Ben Johnson was brought in to clean up the mess Matt Eberflus left behind. There might be more diplomatic ways to put it, but that is the truth. There were concerns that the former Chicago Bears head coach didn’t have the expertise or adequate staff to develop Caleb Williams properly. Sure enough, everything imploded during the 2024 season. Williams took 68 sacks and endured some ugly performances. Eberflus compounded it all with some awful game management and a refusal to hold players accountable.
Johnson is already working on those problems. Players have been sent a message based on the coach’s intensity in practice. That message? Last year was last year. There’s a new sheriff in town. However, the mission to fix Williams goes beyond correcting the things around him. The quarterback isn’t free of blame for some of the issues offensively. According to Albert Breer of the MMQB, Johnson and his staff have identified two things the quarterback must correct before this season.
Each is for a different reason.
Williams was around the building a lot from that point forward, which gave Johnson, offensive coordinator Declan Doyle and QBs coach J.T. Barrett a shot to organically build their relationship. That facilitated some hard truths to be doled out at the start of the offseason program in April.
There were two areas where the coaches wanted improvement from Williams. Both related to how he carried himself as the quarterback, based on what the 2024 season showed. One was body language. The other was presnap procedure.
On the former, while the coaches understood the beating he took, they showed film to emphasize how he’d been slow to pull himself up off the ground. It was a long year. People got fired in-season. And in adverse circumstances, the staff explained, having a quarterback who was rolling with the punches would go a long way. On the latter, there was a smattering of small things—like on the first play of one game, he turned to his left, thinking the motion was coming, when it was actually coming from the right—that needed to be cleaned up.
Two important lessons are illustrated to Caleb Williams here.
Players on a football team always look to the quarterback as their leader. It is the inescapable reality of the game. The quarterback handles the football more than anybody. Their success is tied to the entire team. If the QB shows weakness or demoralization, it will infect the entire sideline. Williams was guilty of this a few times during the year. It wasn’t because he was weak. The kid took a beating like few quarterbacks ever have. Still, hiding that pain and frustration during games is paramount to building a stronger team identity.
The pre-snap procedure stuff isn’t surprising. Rookies tend to struggle with such things, overwhelmed by the speed and complexity of NFL defense. Caleb Williams wasn’t helped by the previous coaching staff, who infamously didn’t even watch film with him last season. Johnson should be able to clean that stuff up easily, provided Williams puts in the work.
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Most estimates put Williams’ earnings at USC around 10m, he made 26.5m last year with the Bears. It was easy to not see something extraordinarily promising last year, all you had to do was start watching the games at the beginning.
QB’s make a lot of money…..ON THEIR SECOND CONTRACT!!! Their rookie deals are like this – Caleb made more money at USC than he did for the Bears.
How the hell do people take Caleb’s rookie season and not see anything that’s extraordinarily promising? Like I’ve said multiple times, these fans do not deserve a QB. They will be satisfied by Jim Miller are better yet, Tyson Bagent.
So, Bears coaches are . . . . coaching?
Regarding body language; I’m sure that was a quick conversation, last year was last year, but this is how the HC wants it. Pre snap procedure, awesome, attention to detail. It’s Caleb’s offense; make him accountable for it. Can’t wait to start seeing this offense.