NEWSLETTER
The Chicago Bears giving Shane Waldron the keys to the offense has been a widely applauded move — and with good reason.
Waldron is an experienced coach who has worked for Bill Belichick, Sean McVay, and Pete Carroll. In addition to calling plays, Waldron has also worked in different capacities and with various position groups. All in all, Waldron’s résumé has a lot to like. And if you’d like to dig in more, I strongly encourage you to read Patrick’s unpacking of the Waldron hire. It is thorough, to say the least.
But with that being said, not everybody is going to unconditionally love the Shane Waldron hire. Moreover, this moment featuring Seattle Seahawks receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba on CHGO’s Bears show was eye-opening:
I now fully understand what Taylor Swift meant when she sang “I never heard silence quite this loud” in the song “The Story of Us” from Speak Now TV.
OK, that line above was said fully in jest because I’ve long been picking up what she was putting down. But I’ll admit that it was a line that immediately came to mind after watching the silence in the 52-second clip above. It was just a few seconds, to be sure. And JSN laughed it off with a “Is this live? I’m playing.” Plus, he went on to say some nice things about the new Bears OC.
“He’s a great person, great offensive coordinator, I was very lucky to have him my first year,” Smith-Njigba said. “Learned a lot from him. I think him and Justin will mesh well. And adding more guys around him I think will be great. So we’ll see.”
I really hope folks don’t gloss over the second part of that exchange. But if they do, I’ll understand why.
Not everybody is going to love the Bears’ hiring of Shane Waldron
While Jaxon Smith-Njigba might’ve been playful with his remarks, Seattle radio voice Dave “Softy” Mahler was more blunt and raw with his assessment of the Bears’ hire:
“There’s nothing about this hire that excites me at all,” Mahler said in an interview with Chicago sports radio station 670 The Score in January. “Was there anything about the Seahawks offense that you watched the last two years that said, ‘Wow’? … His offenses are kind of predictable.”
Sheesh! I guess Bears fans aren’t alone in seemingly always being disappointed with the offensive coordinator.
For what it’s worth, the Seahawks ranked 17th in points and 21st in yards in 2023. Things were better in 2022, when Seattle scored the ninth-most points and racked up the 13th-most yards of offense. From an analytical perspective, the Seahawks offense ranked the 12th-best in 2023 and 13th-best in 2022 according to DVOA. In other words, there is some under-the-hood stuff that suggests that Seattle underperformed in some areas.
Frankly, I’m glad to see and hear that Shane Waldron’s hiring isn’t garnering unanimous and unchecked praise. Sometimes, it can be good to have a contrarian opinion or an opposing viewpoint. That kind of stuff can give depth and perspective. Plus, it is the type of thing that can invites you to try to see around blind spots.
To be clear, I like the Waldron hire. I think the Bears did the best they could with the candidates that were available for interviews. Not only did the team hire an offensive coordinator from a successful coaching tree, they did so while bringing on someone who has called plays before. After watching Matt Nagy and Luke Getsy struggle with the on-the-job learning experience, there is a level of comfort that comes with knowing that there is a “been there, done that” element when it comes to the new guy.
