LAKE FOREST, Ill. — Thomas Brown is the new offensive coordinator for the Chicago Bears.
Brown will be Matt Eberflus’ third offensive playcaller since the Bears’ head coach took over in 2022.
Before Shane Waldron was fired on Tuesday morning, Brown served as the Bears’ passing game coordinator. Now, he will be tasked with calling plays to help solve the issues impacting this offense for the last three weeks—a unit that has gone 23 drives without scoring a touchdown.
“Met with him [Brown] yestersday and very excited about him being the play caller and the offensive coordinator our leader of our offense going forward for the rest of the season,” Eberflus said. “Brings passion and energy, tenacity, toughness, collaboration. You could certainly see that yesterday during the game-planning phase of using all the minds and everybody there.”
Braxton Jones, who was limited in Wednesday’s practice with a knee injury, also expressed excitement about Brown and what he potentially brings as a playcaller.
“Just from the basis of hearing it so far, just some creativity and different things that we’re looking at,” Jones said. “I felt that with just the gameplan, you know, just this week, it felt really good. You know, just excitement, that juice and stuff like that. I just think he’s a great guy and ready to come in and do his job.”
The Bears needed some kind of change in how the offense performed on the three-game losing streak after the bye week. Brown is believed to provide that spark.
“What I’m looking for in the offense is creativity,” Eberflus said. “Working the guys into open positions on the field. And that takes creativity. But it takes everybody. Working with everybody to get that done — if it’s Chris [Morgan], the running backs coach [Chad Morton] whoever it might be, using everybody to really do a good job to create that openness in space to get our athletes in that area. To me it’s always about that.”
Brown will look to implement that creativity from the press box, which differs from Waldron, who called plays on the sideline. The new playcaller acknowledged that he isn’t trying to “reinvent the wheel,” but he does have a vision for how he can jump-start this offense.
“But it’s about being able to try and find the best way to be effective with our playmakers,” Brown said. “To be able to mirror what we do with our formation and motion standpoint. Everything for me starts up front, starts with the run game, how we attack, knock it forward mentality and we will build off that.”
When the Bears were on their three-game winning streak, the offense averaged 137 yards rushing, and D’Andre Swift accounted for 257 rushing yards and three touchdowns on 54 carries. Those numbers haven’t dipped all too much in the last three games. The offense has averaged 114.7 yards rushing, and Swift has rushed for 239 and one rushing touchdown on 50 attempts.
But Brown’s approach of starting with the run and “building off that” could be a welcomed addition to this Bears offense. Cole Kmet mentioned on Wednesday that utilizing no-huddle has worked previously, but “teams in this league catch up quickly to some stuff,” and he believed the Bears had to “take the next step forward” with what the offense was doing.
After last Sunday’s 19-3 loss to the Patriots, safety Jaylinn Hawkins told CHGO that New England identified the no-huddle offense as one of its tendencies when preparing for Chicago.
If Brown can make it more challenging for defenses to identify what the Bears are doing offensively, that will help take some pressure off Caleb Williams — who has struggled the past three weeks. The rookie quarterback has completed just 48 of 95 passes for 468 yards and has thrown zero touchdowns since the Commanders game.
“I think we’ll do a good job of marrying everything up together and making everything look the same,” Williams said. “And then, from there, get a few easier passes, a few extra layups. I think that’ll help us in the run game. I think it’ll help us in the pass game, being able to do that. I think, from there, that’ll provide a little more explosiveness for us as an offense, being a help out with the complementary football and be a little more attacking.”
Williams will play a vital role if the offense makes any type of resurgence against the Packers this Sunday, but Brown will have to put the 22-year-old quarterback in ideal situations for that to occur.
“I think he does a lot well,” Brown said. “I think when it comes to his natural ability from throwing the football, is clear and obvious. I think being able to understand how to get the ball out of his hands as fast as possible when it comes to the concepts we kind of dial up but also being able to let him use his natural god-given ability at times, when it’s relevant. Not every play but when it comes to especially situational ball, third down, red zone, and come alive with that.”
