When taking over as Chicago Bears head coach, Ben Johnson knew what his top priority was. He had to clean up the damage done by the previous staff to quarterback Caleb Williams. Then he had to figure out how to turn the former #1 pick into a viable franchise-caliber player. Not an easy task. There was so much to clean up. Williams’ footwork was all over the place. His pre-snap process was flawed. Overall efficiency, like completion percentage, had to improve. However, it didn’t take long to recognize the biggest problem.
Catastrophic plays.
These are described as either throwing an interception or taking a sack during a drive. According to analytics expert Warren Sharp, Williams was one of the worst in the NFL at doing one of those two things. As a rookie, he took a sack or threw an interception on 12% of his dropbacks. For those wondering at home, that is 82 dropbacks. It was even worse when he was pressured. If this project had any prayer of working, Johnson knew he had to cut that percentage down.
The result? Williams sat at 5% in 2025, reducing the sacks and interceptions on dropbacks by almost two-thirds. Just 37 dropbacks.
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Ben Johnson pulled off what looks like a miracle.
The interceptions were never the big issue. Williams was pretty good at avoiding them even as a rookie. It was the sacks that were killing the team. He took 68 that first year, nearly challenging the NFL record for a single season. Williams had a terrible habit of holding the ball too long, inviting pressure to find him. This was made worse by his tendency to freeze up at times when he wasn’t seeing the field well. That led to sack after sack. Johnson had to find a way to mitigate that problem.
This came through some significant changes to the quarterback’s process. The Bears abandoned the shotgun-heavy system they implemented in 2024 in favor of a more under-center approach. They grilled him constantly on pre-snap recognition, knowing where every receiver should be, what protections to call, and where the ball should go. While that was happening, Johnson shifted the offense to a run-heavy attack with lots of play action and pre-snap motion. This would not allow defenses to pin their ears back, always guessing at what the Bears were doing.
The results were exceptional.
Williams was only sacked 24 times and was under double-digit interceptions again. Critics marveled at how much better he’d gotten at avoiding pressure. Another important stat also went overlooked. Williams led the entire NFL in throwaways with 40. These were plays where he couldn’t find an open man and, rather than take a sack or risk an interception, he either threw it in the dirt or out of bounds. He was always cognizant of not putting the Bears in difficult positions whenever possible.
This may not have drastically impacted his overall stat line, but it did improve the effectiveness of the offense. They finished 9th in points scored and 6th in total yards. It marked the first time the Bears had ranked in the top 10 in both categories in 12 years. Ben Johnson made it all possible by recognizing where Williams had to improve first. Before thinking about attacking defenses, the head coach had to make sure the quarterback wasn’t actively hurting the offense. With that done, now the real fun can begin.
