When Ben Johnson was hired as the head coach, most assumed the primary motivation was to help develop quarterback Caleb Williams. That was only part of it. Johnson knew his job involved every player on the roster. Yes, the quarterback was the most important, but he could not put everything on Williams. That would be irresponsible. Johnson needed a plan, something that would keep the offense functional without relying too heavily on the quarterback while still allowing Williams to learn.
Twelve games into the season, the results are mostly positive. The Bears are 9-3, the offense ranks in the top 10, and Williams has 17 touchdowns to just five interceptions. However, many remain worried. The quarterback is barely completing 58% of his passes, leaving some wondering if he can ever clean up his accuracy problems. Mike Sando of The Athletic reached out to an experienced offensive coach for their opinion. He believes Johnson's priorities were different this year, and correct.
"The No. 1 thing that Ben Johnson is doing with Caleb is teaching him how to play quarterback," a veteran play caller said. "He is not doing anything different with his throwing motion or anything like that. What is the down and distance? If it's second-and-3, we don't need to throw the fade here."
Such an assessment should remind everybody of reality.
Williams was more of a project than people wanted to admit coming out of USC. He played in a true spread offense in college, sitting almost exclusively in shotgun and relying entirely on the head coach to make calls. Johnson's goal this year was to teach Williams how to play under center, learn proper footwork, and understand how to diagnose defenses. The throwing fundamentals were secondary. Johnson himself even admitted this at his latest press conference.
"He continues to get better each and every week. I couldn’t be more pleased with how he played last week. And I know what the stats say – throw those out the window. He’s doing a really good job managing the ballgame. That’s step No. 1 for the quarterback. So, he’s going to continue to get better. The process is really good right now with how he approaches the week, the way he’s taking to coaching, the way he’s applying the coaching. I’m very pleased with that. I think we’re going to continue to see him ascend, whether the stats tell the story or not."
Ben Johnson remains committed to the process.
The odds of him fixing everything wrong with Williams in one go were remote. He had to prioritize. For Ben Johnson, having a quarterback who could get everybody lined up right and run the offense with good tempo was more important than having one who was pinpoint accurate. The former made moving the ball much easier than an accurate quarterback who still didn't quite understand what he was doing. Ben Johnson is playing the long game. Williams should have a large chunk of the offense mastered by the end of this season.
That means the Bears won't have to focus on installing it nearly as much next offseason. That time can instead be spent on cleaning up the quarterback's fundamentals. It is a good plan that has proven it can work before. Buffalo did it with Josh Allen. Detroit did it with Matthew Stafford. San Diego did with Drew Brees. This playbook from Johnson is nothing new.
