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After weeks of increasingly bad play spurned on by some truly head-scratching offensive play calling, the Chicago Bears officially made a change at offensive coordinator on November 12th, firing Shane Waldron and replacing him on an interim basis with passing game coordinator Thomas Brown.
Now, for fans in Chicago, any change is good news, as even after Brown's tenure in Carolina didn't go particularly well – ranking 32nd in yards, 31st in points scored, and crucially last win-loss percentage – he will surely still present some new offensive ideas to a team that desperately needs them. But how do the people who have actually been around the former Browns running back feel about him as a coach?
Fortunately, on Friday, reporters in Los Angeles asked Sean McVay, Brown's former boss, that very question, and the Rams head coach had some pretty positive things to say about his former assistant head coach.
“Yeah, he did such a good job here. You guys met Thomas, so just the command, his charisma, just his natural presence, and his ability to connect with guys. He was the assistant head coach here. He had a bunch of head coaching opportunities, then coordinator opportunities, and then he blew Frank Reich away when he went to Carolina and now here he is in Chicago,” McVay told reporters.
“I know that's a unique situation. I thought he handled a unique situation really well with gratitude and gratefulness to [Former Bears Offensive Coordinator] Shane [Waldron]. We all know what a good coach Shane is, too. Sometimes there are some tough circumstances that arise, some you can control, and in a lot of instances, some you can't. I wish Thomas the best, and I thought he handled himself well in a unique circumstance the other day.”
Interesting stuff, right? Well, wait, it gets even better as McVay still had plenty to say about Brown's time in LA, including how he got the assistant head coaching job in the first place.
Sean McVay reveals why Thomas Brown became LA's assistant HC
Continuing his comments on Brown's tenure in LA, McVay reveals why he decided to give Brown the assistant coaching job in the first place, which came down to affording expanded leadership opportunities to coaches in order to see who could grow into a more expansive role.
“I think it's really important that you have somebody that, in a lot of instances, you implement opportunities for them to have leadership things come about whether that's dialogue with the players, a good feel for things that maybe are outside of my scope, giving them opportunities to address the team or the rookies, just opportunities that I was afforded when I was younger. The important thing and one of the coolest things,” McVay told reporters.
“Raheem and I used to talk about this, and I've talked about it with coaches, is you want to make sure that we're always improving, impacting, and being a developmental staff not exclusive to players, but also to myself and everybody else. The more opportunities and exposure that you can present guys, that is good for our football team and for that individual, the better.”
Clearly, the decision to give Brown the nod in LA was the correct one, as he was hired away by the Panthers and ultimately landed in Chicago, where it took him less than a year to impress Bears head coach Matt Eberflus enough to give him the offensive coordinator job when Waldron was handed his walking papers. Will it work? Only time will tell, but in the modern-day NFL, having McVay in your corner is about as good as it gets.
