Bears Saints Football
New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees (9) passes in the first half of an NFL wild-card playoff football game against the Chicago Bears in New Orleans, Sunday, Jan. 10, 2021. (AP Photo/Butch Dill) ORG XMIT: LAGH1
Butch Dill/AP Photos
Television production meetings are a way for broadcasters to get information from players and coaches ahead of calling their game, but it worked the other direction in this case.
It just so happened for Bears quarterback Caleb Williams that Fox assigned Adam Amin, Drew Brees and Kristina Pink to his team’s opener Sunday at the Panthers, and something Brees said to Williams during the week truly landed. Brees stressed to Williams the importance of taking the easy ones and checking down, and coach Ben Johnson considered that a contribution to his preparation.
“Caleb and I were talking about it the night before the game, just his conversation with Drew Brees,” Johnson said Monday. “The difference between 60% and 70% [completions], he said the difference is three completions a game. Then you turn on our tape and... that might’ve stuck with our guy a little bit, which was cool to see.
“A couple checkdowns to the backs were good plays for us. There’s a couple of times where the primary’s not there and you can see him reset to the middle of the field where No. 2 was, and he ended up dotting that for five-yard gains a couple times. He had some really nice throwaways when the plays weren’t there. He was smart with the football.”
Johnson set completing 70% of his passes as the standard for Williams, so he must have loved Williams hearing that from someone else for a change. Brees completed 67.7% for his career (No. 3 in NFL history), including seven seasons of 70% or better. His 74.4% in 2018 is the all-time record, followed by his 74.3% the next season.
Williams was sharp in the Bears’ 59-37 win. He completed 21 of 29 passes, and to Brees’ point, that was 72.4%, whereas three fewer completions would’ve been 62.1%. Only two of those incomplete passes were poorly thrown, with most being throwaways. He finished with 269 yards passing, two touchdown passes and a 124.1 passer rating in addition to rushing for 65 yards and two touchdowns.
On passes thrown within 10 yards of the line of scrimmage, Williams completed 14 of 15. He also connected on three passes thrown more than 20 yards downfield from the line of scrimmage.
Brees’ impact on the Bears began indirectly when he was inducted into the Hall of Fame last month. Bears defensive coordinator Dennis Allen and offensive line coach Dan Roushar attended the ceremony, and Johnson had them address the team about it when they returned.
“They go to the Hall of Fame acceptance speech for Drew Brees, and to me, it’s a reminder of why we get into what we do as coaches,” Johnson told the Sun-Times. “Yeah, sure, we want to win games and Super Bowls and all that just like everybody else on the team, but our coaching ‘why’ is really to see these guys become the best versions of themselves.
“That’s a cliché, but when you watch and listen to those Hall of Fame speeches and you have coaches that are present and they were asked there by the athlete, that’s what’s impactful to me. I took this job [because] I wanted the chance to take a young quarterback and help shape, mold and pour whatever I could into him. That’s what I want to do on a daily basis and a yearly basis. That’s what’s been really rewarding.”