Bear Digest

The Caleb Williams weapons Ben Johnson can't wait to utilize

During his talk at the combine, Bears coach Ben Williams couldn't contain himself over the thought of using one of his young quarterback's great strengths.

Gene Chamberlain

Ben Johnson on Caleb Williams and the Bears offense.mp4
Ben Johnson on Caleb Williams and the Bears offense.mp4 /

Despite their success together, it's safe to wonder if Ben Johnson grew tired of winning from the pocket in Detroit with Jared Goff at quarterback.

There's a big football field out there and Johnson sees the opportunity to better explore it with Caleb Williams passing.

It's part of both the benefit and challenge the new Bears coach has with getting the offense to an acceptable level after underachieving for about six straight seasons.

"The outer structure, the off schedule, the creation, that's what stands out the most because that's really the way that this league's going right now," Johnson said. "It seems like as much as you want to make it pure progression, one to two to three, there's just too much variety. The pass rush is coming down and to have an athlete like Caleb extend the play and potentially find an explosive down the field that's what gets me going a little bit.

"I get excited thinking about that because I haven't really been around that since I've been in the in the in the league. But I've seen, I've been on the other side and I've experienced it and it's demoralizing when you're on the other side and you're watching that happen to your defense."

Like, there wasn't enough shock and awe to the Johnson offense in Detroit already, now he's hoping to expand the horizons to new territory.

Williams frequently drew criticism for holding onto the ball too much and playing hero ball, but Johnson sounds like someone who wants to used this as an asset. He has come in promising to improve his quarterback while not wanting to deprive Williams of his greatest asset -- mobility and playmaking.

It might not sound like much, but Mitchell Trubisky counted mobility as a great asset in his first and second seasons and had the Matt Nagy staff try to coach it out of him.

Even with the mobility, Johnson knows there will difficult times ahead. While he said he wants to use Williams' strengths, he also plans to rein it all in.

"Well, the springtime, not just for Caleb but for the entire team is we're going to go back to the basics and that's the fundamentals of each position, blocking, tackling, catching the football, running after the catch, ball security," Johnson said. "We're going to break it down to the studs and work to develop it from there.

"And so for Caleb, it's what are the important things about playing the quarterback position at the NFL level? It's as simple as the procedure, the huddle, breaking the hole, using cadence, motions, shifts, all those things that that can help attack a defense that we feel like can take another step here in Chicago. That'll be the starting point and and we'll look to build around him as well with the talent level and and the rest of the support staff."

It might sound like they're taking Williams back to his rookie year again, and in essence it is. It's apparent he wasn't getting the greatest coaching last year.

"I think I mentioned before, there's some things, you know, in the development of our young quarterback that you got to have," GM Ryan Poles said. "And I   know that he's (Johnson) going to hit that first and really to help him (Williams) be the best professional football player he can possibly be.

"But I love the excitement from both Ben and from Caleb. I know he's eager to get started and work with Ben and get his career going in Year 2."

While talking after his combine interview with Mike Florio and Chris Simms of Pro Football Talk, Poles later admitted it was probably the fault of the last coaching staff for rushing Williams that they need to go back and do this work.

"There was probably some steps skipped from the very beginning just in terms of building the foundation," Poles said.

To get something more from Williams is going to take supporting him better. The Bears running game took a huge step back last year and it's difficult to see how Williams can run a Bears offense based on the run like Johnson had in Detroit when they have such a poor offensive line.

"Yeah, we're going to take a look at again what's available to us," Poles told Bears writers at the combine.

If they make the additions, it's only going to benefit Williams.

"We'll be in a position to have a strong run game to stay balanced, which in turn helps the quarterback as well," Poles said.

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

BearDigest.com publisher Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.