Nobody can argue that the Chicago Bears badly mishandled Caleb Williams last season. GM Ryan Poles elected to keep Matt Eberflus as head coach, allowing him to hire a new offensive staff led by Shane Waldron. In hindsight, it was a bad decision. Waldron had zero experience developing young quarterbacks, and his track record in Seattle was far from great. Sadly, in typical Bears fashion, they resisted the urge to make changes, hoping the staff would have a good plan for Williams. They did not. Eberflus and Waldron were fired midseason, and Poles frantically sought help to fix the problem. Enter Ben Johnson.
Hiring him was a no-brainer. The 38-year-old had delivered an elite offense for three seasons in Detroit, guiding the Lions back to prominence. If anybody was qualified to take a crack at fixing Williams, it was him. There was one problem, though. Johnson had spent his entire tenure in Detroit coaching Jared Goff, who is more of a classic drop-back pocket passer. Williams is a different anima. It didn’t take long for the Bears’ head coach to realize this. To that end, he needed help. So, according to Robert Mays of The Athletic Football Show, Johnson sought advice from people who might know how to approach it.
Ben Johnson knew what he was doing, pinpointing Kyler Murray.
The Arizona Cardinals star is remarkably similar to Williams. Both are undersized quarterbacks with outstanding mobility, big arms, and playmaking instincts. Both were #1 overall picks and had limited knowledge of playing quarterback in the traditional sense. Johnson was smart to reach out to Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon and offensive coordinator Drew Petzing about approaching such a player. Plenty of technical answers were involved, but the overall approach was as follows.
Commitment to running the football
Heavy tight end usage
Lots of run-pass option and play action
Three wide receivers on clear passing downs
Misdirection
Knowing this, you look back at what the Bears did in the offseason and immediately notice they followed this blueprint closely. Ben Johnson is already a run-first play-caller. They drafted a tight end with their 1st round pick, giving them Colston Loveland and Cole Kmet. Williams has the legs to make the RPO highly dangerous, as Murray did last year. Lastly, they drafted Luther Burden in the 2nd round, giving them a viable three-receiver set with D.J. Moore and Rome Odunze. Johnson won’t copy what the Cardinals do in Arizona, but it’s beyond obvious he’s taking a cue from them.
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