Caleb Williams didn’t have a terrible rookie year. He threw for 3500 yards, 20 touchdowns, and just six interceptions. The fact he did that despite his head coach and offensive coordinator both getting fired midseason is a minor miracle. Yet some people act like it was an unmitigated disaster. It wasn’t perfect, mind you. One glaring issue overshadowed everything else. There had always been a concern about Williams’ tendency to hold the ball, waiting for big play opportunities. Many wondered if he could play on time within an offense. Taking 68 sacks didn’t help his case. Some are skeptical whether Ben Johnson can tackle this problem.
The new Bears head coach has worked with one type of quarterback in his NFL career. They are your classic pocket passers like Jared Goff and Matthew Stafford. They understand how to process at high speeds, distributing the ball on time to the right targets. Williams is the first improviser he’s worked with. It isn’t as simple as telling him to just hang in the pocket. That isn’t his game. Johnson was asked whether he feels the Bears quarterback can play on time. His response was unexpected.
Ben Johnson isn’t putting everything on the quarterback.
That is a tendency people tend to have. It’s such an important position that any time something goes wrong, the first instinct is to ask what teh quarterback did wrong. Ben Johnson isn’t making that mistake. A successful offense is about having all 11 guys doing their jobs. Asking a quarterback to be able to find his third and fourth read consistently is bad offense. Good offense is when the first or second options find ways to get open. Johnson is making it clear that D.J. Moore, Rome Odunze, Cole Kmet, and Colston Loveland are responsible for executing their assignments as much as Williams is for delivering the pass.
Goff’s resurgence in Detroit wasn’t all about him flipping a magic switch. It came from guys like Amon-Ra St. Brown, Sam LaPorta, and Jameson Williams giving up openings to make a play. The fans and media might put it all on Williams. Johnson won’t see it that way.
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@Barry you should know by now that this is the strawman that is consistently used against anyone who did not want Williams drafted or doesn’t approve of the results of drafting him. No one is willing to accept the arguement that you could have won more games with Fields or virtually any other QB and a mountain of draft talent without turning it into a Fields vs Caleb argument(which still fails due to the impact Fields had on the running game). This morphs over time depending on current events, like the “you can’t win a superbowl with a running quarterback”… Read more »
@Krisanthony Here is a thought exercise: Do you think QB1 Tyson Bagent, rolling with elite starters across the line, elite pass-catchers, and elite RBs, wins more than five games in 2024? Poles is the GM who signed Bagent; Bagent, for as long as he’s on the roster, is just as much Poles’ QB as Caleb Williams is. Do you know what’s way cooler than getting “your guy” at QB1 with pick 1.01? Finding that guy as an UDFA. I never particularly wanted Poles to extend Fields. I also didn’t want him to draft Caleb. What I wanted him to do… Read more »
@Barry, please get over the fact that Poles wanted his own QB. I liked Fields as well, but given the chance to improve I was willing to wait and see. What I saw was a QB that was light years ahead of Fields even though Fields was in his 4th year. So, while it’s true that Poles could have improved the team at other positions, the reality id]s, no matter how talented your roster is, it needs a QB. Can’t escape that fact. You’re constantly advocating for the bears to improve but we saw what that looked like in the… Read more »
I think we’ll see a lot of things similar to what Kingsburry did with Daniels last season. Shorter reads (1st option then 2nd option and 3rd is get out of pocket and look for a short gain with legs or dump off). No need to have him in pocket reading for 4 options and having to get ball out in 2.5 sec. Thats not the QB he will be this year. He will develop into that over time.
@jmscooby Sure, and in that scenario, isn’t it the QB’s job to recognize the disadvantage in real time and immediately progress to the next-best option the situation dictates? Here is a telling line from the article: “A successful offense is about having all 11 guys doing their jobs.” Do you agree with this statement? Or would you agree with the view that asking every offensive player to win every rep in every game is unrealistic? My view (for whatever it’s worth, I’ve never played this particular sport) is that if one guy running a route wins his rep, it shouldn’t… Read more »