time of possession in the league (nearly 32 minutes per game), while Seattle had the lowest time of possession in the NFL (26:47). . Essentially, both teams scored the same number of points even though the Bears had the ball for five extra minutes per game.