Chicago Bears head coach Matt Eberflus declined to describe the process he followed before firing Shane Waldron, but said he dismissed the first-year offensive coordinator on Tuesday morning and promoted passing game coordinator Thomas Brown to the position.
“It’s obviously a big decision. It’s not taken lightly. We’re still running the same type of verbiage,” Eberflus said Wednesday. “My decision, I’ve always used council — meeting with (GM) Ryan (Poles) on Wednesday. But my decision.”
When asked about any assurances he received about job security in the meeting with Poles and chairman George McCaskey, Eberflus said, “You know what? We weren’t talking about that. We were talking about solutions going forward.”
With a 14-29 overall record and 0-4 mark against this week’s opponent, the Green Bay Packers, Eberflus clearly felt the urgency of the situation one week after saying no change was coming at offensive coordinator.
Eberflus said players told him they want to “do more” as a group and individually and shared their frustration with him before he shared his decision to fire Waldron on Tuesday morning. Waldron spent the previous three seasons with the Seattle Seahawks and was hired to replace Luke Getsy, who was fired by the Bears at the end of the 2023 regular season.
Saying it was because the offense “struggled the last three weeks,” Eberflus said there was no choice but to find a way to get better. He said getting playmakers in the open field was a persistent problem and credited quarterback Caleb Williams for making plays, but called on the rookie to become more consistent.
Williams hasn’t thrown a TD pass during the current three-game losing streak and the Bears have allowed 15 sacks while scoring 12 points in the past two games.
To get there, Eberflus said there is only one path for Williams’ improvement: live reps.
“Caleb has been confident throughout this whole process. You have to have confidence in your abilities,” Eberflus said. “You have to have confidence in what you can do. I think that’s important.”
Brown failed to spark confidence or generate points with his last rookie No. 1 pick at the position, Bryce Young, when he was promoted to the play-caller role in 2023 with the Carolina Panthers.
But Eberflus said Brown was the best option “in the building,” noting the change at coordinator was too significant to look outside Halas Hall.
“We want efficient, effective offense. The run game, the screen game, play-action pass, dropback pass, A to Z,” Eberflus said. “What I’m looking for in the offense is creativity. Getting the guys open, it takes creativity. It takes everybody working together to find answers.”
