Bears news: Shane Waldron let go, Caleb Williams under fire, Bears-Packers recent history

There are 32 teams in the NFL, each with their own unique situations. Some are firing on all cylinders and feeling good, such as the Chiefs, Lions and Bills. On the other end of the spectrum, some teams are struggling to stay afloat after a difficult first half of the season, like the Giants, Titans and Raiders.

Of all the teams in the league, there may be none whose fanbase feels as bad today as the Chicago Bears. This was supposed to be a year when things finally turned around for the Bears and their long-suffering fans, but instead, what once appeared to be a season filled with promise has devolved into yet another Windy City mess.

It's amazing how bad things have gotten in the last month. At this point in October, the Bears were 4-2 and on the rise after their second straight blowout win. Caleb Williams seemed to have turned a corner after a slow first few weeks, and the defense was continuing to operate at a high level. The playoffs seemed a realistic possibility, even though the Bears have the unfortunate luck of being in the NFC North, where every team appears to be a contender.

The Bears are now 4-5 after their third straight loss, and the wheels of the team's bandwagon look like they've not only fallen off, they've sunk to the bottom of Lake Michigan. Sunday's game was a new low point for the season, a 19-3 home loss at the hands of the hapless Patriots that resulted in offensive coordinator Shane Waldron being fired. Will that change what has become a toxic atmosphere around the team?

Let's catch up on the week's news, beginning with the Waldron firing and what comes next for the Bears offense.

Shane Waldron fired as Bears OC, Thomas Brown next in line

Shane Waldron was let go on Tuesday after just nine games as Bears offensive coordinator. The move was hardly a surprise, as the Bears have failed to score a touchdown in their last two games and have clearly regressed since their bye in Week 7.

Bears fans have been frustrated with Waldron for much of the season, and now that he's gone, passing game coordinator Thomas Brown has been elevated to become the new OC. Brown is well-respected within the game, as he finished second in last year's NFLPA offensive coordinator survey.

Brown was the Panthers offensive coordinator last year and the Rams assistant head coach before that. With the Panthers, he took over playcalling duties for a three-week stretch in the middle of the season from since-fired head coach Frank Reich, so this isn't unfamiliar territory for him.

Bears fans will be interested to see if the offense changes significantly under Brown, both in terms of philosophy and in terms of points scored. Though Waldron was scapegoated for the offense's performance, many fans also blame Eberflus for insisting on a conservative system that values not turning the ball over above all else. Will Brown have more power to turn things loose? We'll begin to find out on Sunday.

Caleb Williams is under fire from within the organization

When you're the No. 1 overall draft pick and the supposed savior of a team that has had, historically, the worst quarterback performance of any NFL franchise, there's already a high level of scrutiny baked in to everything you do. The people want to know that you're actually the chosen one, so just as the students and teachers at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry were fascinated by a certain boy with a lightning bolt scar on his head, so too has the football world been putting Caleb Williams under a microscope in his rookie season.

There have been electrifying highs and dispiriting lows to the Caleb Williams experience so far, and the best we can say for whether or not he really is the guy that will break Chicago's longtime quarterback curse is that the results are still inconclusive.

The Bears have a history of putting their quarterbacks in a position to fail, which is why most Bears fans laugh through their tears whenever someone suggests that they could have drafted someone like Patrick Mahomes or CJ Stroud. Would Mahomes or Stroud have succeeded in Chicago with the Bears' poor infrastructure and coaching? Probably not, and we're seeing that same organizational incompetence now take a toll on Caleb.

Firing Shane Waldron is just the first step toward helping Caleb achieve greatness, but there's still a long way to go. The culture within the team needs to be vastly improved, and that was never more clear than when a report came out this week that said that some Bears veterans had privately asked to have Caleb benched in favor of backup Tyson Bagent.

As a Bears fan, all I can do is shake my head as this team repeats the mistakes of the past. What would benching Caleb accomplish other than destroying his confidence, which already has to be in a fragile state following three straight subpar performances?

Does Bagent give the team a better chance to win? He was competent in relief last year, but nobody can say with a straight face that he could lead this team to the playoffs against a brutal schedule while playing behind a bad offensive line. Even if he somehow did, what then? Caleb is the present and future of the franchise, and if the Bears don't do everything within their power to get the most out of him, then he'll just be another footnote in the franchise's sad quarterback history.

Whenever you start hearing about unnamed sources and rumors within the organization, it's a sign that things are going to end poorly. Matt Eberflus may have bought himself some more time by firing Waldron, but his only hope to turn this ship around and save his own job is to get everyone in the locker room on the same page and turn Caleb into the best quarterback he can be.

Bears-Packers rivalry history

The Bears and the Packers are the oldest rivals in the NFL. They've played 208 times before, with the Packers holding a 107 to 95 edge (six games ended in a tie). In recent years though, Green Bay has turned this rivalry into a one-sided affair.

The Packers have won 10 in a row against the Bears and 26 of the past 30. That's four wins in 15 years for the Bears against a team that they play twice a year. We're not quite in Harlem Globetrotters-Washington Generals territory, but we're close.

The Bears hoped that when Aaron Rodgers, who infamously (and correctly) said that he owned them, was traded to the Jets, the torture would cease, but that hasn't been the case. Jordan Love picked up where Rodgers left off, beating the Bears 38-20 in Week 1 last year, then again 17-9 in the final game of the regular season.

Every new Bears coach that has come through town has talked about the importance of beating the Packers. Lovie Smith was the most successful of the bunch in the past few decades, and even he only managed an 8-11 record against Green Bay. Matt Eberflus is 0-4 in the rivalry and fighting for his job. A win this week to get back to .500 against the Bears' most hated foe would go a long way toward stopping the bleeding of the last few weeks.