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Bears To Host S Terrell Edmunds

November 19th, 2024 at 1:06pm CST by Adam La Rose

Terrell Edmunds recently saw his second Steelers tenure come to an end, but he may not need to wait long to find a new team. The veteran safety has a Tuesday free agent visit lined up with the Bears, Ian Rapoport of NFL Network reports.

Edmunds started the year with the Jaguars, but he made only one appearance with the team. Pittsburgh added him off Jacksonville’s practice squad in September, a move which allowed him to return to where his NFL career began. The former first-rounder spent four years as a Steeler, serving as a full-time starter during that period. Edmunds then split his time with the Eagles and Titans in 2023.

Should today’s workout go well, the 27-year-old could join a third team for the campaign. In the case of the Bears in particular, of course, a deal would allow Edmunds to play alongside his brother. Tremaine Edmunds joined Chicago as a free agent in 2023, and the two-time Pro Bowler has been a key defender during his time in the Windy City. His 113 tackles last season were the second most of his career, and he set a new personal mark with four interceptions.

Aside from a family reunion, a deal with the Bears for Terrell Edmunds would of course address the team’s need for depth in the secondary. Chicago placed Jaquan Brisker on injured reserve last week, and there is a strong possibility he will not return in 2024. Edmunds would not be expected to handle starting duties if he were to sign, but he could provide veteran depth in Brisker’s absence.

Chicago moved on from longtime safety Eddie Jackson this offseason, a move which came as little surprise at the time. The Bears have leaned on Kevin Byard as a starter in his first campaign with the team, and Brisker’s injury has left the door open to more playing time for the likes of Elijah Hicks, Tarvarius Moore and Jonathan Owens. Depending on how today’s workout goes, Edmunds could join that group.

Bears Place S Jaquan Brisker On IR

November 17th, 2024 at 12:00pm CST by Sam Robinson

NOVEMBER 17: Poles does not sound optimistic that Brisker will return this year. In a statement that Cronin passes along, Poles said that Brisker “just wasn’t making the progress that we wanted. We also know from a performance standpoint, when you’re out of football for a while, there has to be a ramp up period to get your body in shape, to play the game and avoid other injuries such as soft tissue injuries. … So we’re going to slow this down and take time and allow him to take his time to come back. Would love to see him back this year, but we’re just going to take it one week at a time.”

NOVEMBER 14: Although staff turmoil has engulfed the Bears once again, the team has seen a concerning situation develop in its secondary. Jaquan Brisker is heading to IR because of a concussion.

The starting Chicago safety has been in the protocol since suffering a head injury in Week 5, ESPN.com’s Courtney Cronin notes. This IR placement will lead to four more missed games. A 2022 second-round pick, Brisker has been a starter throughout his NFL career. He has also suffered three concussions in three seasons.

While this will give Brisker more time to recover, concussions rarely result in IR trips. This placement coming five weeks after the injury occurred introduces more cause for concern. Brisker started 15 games in each of his first two seasons and was in the Bears’ lineup for the team’s first five contests this year. This concussion has since defined his third NFL season, and the Penn State product will be shut down until mid-December.

Drafted in Ryan Poles‘ first offseason, Brisker joined a rebuilding team. He has since been one of the building blocks acquired on defense, joining Tyrique Stevenson and Kyler Gordon as second-round picks installed as starting DBs. As the Bears have not seen Caleb Williams show too much just yet, their defense has helped hold down the fort. Chicago’s defense ranks seventh in scoring and 13th in yards yielded.

The Bears had ruled out Brisker early in the week before their Week 10 and Week 11 games, with the Chicago Tribune’s Brad Biggs pointing to more optimism about this injury existing prior to that. It is too early to speculate about Brisker’s career, but this concussion will cost him at least eight games. That is certainly on the high end. Brisker came into this season after undergoing thumb surgery as well.

