The Offseason: Bears OTAs, Caleb Williams' silence & Ben Johnson coach of the year?
A week ago, the Chicago weather decided to mirror the sports news cycle.
On Friday afternoon, the city was greeted with a dust storm generated by winds from thunderstorms. Anyone leaving the Crosstown Classic took smatterings of dust to the face.
This, I have come to learn, is also called a haboob, which is a term more often used in the Middle East.
The whole haboob could have been a wild coincidence. I think it was very fitting, considering the amount of wind smattering the Chicagoland after the reports of Caleb Williams’ pre-draft distrust in the Chicago Bears.
Not only did this change the course of questioning at Bears OTAs this week, but it also awakened plenty of haboobs from analysts abound.
Pro Football Focus ranked Williams 24th when it ranked all 32 starting quarterbacks ahead of the 2025 season. This was behind Michael Penix Jr., Drake Maye and J.J. McCarthy. If you remember right, McCarthy has yet to start an NFL game.
Some went so far as to predict the future.
"If I had to bet is Caleb Williams going to be the Bears starting QB in three years, I’d probably bet no," NFL analyst Ross Tucker said Friday on 670 The Score’s Mully and Haugh.
Some just went right at Williams.
"It's no wonder why he failed initially, and it's no wonder why the coach got fired," former NFL quarterback and current WFAN morning host Boomer Esiason said. "Now (the Bears) go out and get an offensive coach in Ben Johnson, and now it's on his ass. It's going to be on his ass to live up to these so-called lofty expectations that he has for himself and that his father has for his son. I understand that there could be a discussion (Chicago) could be a place where quarterbacks go to die, but go fix it. Be the reason that the team is going to turn it around and be the player that you think you are."
Phew, that’s a hearty haboob. Caleb Williams will address it soon. It shouldn’t be directed at him.
The backstory:
Sure, the optics around ESPN’s Seth Wickersham reports that Caleb Williams’ family looked into circumventing the NFL Draft and the NFL Collective Bargaining Agreement are less than optimal.
But, with the benefit of hindsight, he was pretty spot on.
The Williams’ family reportedly was not convinced Caleb would succeed playing for Shane Waldron and Matt Eberflus. The Bears fired both midseason. It wasn’t great the year before in 2023, either. That’s when then-starting quarterback Justin Fields said it first.
"Could be coaching, I think," Fields said when asked why he was playing "robotic" against the Buccaneers in a Week 3 loss in 2023. "At the end of the day, they are doing their job when they are giving me what to look at, but at the end of the day, I can’t be thinking about that when the game comes."
I’ve beaten this drum plenty of times, but Williams still passed for over 3,500 yards with 20 touchdowns and only six interceptions with so much chaos. In no way should that be used against him. He set the rookie record for pass attempts without getting picked off. He broke virtually every Bears’ rookie passing record.
I’ve beaten that drum well before Wickersham’s book reported no one watched game film with Williams. He tried figuring out his rookie year on vibes alone. For those likes of Esiason, who are placing entitlement at Williams’ feet and telling him to work hard, it was clear Williams wants to put in the necessary work. The former staff just didn’t oblige.
Numbers don’t lie, either. Williams is one of two Bears quarterbacks ever to throw at least 20 touchdowns and less than 10 interceptions in a single season. The other quarterback was Rudy Bukich in 1965.
All of this is to say, looking at Williams’ career with any sort of absolute stemming from his rookie season is incredibly premature.
What's next:
The kid was right to have reservations with the Bears. If the Bears have only had three Pro Bowl quarterbacks since 1951, that’s three successful quarterbacking seasons in 73 years.
Whatever haboob comes from Wickersham’s book – and there’s been plenty of it already – it should fall on the Bears’ shoulders to rectify the idea that Chicago is "where quarterbacks go to die." It wasn’t Williams that perpetuated that notion.
To the Bears’ credit, they’ve taken the steps to fix it. A team doesn’t hire a leading offensive mind like Ben Johnson because they’re content with their offensive structure. They don't trade for two starting offensive lineman and draft a third if they were content with their offensive line. Instead, they have a guy that's gunning to personally be the guy that changes the narrative that Chicago kills QBs.
"I love the opportunity to come on in and change that narrative," Johnson said. "That's where great stories are written."
It’s fair to place the expectation that Williams needs to be better in 2025. That’s still a far cry from saying he’s entitled or going to be bust. Especially when he was right all along.
If anyone wants to create their own haboob, at least acknowledge Williams deserves a bit of a breather. He should have his chance to face the music when he meets with the media at some point during OTAs.
BearsSportsSports Commentary