On first-and-10 from the Jacksonville Jaguars’ 31-yard line in the second quarter Sunday, Chicago Bears offensive coordinator Shane Waldron called his best play this season.
An orbit motion going from left to right and back from wide receiver Keenan Allen was followed by a pump fake by quarterback Caleb Williams in his direction. Allen’s motion drew safety Darnell Savage’s coverage. Then came the fake screen toward running back D’Andre Swift to Williams’ right with guard Matt Pryor as his blocker.
All of this eye candy left tight end Cole Kmet wide open up the right seam. Kmet briefly blocked pass rusher Travon Walker before releasing on his route. Walker jumped on Williams’ pump fake to Swift while, behind the play, Allen raised his hands in celebration before Kmet caught the pass and broke two tackles to score.
“I think that was really creative,” coach Matt Eberflus said.
.@CALEBcsw with the double fake and finds @ColeKmet for the touchdown in London ‼️
📺: #JAXvsCHI on NFL Network
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/9Vky68cIuB— NFL (@NFL) October 13, 2024
It was a thing of beauty.
But it was hardly original.
Waldron brought the play with him to Chicago from Seattle, where he once called it for the Seahawks — also for a touchdown — after the San Francisco 49ers and coach Kyle Shanahan previously ran it against the Seahawks with tight end George Kittle.
In the NFL, the best plays tend to travel from city to city. In a way, it’s a concept that fits the career path of Waldron, who has gone from South Bend, Ind., to Foxboro, Mass., to Washington, D.C., to Los Angeles to Seattle to Chicago, where he’s now in charge of developing a quarterback taken with the first pick.
When it comes to quarterback play, Waldron’s career is full of varied experiences and the lessons that accompany them. He was a graduate assistant at Notre Dame under Charlie Weis in 2006 when Brady Quinn blossomed into a first-round pick, winning the Maxwell Award and Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award. In 2008, Waldron was an offensive quality control coach in New England when Tom Brady was injured in Week 1, but the Patriots went 11-5 with Matt Cassel as their starter.
In 2016, Waldron was an offensive quality control coach in Washington under coach Jay Gruden and offensive coordinator Sean McVay when Kirk Cousins earned his first Pro Bowl honors. The following season, he was McVay’s tight ends coach in Los Angeles as an offense was built from the ground up for Jared Goff in his second season.
Finally, Waldron was in his second year as the Seahawks’ offensive coordinator in 2021 after Russell Wilson was traded after 10 years in Seattle and the team pivoted to veteran Geno Smith, who was last a full-time starter in 2014 for the New York Jets.
“The biggest lesson that I’ve seen and tried to implement in each one of these things, from the learning process of what we saw early on to what it was with Geno to what’s here now is just not skipping any steps,” Waldron told The Athletic during a recent interview.
“Whether it’s a rookie quarterback or a veteran quarterback, it still comes back to great fundamentals, great understanding of defensive structure and building it from the ground up with each stop. So that when you get into the games, everyone’s on the same page.”
Sometimes that takes time. Sometimes you need actual games to learn from and discuss, which is what appears to have happened with Waldron and the Bears. After an uninspiring first three games, Waldron deserves credit for the offensive turnaround and Williams’ improvements during the Bears’ current three-game winning streak.
Williams became the first Bears quarterback to have three consecutive games of a 100.0 passer rating since Josh McCown did it in 2013. He’s also standing out among his NFL peers, ranking second in traditional passer rating, second in completion percentage, fourth in total EPA (expected points added) per play, seventh in first downs per attempt and second in tight window completion percentage over the past three weeks, according to TruMedia.
Conversations with Williams and other offensive leaders helped spark the Bears offense. Waldron, though, had no issues bringing that up during one of his weekly news conferences. What was once perceived as a negative now looks like a positive. Waldron said he wants that communication, that relationship. He said he saw that early on with McVay and Goff (years before things soured and Goff was traded).
“In L.A., starting with Sean, he did such a good job of really connecting and getting Jared going there,” Waldron said.
Waldron is now in the middle of doing the same with Williams and everyone on offense. When you have a rookie quarterback, two new receivers, different line combinations and a new position coach along with a new play caller, sometimes things take time to click. It’s happening, though. The recent results tell you that.
In wins against the Los Angeles Rams and Carolina Panthers, Williams was 17-for-19 passing for 200 yards and two touchdowns against the blitz, according to Pro Football Focus. Williams’ total QBR of 88.4 against the Jaguars led all quarterbacks in Week 6.
“When we’re calling the game, they’re anticipating the next call because we’ve already talked through all the basics and the premise of how we’re getting certain calls,” Waldron said. “And then that’s really where we’re at right now is building towards that with Caleb, whether we’re within a drive or we’re at certain points in the game, it’s just that connectivity through all the work you put in at the ground level. It’s not just starting assuming that, ‘Hey, let’s skip to Z, instead of starting with the ABCs of the basics.’”
For Waldron, coaching with Eberflus is a familiar experience. He started his NFL coaching career in New England, where Bill Belichick, a defensive-minded head coach, influenced offensive game plans. The same happened in Seattle, where Pete Carroll, another defensive head coach, had his say and his answers for Waldron’s game plans.
“I’ve figured out who I want to be philosophically, how I want to approach a game plan, how I want to do that,” Waldron said. “But then (it’s) getting great input, whether it was Pete Carroll and now Matt Eberflus, from the defensive lens. How they see things, getting that view. It’s almost like full circle back to the New England days of, ‘OK, let’s hear it from a defensive vantage point.’ So you can start to see one of your game plans and you know what gives those guys problems.”
Tougher defenses await the Bears on their schedule, but their past three games have allowed them to figure out what they do well after so many changes on offense. Sometimes it takes real games to do that.
In London, general manager Ryan Poles was asked about what he’s learned about Waldron.
“His openness,” Poles replied. “From scouting to coaching, we all have these philosophies that we have, but at the end of the day, it’s about the players and putting them in a position to be successful. So just identifying where Caleb’s at in his process. Do we need to slow it up? … Do we need to make decisions like getting into no-huddle and a tempo situation so he can get into a rhythm? Changing the cadence up. Different things like that. His ability to adapt on the fly has been impressive as we’ve gone.”
Days later, Waldron’s offense surpassed 30 points for the second consecutive week as the Bears routed another opponent. The Bears didn’t win ugly. They won big with Williams and Waldron.
“We had a good flow going. The offensive staff is really doing a good job of helping a lot of those ideas and the execution piece with the positions,” Eberflus said. “But yeah, I thought (Waldron) called a really good game.”
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(Top photo: Kirby Lee / Imagn Images)