Chicago, which cut Eddie Jackson and signed Kevin Byard this offseason, have turned to 2022 seventh-round pick Elijah Hicks in Brisker’s stead. Pro Football Focus has viewed Hicks as a solid replacement, ranking him ninth among all safeties — albeit on just 157 snaps — this season.

Bears Will Not Bench QB Caleb Williams

November 17th, 2024 at 11:14am CST by Rory Parks

The Bears fired offensive coordinator Shane Waldron partway through his first season in Chicago, but the team is not benching quarterback Caleb Williams. Per Ian Rapoport of NFL.com, the No. 1 overall pick of this year’s draft will remain the club’s QB1 moving forward.

Speculation to the contrary arose when it became clear that the possibility of a Williams demotion was discussed by Bears brass in advance of the Waldron dismissal. Rapoport says that while a benching was floated as a theoretical option as the team charted its best course of action moving forward, it was never truly considered. 

The idea would have been to give Williams a “reset” like the one that the Panthers gave to 2023’s No. 1 overall draft choice, Bryce Young, earlier this year. Of course, Young started a full slate of games in his rookie season and two more to open the 2024 campaign before his “reset,” while Williams has just nine professional games under his belt. Between that and Williams’ off-the-charts prospect pedigree, even a temporary benching in favor of Tyson Bagent would have qualified as a major surprise.

Instead, interim offensive coordinator Thomas Brown – who, coincidentally, was Young’s OC in Carolina last year – will make some changes to allow Williams a chance to thrive as he continues to adjust to the professional game by learning how to (for instance) check into the proper play at the line of scrimmage and identify protections. He did not have to do those things while he was starring as a collegiate passer, and growing pains in that regard were always expected.

Brown’s changes will not include adding new plays or schemes; as he learned from his time with Young, that might complicate an already steep learning curve. He will, however, ask Williams to focus on getting the ball out of his hand more quickly – the rookie signal-caller has been sacked a league-high 38 times this year – and he will utilize motion and shifts to create more open looks. 

Williams has certainly flashed this year; in the Bears’ three-game winning streak from Weeks 4 to 6, he threw for seven touchdowns against just one interception and posted quarterback ratings of at least 106.6 in each contest. But the last three games (all losses) have been a struggle, as Chicago is averaging just nine points per game during that stretch, and Williams has failed to record a QB rating above 68.9 or a completion percentage above 53.7%.

By all accounts, Williams has done everything in his power to hone his craft, and as such, he has the support of his teammates.

As wideout D.J. Moore said, “you got to have support for him, no matter what. He’s going out there, busting his butt, trying to learn everything at once, and the defenses are throwing a lot at him. So, you can’t really be mad at him. You just got to still back him.” 

As FOX Sports’ Jay Glazer details, Williams also impressed teammates by apologizing to them after Waldron’s dismissal, accepting the blame for an offense that had regressed to the point that a firing became necessary.

D.J. Moore, Keenan Allen Address Shane Waldron’s Bears Dismissal

November 14th, 2024 at 3:41pm CST by Sam Robinson

Matt Eberflus has now fired two offensive coordinators this year. The OC he canned in January (Luke Getsy) is already out as the Raiders’ play-caller, a move that came shortly before the Bears booted Shane Waldron.

It seems doubtful Eberflus would be allowed to hire a third OC, as the third-year HC’s job is almost definitely on the line. It may come down to interim play-caller Thomas Brown‘s performance, with a Caleb Williams second-half resurgence perhaps the only lifeline Eberflus has left. The Bears have not seen Williams progress since showing flashes earlier this season, and the No. 1 overall pick has not clicked with the team’s two veteran wide receiver starters.

D.J. Moore and Keenan Allen have combined for 10 1,000-yard seasons in their careers; neither player is at 400 after nine games this year. Moore leads the Bears with 398 receiving yards, dropping from 80.2 per game with Getsy and Justin Fields at the controls to 44.2 in the Waldron-Williams setup. Allen, who averaged a career-best 95.6 yards per game in his final Chargers season, is at just 34.4 through seven Bears contests. The older of the two accomplished Chicago vets deemed Waldron “too nice” to succeed this season.

