Caleb Williams has a clear problem right now. Most will point to his accuracy issues, which are a viable talking point. However, much of that stems from another problem that has not been discussed enough. That is the issue of slow starts. In the first half this season, Williams is completing just 56% of his passes with eight touchdowns and three interceptions. He hasn’t thrown a first quarter touchdown since September and has a passer rating above 76.0 just once in the past six games. Conversely, he’s been excellent in the second half, throwing for more yards per attempt, completing more passes (59%), and posting 11 touchdowns to three interceptions. People struggled to understand why he struggles to get going. Head coach Ben Johnson knows the answer.
It’s him.
The Bears coach is unquestionably one of the best play callers in the NFL. He’s proven it for almost four years now. However, he does have one flaw that hasn’t been addressed. His offense doesn’t feature much in the way of a quick passing game. It doesn’t provide the quarterback with easy completions, which makes it difficult for them to find a rhythm. Johnson admitted after the loss in Green Bay that he hasn’t done the best job addressing this problem.
“Something that I’ve kind of talked about over the last few weeks with Caleb is, man, how can I best serve him to get him in a rhythm early in games to where we can have some strong starts to the first half,” he said. “When you’re asking your first completion to be an 18-yard dagger route, that’s not always the easiest thing, particularly in those elements on the road like that.”
Ben Johnson is starting to see the problem, which feels important.
Three of Williams’ first five passes against Green Bay traveled at least ten yards through the air. Only one was completed. That affected the passing game right out of the gate. The quarterback couldn’t hit his targets for most of the first half. Conversely, his first four passes of the second half were inside ten yards. Three were completed. Williams then hit Cole Kmet on that gorgeous 26-yard dime rolling to his right, which set up their first touchdown of the game. It was a good example of what giving the quarterback some quick completions could do for his confidence.
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It is difficult to question Ben Johnson about his offensive philosophies. After all, they’ve led to incredible success over the past few years. However, the important part of this is that he had a veteran quarterback who could handle the workload most of the time. Jared Goff had been in the NFL for six years when Johnson took over in Detroit. He could handle the requirements. Williams had neither the experience nor the knowledge. Nobody is saying Johnson should change his entire system, but sprinkling in some easy throws early sounds like a reasonable compromise.
