A few days ago, I wrote about the unusual situation at Chicago Bears training camp. While head coach Ben Johnson and his staff were eager to sing the praises of certain players like Colston Loveland or Luther Burden, they seemed somewhat careful with their comments regarding Caleb Williams. Sure, they were complimentary of the Bears’ quarterback, but never quite went all the way. It felt as if they might be deliberately downplaying how he has looked in practice. It was a theory, yes. One that seemed to have some merit, though.

Sure enough, Jay Glazer of FOX Sports pretty much confirmed it with his recent tweet. He’s been making the rounds with several teams, taking in what he sees. Among the biggest standouts was what he heard about Williams.

“Caleb is LIGHT YEARS ahead of where he was this time last year. So much so, they actually think they need him to pull back some.”

That sure sounds like a staff that loves what they’re seeing and doesn’t want to tip the rest of the league off on how much Williams has improved. So they’ve asked him to throttle down for now. It would explain why the quarterback hasn’t had as many big days over the past week of camp. He’s deliberately keeping his foot off the gas. It would also explain why Johnson held him out of the preseason opener.

Caleb Williams has gone from passenger to driver.

Last year, Johnson was the unquestioned one in charge. He relayed the plays and instructed the quarterback on how to run all of them properly. There was no room for freelancing at the line of scrimmage. However, Johnson understood this arrangement could not and should not last forever. If the Bears’ offense were to reach its full potential, it would eventually require Williams to step into the driver’s seat. That meant taking the play call, getting everybody lined up, and then assessing the defense. If it didn’t show the look he wanted, he would adjust the play.

By all accounts, that has been what is happening in camp. There have been multiple instances of Caleb Williams laying into teammates for not getting lined up properly. He forced the offense to huddle up again if things weren’t going his way. If the defense shows something the play isn’t ready for, he changes it. Johnson already admitted last year that Williams saved him from the wrong play call. Now the quarterback is doing it more often than ever.

There is a certain sense to this line of thinking.

Few things work better in the NFL than the element of surprise. If you can catch opponents unprepared, you’ve already won half the battle. This is why football teams are so strict about video footage at practice and don’t run anything of real consequence in the preseason. They will not give any of their regular season opponents something useful to look at until the actual games start being played. Johnson already said he feels no pressure to see Williams in game action this month. He’s been watching him in practice for weeks. Nothing has told him that the quarterback is unprepared for the season.

That should’ve been a major signal by itself. Johnson is as strict as they come regarding preparation. If he’s saying Williams is already ready for the season, that should tell you everything. It makes no sense for him to showcase this progress to the world when the outcome doesn’t matter. Better to save it for the Carolina Panthers on opening day.

Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson stated from the beginning that one thing he would be with his players, above all else, is honest. Lying won’t make them better football players. Quite the opposite. That was especially true for quarterback Caleb Williams. Too many coaches are afraid to truly coach quarterbacks because of how much power that position holds over organizations. They try too hard to make guys comfortable and not hard enough telling them what they need to hear.

Johnson had no intention of making that mistake. So you can understand why Williams was initially uncertain about Johnson at first. He wondered if the coach didn’t like him because of how ill-tempered he could get. However, it didn’t take long to realize that Johnson was merely holding him to a high standard. Good enough is not good enough to him. He wants perfection and isn’t afraid to demand it. Williams and the offense got a taste of that wrath after a recent practice. Dan Pompei of The Athletic was fortunate enough to be in the room when it happened.

Ben Johnson did not let Williams skate by from a bad mistake.

Then he gets to the Stevenson interception of Williams that bothered him in the meeting. He raises his volume and spits his words.

This is a different Ben Johnson than you’ve ever seen.

“I fucking hate this clip. More than anything. All right? I fucking hate it. It’s not what we’re about. All right? It’s a shit play. He’s not open, all right? It’s a bad interception. And what I see, I see fucking 11 guys moping. That’s what I see. Someone tell me I’m wrong. Anybody in the room? The one guy that’s closest to the football at the end of the play is our 33-year-old guard. There should be 11 guys in the fucking frame right now.”

Somehow, his delivery is both calculated and from the heart, and it shakes the room.

Williams needs to hear that, and keep hearing it.

The moment Johnson stops reminding him about careless interceptions is the moment Williams starts throwing them more often. That cannot happen. Not if the Bears aim to win the Super Bowl. The quarterback has said he’s not a pick guy. This is true. His 13 interceptions through his first two seasons are the lowest rate of any quarterback in NFL history. Still, that doesn’t mean Johnson will stop letting him have it when he throws bad ones. You must always, always be smart with the football.

Chicago’s head coach has never proclaimed himself passive in his approach. He promised to coach Williams and his players hard. What we probably didn’t fully grasp is how much he undersold it. That singular moment Pompei caught is probably what the Bears get on a weekly basis. That is not to say Ben Johnson is a strict disciplinarian. He praises guys when they earn it, and finds creative ways to entertain them. No coach gets away with nothing but criticism for long. He’s smart enough to know that.

Johnson knows he is doing the right thing.

If you follow the track record of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history, most of them worked with coaches who were both smart and not afraid to criticize. You saw it with Bill Belichick and Tom Brady, Bill Walsh and Joe Montana, and Tom Landry and Roger Staubach. Those three quarterbacks have openly said how difficult it was to play for those coaches during their careers. At the same time, all admitted that the tough love approach made them better players. Williams has acknowledged the same.

