Normally, players choose to avoid the topic whenever a head coach or assistant coach gets fired midseason. They don’t want to kick a guy when he’s down or don’t want to come across as a malcontent. Boy, that is not the case at all for multiple Chicago Bears players after offensive coordinator Shane Waldron got canned on Tuesday. In the 24 hours since, three different players including quarterback Caleb Williams and wide receiver D.J. Moore took subtle jabs at their former coach. However, by far the craziest comments belonged to Keenan Allen.
The six-time Pro Bowl receiver went past candid straight to diabolical honesty when asked about why Waldron failed. He didn’t sugarcoat it. Put simply, the guy was too weak-willed for the job being asked of him.
“I would say just probably he was too nice of a guy. I think during OTAs, training camp, he kind of fell into a trap of letting things go, not holding people accountable. Obviously those things lead to a slippery slope.”
That goes a long way in explaining why the offense always had too many penalties, weren’t on top of small details, and never seemed to give the same effort and intensity. Allen went a step further. He indicated a big problem with Waldron was an unwillingness to adjust his approach when things weren’t working. He’d just keep doing the same stuff over and over, expecting better results.
“Better sooner than later. We have to make some things happen. So if it wasn’t happening then? Insanity, man, we all know that definition. So. We just have to make this change and see what happens.”
Keenan Allen was likely a key voice in the locker room coup.
Reports have surfaced that Bears players basically staged an intervention, going to GM Ryan Poles and head coach Matt Eberflus asking for a change. It was beyond clear to them that Waldron didn’t have the werewithal for the job. He was in over his head. Letting the charade go on any longer threatened to derail the entire season. Eberflus tried to mediate, offering the idea of moving Waldron to the booth, but that wouldn’t have solved the underlying issue. He wasn’t a leader. Moving him off the sideline wouldn’t change that. So the Bears did the only thing they could. Waldron was fired. Keenan Allen may sound harsh in his comments, but it’s still the truth. This game is not for the kind-hearted. It is difficult, violent, and demanding. You need somebody in charge who understands that.
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@Slip Knotz
Brown wasn’t the “leader on offense.” He was “passing game coordinator.”
One of two things come from that: 1) He too, is incompetent (the passing game HAD no coordination), or 2) Waldron pushed him aside and listened to no one.
We are about to find out.
Two things: Keenan Allen has seen good and bad from other organizations (Brandon Staley got fired mid-season from the Chargers).
The other much more important and ongoing issues: that PLAYERS, veteran players, have to tell a HEAD coach, and GENERAL manager what is going on with the team. If these guys oversee an organization, they SHOULD BE the FIRST to know, not the LAST.
Learn quickly or be fired. Isn’t that what they did with Chase Claypool? Isn’t that what they should have done with Nate Davis?
OK, now let’s see some results.
I don’t know if this article has any truth to it but it is food for thought. On Defense, having Washington be the leader of men while Flus calls the plays is working quite well.
So I can understand why Flus may have thought that Waldron calling plays from above could work too while having Brown be the leader of the Offense on the field.
Perhaps the problem was simply Optics in the Chicago media. I suspect someone in the building suggested a head needed to roll because the media worked up a frenzy.
Just my .02
JMScooby is that’s the case then Schooler must have sucked in HS. I even own multiple sacks in HS and that’s playing CB. I know he played in the box, but even then, as an NFL athlete to not get any sacks in HS is a travesty.