“Too nice of a guy,” Allen said (via ESPN.com’s Kalyn Kahler) of Waldron. “OTAs, camp, we fell into a trap of letting things go and not holding people accountable, and that’s a slippery slope. Just professionalism and doing things the right way from the beginning.”

Allen and Moore have both worked with several OCs during their careers, respectively thriving in most of those systems. The Panthers trotted out a different primary QB1 in each of Moore’s five seasons with the team; he still posted three 1,100-yard seasons with Carolina. Allen enjoyed much better quarterback play, through Philip Rivers and Justin Herbert. Williams sits 29th in QBR, and Allen — who could certainly have used his Bears stay as a potential springboard to a viable Hall of Fame case — has seen his production nosedive.

Moore confirmed players shared frustrations about the offense but covered his bases by indicating he did not want to see Waldron fired. Though, the second-year Bears wideout publicly addressed some of the issues during Waldron’s brief stay.

“When we wanted a call, it was like a drive too late,” Moore said, via WGN Radio’s Kevin Wells. “Or when we wanted to make adjustments and we waited ’til halftime to make it. And then we don’t get the same look.”

Waldron, 45, received immediate interest once the Seahawks let Pete Carroll‘s contracted assistants search for other jobs this offseason; these comments will certainly factor into Waldron’s 2025 job search. Waldron interviewed with the Patriots and Saints before signing on with the Bears. The Bears’ wide-ranging interview process included coaches who became coordinators elsewhere. Liam Coen (Buccaneers), Kliff Kingsbury (Commanders), Klint Kubiak (Saints), Zac Robinson (Falcons), Greg Roman (Chargers) met about the job. The Chargers blocked Kellen Moore from a meeting about the job; Moore ended up as the Eagles’ OC once the Bolts eventually let him out of his contract.

Kingsbury held intel on Williams, being USC’s QBs coach last season, but SI.com’s Albert Breer indicates that interview felt more like Bears brass gathering information on their next quarterback than interviewing Kingsbury for the gig. The Raiders offered Kingsbury their OC job, but it went to Getsy after the former Cardinals HC backed out due to the AFC West team not guaranteeing a third-year salary. The Commanders quickly swooped in.

Waldron, however, was hired January 22 — before any of the above-referenced 2024 OCs landed jobs. Chicago striking first with Waldron and then firing him nine games in obviously presents a bad look for Eberflus, who evaded a firing last year but dismissed Getsy and a few offensive staffers in preparation for Williams’ arrival. Counting Brown, the Bears have employed seven OCs since 2015. It looks more likely than not the Bears, who do not fire HCs in-season, will be conducting a head coaching search come January.

Minor NFL Transactions: 11/13/24

November 13th, 2024 at 9:02pm CST by Ely Allen

Today’s minor transactions from around the NFL:

Chicago Bears

Cleveland Browns

  • Signed off Commanders’ practice squad: CB Chigozie Anusiem

Dallas Cowboys

Denver Broncos

Los Angeles Chargers

Miami Dolphins

  • Claimed off waivers (from Eagles): TE Jack Stoll

NFL Practice Squad Updates: 11/13/24

November 13th, 2024 at 6:46pm CST by Ely Allen

Wednesday’s practice squad transactions:

Chicago Bears

Denver Broncos

Detroit Lions

Miami Dolphins

San Francisco 49ers

The 49ers continue to deal with injuries on special teams. As a result, they’re bringing in the 33-year-old veteran out of Miami (FL). O’Donnell spent eight years in Chicago as the Bears’ primary punter before playing a season in Green Bay. If Mitch Wishnowsky‘s back injury forces him to miss game time, O’Donnell could see his first NFL action since 2022.

