LAKE FOREST, Ill. – DJ Moore had expressed frustration with how the Bears offense had played during a three-game losing streak. Other veterans voiced similar concerns about the state of affairs during a period where even moving the chains proved difficult.

He didn’t think that would result in Matt Eberflus deciding to fire Shane Waldron.

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“That was shocking,” Moore said. “I don’t think anybody really asked for him to be gone. We expressed our frustration, but never to have somebody’s livelihood taken away.”

The news broke on Tuesday morning, publicly and at Halas Hall.

Eberflus stood before the media on Monday afternoon and didn’t say much of anything, other than that he was still in the evaluation process of what changes to make to mend a broken offense.

He met with GM Ryan Poles, team chairman George McCaskey and team president Kevin Warren, as he does every Monday. Waldron was discussed in that setting.

“I’ve always used those guys as counsel,” Eberflus said. “But it was my decision.”

Eberflus said he made it on Tuesday morning. He called Waldron into his office early and let him know that he was being let go. Then he met with Thomas Brown and told him he had been promoted to offensive coordinator and would now be calling plays.

Then the team found out that there would be a new offensive voice moving forward.

Eberflus heard the team’s frustrations with the offense but echoed Moore in saying that no players asked for Waldron to be replaced.

“They just want to do more,” Eberflus said. “They want to be more productive. More effective. Score points for our football team. Just do more as a group and then more individually in terms of helping the group. It was always in a winning way, a respectful way. It was always in that light. And to me it was really, really good to see that they really wanted to get better. And it just didn’t happen in a timely fashion.” 

Eberflus’ evaluation of offensive struggles pointed to a lack of in-game adjustments and in-game communication. He also said the offense needed more creativity working guys into open positions and space to make plays.

In addition to a desire to be more detailed, Moore agreed with that take.

“When we want to call (something) it’s probably like a drive too late, or, like, we wanted to make adjustments and we just wait until halftime to make it, and then we don’t get the same looks,” the receiver said. “So, I can see what he means by that right there.”

This week wasn’t the first time the players voiced frustration with the offense. After a Week 3 loss to Indianapolis, they demanded to be coached harder and hold players accountable for being precise and detailed. Those points have come up several times since, by several individuals, while explaining offensive struggles.

Keenan Allen believes that might be part of the reason why Waldron was let go.

“I would say just, probably, he was too nice of a guy,” Allen said, via the Chicago Tribune. “I think during OTAs, training camp, he kind of fell into a trap of letting things go, not holding people accountable. Obviously, those things lead to a slippery slope.”

If a major change was going to be made, players seem happy that it wasn’t a hollow move after all had been lost and the team was playing out the string. The Waldron dismissal comes with the Bears reeling but with a decent 4-5 record. While there’s a brutal schedule ahead, the team’s goals are still ahead of them. There’s talent on the roster to be competitive, but only if the offense gets right.

“Better sooner than later,” Allen said, via the Chicago Tribune. “We have to make some things happen. So if it wasn’t happening then? Insanity, man, we all know that definition. So. We just have to make this change and see what happens.”