The first victory of Matt Eberflus’ offseason came long before the Bears drafted Caleb Williams first overall, signed D’Andre Swift or traded for Keenan Allen. Flying around the country in January, Efberflus, just weeks removed from his own job security being in serious question, reshaped his offensive coaching staff.
First, he hired Shane Waldron, a coordinator with experience that their previous hire was lacking. Then Waldron helped to assemble a unit that included pass-game coordinator Thomas Brown, who had just completed a head coaching interview with the Titans, and quarterbacks coach Kerry Joseph, who had worked under Waldron with the Seahawks.
The three, combined with offensive assistants Ryan Griffin and Robbie Picazo, form Williams’ support system inside the quarterback room at Halas Hall. The Bears fine-tuned exactly what that looks like this offseason.
“There’s definitely a learning curve because you have new people coming together,” Eberflus said.
It takes a village to develop a quarterback. The Bears spent last seven weeks trying to ensure Williams didn’t feel he was getting advice from every single villager.
“Anywhere you go, the quarterback room is a popular spot for a number of different reasons,” Brown said. “One of the first things I said when I got here was trying to find ways of limiting communication. … Being able to have the chain of command in how we deliver information so it’s not overloading to the kid.”
Waldron, the Seahawks’ coordinator from 2021-23, runs the Bears’ offensive meetings and quarterback meetings. Joseph focuses on Williams’ fundamentals, from footwork to cadence. Brown feeds his ideas through Waldron, though he can address the meeting room or Williams on the field.
That structure is fairly typical — the Seahawks and Rams were similar in Waldron’s stops— but the Bears’ discipline about it is remarkable. The rookie will get feedback from everyone from Eberflus to his personal quarterback coach Will Hewlitt, but the Bears want to make sure the voice he hears loudest is Waldron’s.
“I think that starts with the communication amongst ourselves within the staff … different guys that are going to be around the quarterback,” Waldron said. “But knowing there is still a voice that’s coming from me that everyone is going to echo.”
Williams included.
“That’s one of the most — if not the most —important relationships on the coaching staff and throughout this team, for me to have, is my OC,” Williams said. “And for us to be on the same page throughout this process, and growing and learning from that.”
Waldron was a well-respected coordinator for three seasons, helping to turn Geno Smith into Comeback Player of the Year in 2022, but became available when the Seahawks surprisingly fired Pete Carroll this offseason.
Joseph was a star quarterback at McNeese State who, after playing four years at safety for the Seahawks, decided to go to Canada to chase his dream of becoming a pro passer. In 2007, he quarterbacked the Saskatchewan Roughriders to a Grey Cup title and was named the CFL’s Most Outstanding Player. He was Waldron’s assistant quarterbacks coach the last two years.
Brown was considered a rising star in the league when the Panthers hired him to help develop No. 1 overall pick Bryce Young last year. The Panthers quickly became a mess, with head coach Frank Reich calling plays, then handing the duties off to Brown, then taking them back and eventually getting fired. Before he was hired as the pass-game coordinator — Eberflus had never employed a coach with that standalone position — Brown interviewed for the Bears’ coordinator job. His previous experience working with Waldron was a major reason he took the gig.
Those disparate backgrounds lead to different ideas about what works.
“I would say one of the biggest things is philosophically, being able to find an area where we kind of align,” Brown said. “We’re not the same at all — we kind of have some different processes.”
That’s fine.
“I would hope that not everybody agrees with each other every single second of a meeting — because that would mean everyone is just saying yes to say yes,” Waldron said. “So we’ll have good, tough conversations with the goal being what’s right for our offense this year. And then when we break those meetings as a staff and go join the players, we’re all on the one unified front right there and presenting the same message to all our players.”
Particularly one of them.
“How do we get a quarterback to be the offensive coordinator on the field during the game?” Joseph said. “You continue to funnel that information to him.”