Bears Waive G Nate Davis

November 13th, 2024 at 9:14am CST by Sam Robinson

Barely a week after the Bears were unable to find a trade partner to unload Nate Davis, the team is moving on from the underwhelming free agent signing. Chicago cut Davis on Wednesday.

Although Davis is a vested veteran, he will head to waivers due to the trade deadline having passed. He is tied to a through-2025 contract, one the Bears did not view him as justifying. After trade efforts proved fruitless, this cut comes shortly after the Bears dismissed Shane Waldron as their OC.

A waiver claim should be considered unlikely due to Davis’ performance and prorated base salary. The benched blocker is owed $3.9MM in remaining base pay for this season, as he entered the year with a fully guaranteed $8.75MM base salary for the second year of his contract.

The Bears gave Davis a three-year, $30MM deal in 2023 but did not see the commitment pay off. The Maine native was mentioned as a 2025 cut candidate, but the Bears — who are giving the play-calling reins to pass-game coordinator Thomas Brown — are not waiting.

Davis, 28, has not played since Week 5. Even with would-be starter Ryan Bates on IR, the Bears deactivated Davis to insert Matt Pryor into their starting lineup. A former third-round pick, Davis had been a four-year starter for the Titans who commanded a nice market last year. He did not impress too much in Year 1 with the Bears, who used him as a starter in all 11 games he played. Davis came back to start just two games this season, and the Bears will take on some dead money to dump this contract.

The deal includes no guaranteed money beyond 2024, but it does feature $2MM in prorated signing bonus. The Bears will eat that and, assuming no one claims Davis, the remaining $3.9MM on his 2024 salary. This marks a steep fall for Davis, who had started 54 games in Tennessee and was a generally durable player on an O-line that featured some injury trouble at other spots. As the Titans dealt with Taylor Lewan‘s knee trouble and struggled to replace Jack Conklin at right tackle, they could depend on Davis, a starter during Derrick Henry‘s two journeys to rushing titles.

Pro Football Focus ranked Davis as a top-25 guard from 2020-22. Among guards in the 2023 free agent class, only Ben Powers fared better in terms of AAV. The Bears had attempted to pair an eight-figure Davis AAV with Teven Jenkins‘ rookie contract. No serious Jenkins extension talks have begun, as Chicago’s line has underwhelmed this season. A new coaching staff will presumably be tasked with improving the group next year, and it will be interesting to see if GM Ryan Poles will be given a chance to formulate the plan up front. As of now, the third-year front office boss looks like a slightly better bet to stay than HC Matt Eberflus.

The Bears have Bates healthy again, as the trade pickup’s Week 1 injury kept him off the field for two months. Bates returned to the starting lineup against the Patriots, a game in which the Bears allowed nine sacks. Bates is under contract through 2025, while Jenkins is in a walk year.

Bears Fire OC Shane Waldron

November 12th, 2024 at 9:54pm CST by Sam Robinson

As a losing streak threatens to derail the Bears’ season, they are making a major change. Matt Eberflus‘ comments regarding the state of his team will lead to a play-caller change.

The team is firing OC Shane Waldron, NFL.com’s Tom Pelissero reports. Hired to replace Luke Getsy in April, Waldron is done after just nine games. Pass-game coordinator Thomas Brown is expected to take the reins. This concludes a steep freefall for Waldron, who spent the previous three seasons as the Seahawks’ OC. The team has announced the move and Brown’s promotion to OC.

Losing three straight, the Bears have not scored a touchdown in their past two games. The team has gone 23 straight possessions without a TD; at 277.7 yards per game, Chicago’s offense sits 30th at the midpoint. Chicago’s offense also sits 30th in DVOA. With the team making a hopeful trajectory-shifting investment in Caleb Williams in April, this season brought high stakes. Waldron will be the first domino to fall, with Eberflus almost definitely on the hot seat as well.

“After evaluating our entire operation, I decided that it is in the best interest of our team to move in a different direction with the leadership of our offense. This decision was well-thought-out, one that was conducted deliberately and respectfully,” Eberflus said. “I would like to thank Shane for his efforts and wish him the best moving forward.”

