Bears fire Shane Waldron, promote Thomas Brown to offensive coordinator

For the second time in eleven months, the Chicago Bears have fired their offensive coordinator. Shane Waldron was relieved of his duties on Tuesday morning, and the team promoted pass game coordinator, and former Carolina Panthers offensive coordinator, Thomas Brown to fill the vacancy.

In the midst of a three game losing skid in which Chicago has scored just two touchdowns and have not reached the end zone on 23 consecutive drives heading into Week 11, pressure mounted both internally and externally for head coach Matt Eberflus to make a change.

During his normal availability on Monday, Eberflus told reporters, “There has to be a change and adjustment to what we are doing because we obviously lost three in a row.” However, the coach would not confirm if that adjustment meant an impending firing or demotion for the offensive coordinator.

Instead, when asked about Waldron’s job security, the head coach reiterated, “Everything is on the table; it is important that we look at everything and take the time to get that done.”

Eberflus remained non-committal for the rest of his press conference on Monday, saying, “Like I said, the process of that – we’re going through that right now. All those adjustments and changes and things we are going to do we’re still in the evaluation phase of that.”

But it was clear that a change to the process as a result of the process was on the horizon. On Tuesday morning, we got our answer.

Through Week 10 (nine games), the Bears’ offense currently ranks 31st in sacks allowed (38) and completion percentage (60.5), 30th in passing yards (1,785), tied-27th in passing touchdowns (9) and 25th in rushing yards (973). The Bears have scored just 10 first quarter points all season.

Thomas Brown, who was hired as the team’s passing game coordinator last offseason, takes the reins of the offense heading into a crucial second half of the season where the Bears will play six of their final eight games within the division, starting with the Green Bay Packers this Sunday.

Brown has some play-calling experience from his time as the offensive coordinator of the Carolina Panthers last season.

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