The Chicago Bears brought in former Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson to be the franchise’s new head coach, in the hopes that he will be able to unlock young quarterback Caleb Williams’ full potential the same way he did with Jared Goff in Detroit.
The move seems to already be paying dividends for Williams, who shared a teaching moment between him and Johnson earlier this offseason.
“We were marching down the field and the headset starting going out on me and I got kind of frustrated,” Williams said. “Ben came over to me after and he was like ‘have a few plays in mind if that ever happens.’
“That’s more of accountability to me and to this team and having a few plays that if the clock’s running down, headset goes out or it’s spiking or something – you can’t hear the play call – it’s a have a few plays, go out there and don’t go out there palms up and complain and things like that. Keep going.”
Now, Johnson has to decide how to deploy Williams and other starters this preseason, and he’s made up his mind on how to handle the first preseason game. The head coach said that Williams’ first game action of the year will not come in the Bears’ first preseason game against the Miami Dolphins this weekend, and also revealed there’d be multiple starters sitting out on both sides of the ball.
“I think we have about nine on O, nine on D,” Johnson said. “We’ll see how the day goes, maybe that number will change. So, we’ll make it through the day, and we’ll make those final decisions when we get there.”
It’ll be interesting to see how Johnson ends up regretting not getting Williams the extra reps.