Shane Waldron was supposed to turn the Seattle Seahawks offense into something akin to the Los Angeles Rams when he was hired to be the offensive coordinator in 2021. For two seasons, his offense was decent, but in his third and final season, it wasn't.
The issue was that Waldron appeared incapable of having any kind of creativity in terms of scheme. He knew the basics of designing a pass play or run concept, but defenses normally figured his plan out as any given game or a season grew old.
He also appeared to have no idea how to use some of the talent given him. He was Seattle's OC in Jaxon Smith-Njigba's rookie year of 2022, but except for a few games, Waldron found a way to waste JSN. Since Waldron left, Smith-Njigba has been the Seahawks' best receiver.
Former Seattle Seahawks offensive coordinator Shane Waldron well on his way to messing up the Jacksonville Jaguars
Thankfully, Waldron was not retained after the 2023 season, and instead, he left to ruin the Chicago Bears' offense. He didn't last the full year with the Bears, however. Chicago decided that if quarterback Caleb Williams was going to be good, Waldron didn't need to be involved.
Now, the former Seahawks offensive coordinator is helping the Jacksonville Jaguars underwhelm. He is the team's passing game coordinator, and his job is to help quarterback Trevor Lawrence finally become a top-flight QB in the league. So far, so bad.
Through two games, Lawrence has thrown four touchdown passes but three interceptions, and his quarterback rating is 77.9, the lowest since his rookie season in 2021. The Jags aren't without offensive talent, and even took Travis Hunter in the 2025 draft. Waldron has wasted him so far, too.
The biggest question is how Shane Waldron keeps finding a job in the NFL. Maybe he should go to the college level. Some team would probably hire him to be their offensive coordinator. Heck, maybe he would even find a head coaching job in college eventually.
Or maybe Waldron was simply a product of the Los Angeles Rams' head coach Sean McVay's system and didn't have any real talent on his own. Maybe when Pete Carroll hired him with the Seattle Seahawks, Carroll was simply creating one more step to his Seattle demise. Waldron probably shouldn't last long with the Jacksonville Jaguars either, but that organization hasn't always made the best decisions.