What is with all these anonymous people trying to cramp the Chicago Bears’ style in the midst of their playoff run?
First, we had people piling on about whether or not the Bears’ last-second comeback wins were sustainable, only to watch them pull off another one against the Minnesota Vikings last Sunday. Now, some anonymous sources are suggesting that new head coach Ben Johnson might not be completely satisfied with Caleb Williams’ play style.
That latest storyline comes from The Athletic’s Mike Sando, who reported back with some insights from coaches around the league. One of them is defensive coach who apparently isn’t sold on the Johnson-Williams partnership.
"To be honest with you, I think Ben is frustrated with him," the defensive coach said. "Caleb doesn't play on time and doesn't do the things that allow that offense to get to the next level that Ben is used to. Ben was able to scheme up max-protection things for Jared (Goff) in Detroit and run guys open. This guy can't do that, so now it is all (off-schedule) ball, which is uncontrollable for a coach."
That’s not a new critique for Williams. The second-year quarterback’s 3.36 time to throw remains the highest number among NFL starters by far, according to Pro Football Focus. While Williams has been a magician at avoiding sacks, his reliance on creating plays does throw off the flow of the offense (though it’s not all on him). Detractors have raised alarms about this since Johnson was hired, of course, and the Bears have seemingly worked their way through it while winning seven games in the process.
Is it possible that Johnson is a little frustrated with Williams playing off-schedule at times? Certainly. He has a vision for how he wants his offense to look, and that vision has produced a ton of points the last few years. But Williams’ ability to play more under center and thrive with play-action shows he can do what Johnson wants and is getting better at it each week. So any suggestion that Johnson has issues with Williams has to be balanced out with the actual results being produced on the field. It’s clearly not perfect, but there’s no doubt this Bears operation is better than last year’s.
That’s why a second coach who spoke on the topic cut Williams a little slack.
“You have to consider Caleb as a rookie, because he wasn't buying in before," the former head coach said. "He is learning how to play. There are a lot of games you are going to play in like the week before, when he ran (17) yards for the winning touchdown."
In other words: just because there are growing pains doesn’t mean there can’t be success—or that there’s no hope of getting where Johnson wants things to be. He and Williams are less than a full year into this relationship. Give it time before throwing it to the dogs.
After all, it’s not like he’s Kevin O’Connell openly waiting for the cement to dry on JJ McCarthy’s fundamentals.