Given the Bears’ listless performance against the Patriots, this is not exactly a surprising decision. Though, Waldron came to Chicago after interviewing with multiple teams. The former Seahawks and Rams assistant met about the Patriots and Saints’ OC vacancies. The Bears pulled the trigger quickly, however, hiring Waldron shortly after Pete Carroll‘s dismissal prompted the Seahawks to let his assistants seek employment elsewhere.

Both of Chicago’s past two OCs are now out of a job, with Waldron’s firing coming barely a week after the Raiders axed Getsy. Waldron, however, had considerably more to work with than what Getsy was handed in Las Vegas. But Williams has struggled as of late — even as the Bears have their top three wide receivers healthy. Although Chicago’s O-line has run into injury- and performance-related trouble, Williams has not built on some early-season promise.

Williams’ 38.4 QBR ranks barely above Gardner Minshew‘s for 29th in the league (among qualified options). The Bears did not strongly consider Jayden Daniels at No. 1 overall, viewing a clear gap between Williams and the field among this year’s QB crop. But the No. 1 overall pick is averaging just 6.1 yards per attempt and has taken an NFL-high 38 sacks. That is familiar territory for the Bears, who ditched sack-prone QB Justin Fields weeks after they learned they would have Williams access (via the 2023 Bryce Young trade) atop the draft.

The Bears played without tackle starters Braxton Jones and Darnell Wright against the Pats, and eight-figure-per-year guard Nate Davis has been a bust at guard, quickly drifting to healthy-scratch status. The Patriots sacked Williams nine times in an embarrassing 19-3 result for the Bears, who lost 29-9 to the Cardinals in Week 9. That Arizona outing, of course, came after Daniels’ heave bailed out Washington in what thus far looks like a season-defining loss for Chicago. Waldron calling a goal-line handoff to backup O-lineman Doug Kramer, leading to a costly fumble, brought considerable scrutiny in the aftermath.

Monday meetings included a scenario in which Waldron would follow Nathaniel Hackett‘s path by accepting a demotion, Pelissero adds, but instead he received walking papers like Getsy. Given the turnover after Getsy’s January ouster, the Chicago Tribune’s Dan Wiederer notes this is the eighth Bears staffer to be fired or resign since September 2023. This will give Brown a second chance as a play-caller.

The Bears interviewed Brown for their OC post in January, doing so despite the former Sean McVay assistant being tied to Young’s woeful rookie year with the Panthers. (Chicago also interviewed Kliff Kingsbury, Williams’ 2023 QBs coach at USC, but went with Waldron.) Brown spent much of last season as Carolina’s play-caller, taking over after David Tepper fired Frank Reich 11 games in. While the Panthers retained DC Ejiro Evero, Brown was not in the organization’s plans.

Reich gave Brown play-calling duties early last season but reclaimed the call sheet soon after. Brown, however, moved back into that role after the HC’s firing. The Panthers ranked 31st in points scored and 32nd in total offense last season, as they tried to blend Reich’s offense with Brown’s Rams concepts. Brown, 38, had moved to Charlotte after receiving HC interest.

A popular OC candidate in 2023 as well, Brown also interviewed for the Texans’ HC job last year and the Titans’ HC post this offseason. The Pats and Steelers also met with Brown about their OC openings. This firing will also make Brown the NFL’s only Black play-caller presently. Waldron and Brown worked together in Los Angeles in 2020, before the former took the Seattle gig. Waldron was at the helm for Geno Smith‘s Comeback Player of the Year season, though QBs coach Dave Canales received plenty of credit for that. Nevertheless, this will mark Waldron’s first firing during his NFL coaching tenure.