This has nothing to do with having a power trip. Johnson wants to win. He believes, based on years of experience, research, and personal belief, that he must maintain a firm hand with his players. While all of them are adults, the fact is that most locker rooms can’t police themselves. They’re too big with too many different personalities. It falls on the head coach to set the standard and deal out consequences to those who don’t meet it.

By this point, Chicago Bears fans have learned not to get suckered in by press conferences involving team president Kevin Warren. Too many times, there have been expectations that he might finally reveal something notable about the team’s stadium situation. Every time, he has offered nothing, hidden behind constant assurances that the organization is close to a breakthrough. He’s been saying it for two years now. People have caught onto his game. That is why there wasn’t much buzz when he and team owner George McCaskey met with the media ahead of the Bears’ preseason opener against Cleveland.

For the most part, the assumptions were correct. Warren offered very little regarding the ongoing talks with Illinois and Indiana. No final decision has been made. The Bears remain focused on Hammond, Indiana, while they’ve stayed in contact with Springfield about resuming talks. More of the same.

However, Warren did manage to slip one interesting nugget of information into the useless fodder. It involved the building location. Hammond has two sites that the Bears have been looking at. One is at Wolf Lake, and the other is at Lost Marsh Golf Course. After weighing the two against each other, it seems the organization is now considering merging the two together.

That would encompass a massive land plot of over 400 acres, dwarfing the 326 in Arlington Heights.

That or Kevin Warren seeks a creative solution to a big problem.

By far the most pressing issue with the Hammond location is that much of the land at both Wolf Lake and Lost Marsh is environmentally protected. The Defense Logistics Agency of the U.S. Government is the tenant and holds rights to that property until 2050. This meant that if the Bears wanted to make anything happen, they would have to go through the courts, which would be time-consuming and expensive. Also, based on public statements from the government, likely not successful.

If you remove the land owned by the DLA, the property for each location shrinks considerably. That creates a big problem for the Bears, who wanted a bigger plot of land so they could build the stadium and the immediate area into a prime location for fans and businesses. Settling for maybe 100 acres at either location would be a major disappointment. However, what is one way to circumvent that? Merge the two together. Suddenly, you have plenty of space to work with.

Is this enough to force a decision?

Indiana certainly hopes so. They’ve been proactive for months in their push to convince the Bears that this is a great move for all parties. McCaskey even admitted that Indiana has been far more present in discussions, constantly working to find solutions, compared to Illinois. This property merger idea feels like something the state would’ve put forward as a way to avoid losing momentum after the government’s decision. They no doubt hope this approach can nudge Kevin Warren and ownership into a definitive announcement.

No such luck. At least not yet. Warren made it clear the process is ongoing. No decisions are made. Research continues. The Bears want to make sure they have all the information before committing. Many believe this is just more stalling tactics as they try to pry more concessions from Illinois. Either way, fans aren’t being duped anymore. After five years, they’ve realized this process won’t end anytime soon.

There weren’t any major twists in the Chicago Bears‘ left tackle competition last year. Most expected Braxton Jones to be the starter, and that is how it played out. Of course, he didn’t last long before getting benched. Still, expectations were mostly the same going into training camp this year. Jones was getting a large just of the first-team reps, with Jedrick Wills and Kiran Amegadjie soaking up the remainder. Then, as has too often become the case, Jones got hurt. During a 1-on-1 blocking drill against Austin Booker, he injured his knee.

Jones left practice early and hasn’t returned for days. While the injury isn’t considered season-ending, it has opened the door for Wills and Amegadjie to gain some momentum. Could one of them take advantage? Head coach Ben Johnson dropped a minor bombshell during his latest press conference. Jones will not play in the preseason opener against the Cleveland Browns. Instead, it will be Amegadjie who gets the start with the first-team offense. This is a pretty significant departure from how many thought the competition would go.

Kiran Amegadjie really came from nowhere.

Even before camp began, most believed Jones was the favorite and Wills, a former top 10 pick, would be his primary competition. Amegadjie was a complete afterthought, and justifiably so. The former 3rd round pick didn’t accomplish much as a rookie in 2024, and then suffered injury setbacks early last year. That took him out of the competition before it had even begun. To many, it was a small miracle he was even still on the roster. Now here he is, starting the preseason opener with a massive opportunity to create distance from the other challengers.

How did it get to this point? Coach Johnson indicated that the full-contact practice on Tuesday would determine much about the Bears’ plans. Based on scattered reports, Wills had some nice moments but committed two false starts. His pass protection was also an issue. Amegadjie, while hardly perfect himself, committed fewer egregious mistakes. That is probably what tipped the scales in his favor. Consistency has been the buzzword for Johnson every time he’s been asked about the competition.

Were the draft experts right?

Two years ago, when Kiran Amegadjie was coming out of Yale, most evaluators said the same thing. His physical tools were excellent: size, power, mobility, and length. The big sticking point was his polish. Amegadjie spent his college career playing less than first-rate competition in the Ivy League. He never really had to learn the craft of blocking top defensive linemen because his sheer physical ability made it unnecessary. He would not get away with that in the NFL. This meant one thing.

The kid was a project.

It would take him a couple of years to master the true craft of blocking. Could he do that and, more importantly, would the Bears give him enough time to learn? There were some close calls along the way, but he stayed on the roster long enough to get a strong education from offensive line coach Dan Roushar. This, along with some lessons from former All-Pro Terron Armstead, seems to have advanced him enough to be a real position to start for this team. What a story that would be.