It hasn’t taken long to realize that Ben Johnson is a completely different animal from his predecessor. Where Matt Eberflus seemed laid back and focused on player effort, Johnson is maniacal about details. He wants and expects every player to be on top of their responsibilities, play in and play out. If they make a mistake, they will get an earful from him and the rest of the coaching staff. There are no excuses. They’re professionals and will be held to that standard. Caleb Williams is no exception.
If anything, the young quarterback is under more pressure than anybody. Johnson’s entire offense will revolve around him. That means nothing will work if Williams isn’t prepared. To that end, the head coach gave the quarterback homework for the summer break. Williams revealed what it was during his first presser of training camp.
“Get through the playbook 30 minutes, 40 minutes, an hour each day, 24 hours every day. If you can’t give up an hour or 30 minutes to go over your playbook, you probably shouldn’t be in this position. It was just small things like that. Homework-wise it was mainly the footwork and then some left, short throws that in OTAs [that] I was missing. So worked on that every single day that I threw and went through my footwork every day that I was out there as well.”
This is a perfect example of Johnson’s obsession with details. He didn’t just tell Williams to focus on footwork. He had a specific type of pass the quarterback had to fix. Eberflus never would’ve done that.
Caleb Williams won’t be cutting corners this year.
GM Ryan Poles said the primary issue with the young quarterback last year was he tried rushing the process. Too many times, he attempted to cut corners to speed up his development. That didn’t lead to great results. It was a big reason for his inconsistency all year. Johnson won’t let that fly. He’s already drilling into Caleb Williams’ head that mastering the mental side of the game is far more important than the physical. He must learn the necessity of every short throw being on target, regardless of direction. Footwork is crucial to that.
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Second is mastery of the playbook. Once the quarterback understands the purpose of every play, he’ll have all the answers he needs to counter defenses. Johnson has made it clear to Williams that these are the bare essentials if he wants to be great.
