Caleb Williams won’t have any problems adapting to a new offensive coordinator

The Chicago Bears’ 2024 season is officially on life support. And even that might be too kind.

After losing to the two-win New England Patriots on Sunday, the Bears have now lost three straight games on the eve of a three-week run through the NFC North. Up first are the nemesis Green Bay Packers, who are already big road favorites to smash Matt Eberflus and the Bears at Soldier Field in Week 11.

At this point, wins and losses come second to Caleb Williams’ development, which has been put in reverse because of the ineptitude of offensive coordinator Shane Waldron. Spend a few minutes on Twitter and check out tweets by football heads who are way smarter than me, they all say the same thing: Waldron’s lack of creativity and failure to marry concepts together has caused Williams to take some massive steps backward despite showing so much promise just a few weeks ago.

Williams had a passer rating of 106.6, 126.2, and 124.4 in Weeks 4-6. It was such an encouraging stretch of games. But since Week 8, he’s faceplanted with ratings of 59.5, 68.9, and 63.2.

Caleb Williams has been sacked, pressured, forced into bad throws, and, at times, has held onto the ball too long. He’s trying hard to stay in the pocket and go through his progressions, but when his receivers are running routes that make his job much more difficult, it turns into a rattled young passer in an offense that’s downright ugly.

The Bears certainly aren’t changing quarterbacks anytime soon, nor should they. Williams is the most talented pure quarterback in franchise history. So, in an effort to fix him and the offense, the first sacrificial lamb must come from the coaching staff, and it has to be offensive coordinator Shane Waldron.

Some may argue that changing offensive coordinators halfway through a rookie quarterback’s season is a recipe for disaster. However, that isn’t the case for the Bears. Maintaining the status quo is the worst-case scenario. If there are any concerns about Williams’s ability to adapt to a new play-caller, erase them. Williams himself said he’d be just fine.

“They’re not going to reinvent the wheel in a sense,” Williams said of potentially having a new play-caller. “We’re midseason. It’s not a decision for me. I have to do whatever Coach says. I have to deal with whatever decision he makes, and I have to be fine with it. Will I be able to adapt? Yes, I will. We will be able to adapt to whatever decision he makes, and then from there, we have to go out there and execute and win games.”

It almost sounds like Williams would welcome the change, doesn’t it?

Matt Eberflus will meet with the media on Monday about what many expect to be a formal change at play-caller. Has the change been made by the time you read this? Celebrate. If not? Then, it’s time to mourn the 2024 season.