Shane Waldron hasn’t had a great time lately. The former Seattle offensive coordinator came to the Chicago Bears with plenty of hype. He’d had considerable success over the past three years, getting some productive seasons out of the resurgent Geno Smith. Many felt his ability to develop quarterbacks was precisely what the Bears needed as they prepared to welcome Caleb Williams. Unfortunately, the season’s first three weeks have been nothing short of a disaster.
Williams has been sacked 13 times. Chicago has the 30th-ranked rushing attack in the league. Worst of all, Waldron is making some pretty awful play calls. Nothing exemplifies this more than calling a speed option on 4th and one at the goal line against Indianapolis last week. Former league MVP Cam Newton took one look at it on his podcast and wasted no time going after the source of the issue.
“That’s not a good play call. This is not Caleb Williams’ fault. This is not D’Andre Swift’s fault. This is the play-caller.”
He went into details.
The play was dead on arrival because of what Waldron asked his players to do. Specifically, it was asking left tackle Braxton Jones to somehow seal off #94 Tyquan Lewis despite the defensive end being lined up on his outside shoulder.
“There’s a defender that’s stacked over the outside edge of [the defensive end]. That’s who the tackle has to go get…
… He has to get to the guy that’s screaming — who touches the running back first. That’s who he’s trying to block. See how fast he gets there. You think [Jones] can get there? … He’s trying to run down a guy who’s 215 pounds and runs a 4.6, 4.7. The guy trying to block him is 315 pounds and runs a 5.2. Hello? Certain things just ain’t gonna happen.”
It’s a good thing Newton didn’t see earlier Shane Waldron calls.
One that has a ton of people outraged happened in that same sequence when he asked 5’8 wide receiver DeAndre Carter to block Lewis on a run play. Predictably, the defensive end blew right through him to help make the stop. As to the option play, many couldn’t understand why the Bears didn’t just kill the play. Williams had that authority at the line of scrimmage. This means either Waldron didn’t have an alternative ready, or the quarterback didn’t see the danger. In reality, it was simpler than that.
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Chicago didn’t break the huddle fast enough.
By the time they reached the line of scrimmage, the clock was already ticking down. If Williams had tried to kill the play, it almost certainly would’ve resulted in a delay of game penalty. That put the rookie in no-mans-land. He either went with the original play with a low chance of working or accepted the likely penalty. He chose the former. Still, this doesn’t excuse Shane Waldron from anything. The original call was still doomed from the start. Nobody with common sense runs an option in such a congested area. Newton had no problem pointing that out.