Brown takes over as perennial 1,000-yard wideout D.J. Moore sits on just 398 yards; trade pickup Keenan Allen has not moved the needle, either, amassing just 241 in seven games. Williams not making a noticeable second-half leap will probably result in Eberflus’ ouster. The Bears are more likely to give GM Ryan Poles a second chance, not necessarily attaching the front office boss to Eberflus, who was hired just two days after Poles. As ownership and team president Kevin Warren will evaluate Eberflus, Brown will suddenly play a lead role in determining if the Bears will stay the course.

Matt Eberflus: Bears Evaluating Lineup, Coaching Changes

November 11th, 2024 at 10:01pm CST by Adam La Rose

After the Bears’ Week 10 loss, a new round of questions emerged about offensive changes being made. Head coach Matt Eberflus left the door open to Shane Waldron losing play-calling responsibilities, although a final decision on that front has yet to be made.

“There will be changes, adjustments being made,” Eberflus said when speaking to the media on Monday (via Kevin Fishbain of The Athletic). “I’m not going to disclose those right now. I’m not at that point in the process.”

Earlier in the day, Eberflus indicated 24 t0 48 hours will transpire before any changes are formalized (h/t ESPN’s Courtney Cronin). The status of Waldron is a central talking point in this process, and Eberflus has altered course from previous weeks by repeatedly not taking the opportunity to endorse his offensive coordinator. Chicago scored 36 points in Week 5, and another 35 the following game. In three contests since, the team has totaled only 27 points.

Waldron’s first NFL stint took place from 2008-09, and he returned to the pro ranks in 2016. After a single season in Washington, he worked on the Rams’ staff for four years. That was followed by a three-year run as the Seahawks’ offensive coordinator, one in which Seattle finished ninth in scoring in 2022 and quarterback Geno Smith played his way into franchise quarterback status. Expectations were high for Caleb Williams‘ arrival this year with Waldron replacing Luke Getsy, but things have not gone according to plan.

Williams has topped 200 passing yards four times this season, but he has also posted a sub-54% completion percentage in four games (including each of the past three). This year’s No. 1 pick has been sacked a league-leading 38 times, an illustration in part of his own learning curve and also of the numerous injuries Chicago has dealt with up front. That figure nevertheless reflects poorly on the offense as a whole, a unit which has struggled to find consistency under Waldron.

To little surprise, Eberflus confirmed Williams will remain atop the depth chart moving forward. The 22-year-old’s development is the Bears’ top priority for 2024, although competing for a postseason berth will still be feasible if offensive improvement can take place. Chicago sits 24th in scoring through 10 weeks, but with a 4-5 record the team is still in touching distance of a wild-card berth. As Eberflus navigates a potentially uncertain future regarding his own job security, his decisions over the coming days will be interesting to see.

Matt Eberflus Open To Play-Calling Change

November 10th, 2024 at 10:07pm CST by Nikhil Mehta

Bears head coach Matt Eberflus isn’t ruling out major changes to his offense after putting up just three points in Chicago’s Week 10 loss to the Patriots.

“We’ll look at everything,” said Eberflus, per Marquee Sports Network’s Scott Bair, including taking play-calling duties away from offensive coordinator Shane Waldron.

The Bears entered Week 10 with the fewest total yards (2,357) and fourth-fewest yards per play (4.6) in the NFL, though their 21.5 points per game ranked 19th. The offense looked even worse against the Patriots, averaging 2.4 yards per play, allowing nine sacks, and converting one of 14 third downs. No. 1 overall pick Caleb Williams completed 16 of 30 passes for just 120 yards, while D’Andre Swift only managed 59 yards on 16 carries.

Waldron insisted that he would not make any changes just to keep the support of the locker room and showed confidence in his personnel.

“I do believe in those guys. They have faith in us,” said Eberflus, per Bair. “And it’s working together. I believe in our football team. I believe in the leaders on our football team. And we’ll just have to get back to work.”

The Bears host the 6-3 Packers next week in their next opportunity to get their offense back on track. Green Bay ranks just outside the top 10 in points per game, yards per game, and yards per play allowed, giving Chicago a stiff but not unconquerable challenge in Week 11.

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