How Shane Waldron plans to help Caleb Williams thrive behind Bears’ shaky OL originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
LAKE FOREST, Ill. — Offensive coordinator Shane Waldron described the Bears’ offense’s first two weeks as a learning period.
The run game has amassed just 155 yards in two games, with 59 of those coming from rookie quarterback Caleb Williams, who is the team’s leading rusher.
Without a working run game, defenses have been able to pin their ears back and pressure Williams behind a shaky offensive line.
In Sunday’s 19-13 loss to the Houston Texans, Williams was sacked seven times, hit 11, and pressured 36 times, according to Next Gen Stats. The Texans pressured Williams on 23 of his 48 dropbacks.
With a rookie quarterback still settling in and an offensive line working through communication issues, Waldron will need to find a way to make things easier for Williams on Sunday when the Bears visit the Colts in Indianapolis.
“Having good variety, having a good mix of what we’re asking him to do in different known passing situations right there,” Waldron said Thursday at Halas Hall. “Obviously, having the run game come to life in some of those scenarios as well and really being able to mix and match and play with some variety. I think all of that will (be) what are the breather plays throughout the plan, what are the chances for the ball-out plays, which I think he did a really good job this past week, you know, in all of the underneath completions, finding completions, playing clean and then when the big-play opportunities happen, like we talked about earlier, then they come naturally throughout the course of the game.”
Williams showed clear improvement from Week 1 to Week 2. He did a good job of playing in rhythm against the Texans, and his trademark accuracy returned after a rough NFL debut. But Williams still spent most of the night trying to evade pressure despite having the sixth-fastest time to throw among quarterbacks in Week 2. That suggests the…
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Author : NBC Sports Chicago
Publish date : 2024-09-19 22:49:17
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