Bears fire Shane Waldron, promote Thomas Brown to offensive coordinator

Shane Waldron is out after just nine games as the Bears’ offensive coordinator.

The Bears have fired Waldron and are replacing him with Thomas Brown, according to Tom Pelissero of NFL Network.

Brown previously had the title of offensive passing game coordinator, but now he’ll take over Waldron’s responsibilities and call the Bears’ offensive plays.

Something had to change in Chicago, where Caleb Williams has been disappointing as a rookie first overall pick. He played perhaps his worst game yet in Sunday’s loss to the Patriots, totaling just 120 yards on 16-of-30 passing, and losing 51 yards on nine sacks. That’s an average of just 1.8 yards on his 39 dropbacks, an unacceptable number for any NFL offense.

Whether Brown can get Williams back on track remains to be seen, but head coach Matt Eberflus obviously knows that if he doesn’t show progress with Williams this year, someone else is going to be coaching Williams and the Bears next year. Chicago has eight more games and probably needs to win at least five of them to save Eberflus’s job.