There were good reasons for the Chicago Bears to pull the plug on the Shane Waldron experiment following the team’s 19-3 loss to the New England Patriots in Week 10.
Despite working with Matt Eberflus to pick Waldron to develop Caleb Williams in his rookie season, the offense never really clicked outside of Week 5 and Week 6 against the Carolina Panthers and Jacksonville Jaguars, not exactly the best defenses in the league in 2024.
Per The Athletic, following the firing, a player stated that Waldron didn’t “demand things properly” from Williams.
The Chicago Bears “skipped” some steps
During an appearance Tuesday with Pro Football Talk Live, Poles confirmed that the Bears “skipped” some steps on Williams during the offseason in a rush to start him in Week 1.
“The foundation, I think, and I mentioned this before, I think it was probably some steps skipped in the very beginning just in terms of building the foundation,” Poles said. Some of the things that you have to have I believe to operate at a high level in this league, even as a rookie.”
Ryan Poles says the problems with Caleb Williams rookie season popped up bc they skipped some steps when laying the foundation.
Praised Caleb raising his level in high leverage situations this year. #DaBears #ChicagoBears pic.twitter.com/jgCQqCTUU9
— Clay Harbor (@clayharbs82) February 25, 2025
The Bears named Williams QB1 before he ever put on a practice uniform, believing that instilling unearned confidence was the best course of action for the No. 1 pick.
Caleb Williams got away with “bad habits” in Year 1
Poles said new head coach Ben Johnson will coach Williams much differently in Year 2, confirming that Williams’ “bad habits” will get called out this offseason.
“Ben will, he will not allow bad habits to short continue on, so it will be called out, it will be dealt with before we move on to the next thing I have a lot of confidence in that,” Poles said.
It’s unfortunate that it took an extra season and a $13 million coach to figure that out for a No. 1 pick.
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