Ben Johnson uses past history to explain why things are developing slowly for Caleb Williams and the Bears offense
He understands it’s going to take time.
Sloppy and disappointing have been the words Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson has previously used to describe his offense. But, at the same time, so have the words encouraging and progressing.
Simply put, it’s going to take time for the Bears offense to get where Johnson wants his unit it be at and who’s to say that ridiculously high bar can even be reached in 2025?
In a perfect world — and from the outside looking in — you’d ideally like to see everything come together in quick fashion for the Bears offense but that’s clearly not going to be the case.
“We’re inconsistent as a whole on offense,” Johnson explained on Friday. “We really need to start playing as a more cohesive unit. We just haven’t done that. Everyone is kind of taking their turn of not so good. . . We’re just not, we’re frankly not there, yet.”
What Johnson is installing in Chicago is advanced, detailed, and complex. Far more so than the unit Johnson led in Detroit that turned a 3-win team into arguably one of the the most efficient offenses in NFL history. But even that situation had some major differences.
When Ben Johnson took over as the Lions offensive coordinator in 2022, he had an experienced veteran quarterback in Jared Goff to work with. Prior to even being in Johnson’s offense, Goff had six seasons of playing experience, including four seasons under an offensive wizard in Sean McVay.
Now, Johnson is working with Caleb Williams, a second-year quarterback who had a rocky at best coaching situation as a rookie. So, yeah, things are noticeably different. Johnson’s staff had to completely tear down his previous mechanics and build Williams back up into a quarterback that can fit this system.
Fortunately, Williams has been welcome to all of those changes, but this scheme is still a lot for a young quarterback to take on mentally. Something Johnson has experience dealing with.
Back in 2014, Johnson was on the Miami Dolphins staff as an assistant quarterbacks coach working with quarterback Ryan Tannehill. That year, offensive coordinator Bill Lazor came in with a new offensive scheme that required re-wiring Tannehill based on what he learned before.
“The third year (2014), we really started from scratch with him,” Johnson said via Hoge & Jahns. “I still remember, all springtime we redid footwork from the ground up and it was time over and over and over. . . It was brand-spankin’ new for Ryan, yet he worked hard and diligently at it.”
That first year under the new system, Tannehill went on to throw for 4,045 yards, 27 touchdowns, and 12 interceptions on an offense that finished 11th in points scored.
A similar path is what Johnson is envisioning for Williams after spending the spring reworking his footwork and mechanics. Now that the team is in training camp, the actual offensive install has started and there was always going to be growing pains to work through before getting it right.
“They’ve installed a lot,” Williams explained via ESPN. “I take pride in trying to retain it all, every single detail that we have. I think that’s where I’ve been growing so far since Ben’s been here is retaining all of the information, all of it makes sense to me and being able to go out there and execute. . .
“Obviously, there’s going to be mistakes, but being able to understand that it was a mistake by me or we lined up wrong – whatever the case may be – getting back in the huddle, calling it right, getting back out there, doing it, executing, being a player-led team [is what’s important].”
So, should there be concern from the outside? Absolutely not. The Bears still have plenty of time to practice including another joint practice and two other preseason games after this week before the regular season even gets started.
The important thing is, progress is being made, slowly but surely, with a deliberate plan in place.
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