With a red backpack slung over his navy New Balance jacket, Bears quarterback Caleb Williams walked into Halas Hall for the first day of the team’s offseason program Monday. From a football standpoint, it could be the first day of the rest of his life.
“Good to be back, good to be back, glad to be back,” Williams said in a video posted by the Bears’ social media team and re-posted by the quarterback himself.
When Williams last appeared in a game for the Bears, he was a rookie playing for his second head coach, third offensive coordinator and seventh offensive line starting combination.
The Bears believe they fixed all of the above this offseason. They nearly doubled the salary they paid former coach Matt Eberflus to lure Ben Johnson, the best offensive play-caller on the head coaching market. General manager Ryan Poles traded for guards Joe Thuney and Jonah Jackson and signed the top center in free agency, Drew Dalman. With the 10th pick in the draft later this month, the Bears could add a left tackle to challenge Braxton Jones and turn what had been a weakness into a strength.
The Bears might have won the offseason. Again.
Last year, all that gained the franchise was a 5-12 record and a housecleaning.
“The underlying message there is that means nothing unless you win in-season,” chairman George McCaskey said last week at the NFL’s annual meeting. “We’ve made the moves that we think are necessary and proper to put us in a position to win. But we’ve got to deliver in September and beyond.”
That started Monday, when the Bears reported for Phase I of their offseason program. For the next two weeks, players will learn Johnson’s playbook, work on strength and conditioning and do rehabilitation work if needed. Johnson will try to set the tone for a team in desperate need of a new one — since going 12-4 in 2018, the Bears have yet to finish a season with a winning record and have lost 30 more games than they’ve won. In the last three years, they’ve posted the two longest losing streaks in franchise history — 14 games from 2022-23 and a 10-game streak that ended when the Bears beat the Packers in last year’s season finale.
“We’re going to be very, very clear with what we want,” Johnson said last week. “The communication is going to be crystal clear. The structure is going to be there from Day 1. We’re going to be organized and we’re going to be consistent.
“If we fail to meet the mark, the players are going to know about it. And when we do meet the mark, the players are going to know about it. That’s how the coaching staff is going to coach. Those are the guys we brought in and I’m encouraged by what I’ve seen so far.”
The offseason program is voluntary, but the Bears expected good attendance for Johnson’s first day in front of the team. Tuesday, the team’s web site posted photos of players arriving. Cornerback Jaylon Johnson, receivers DJ Moore and Rome Odunze, linebackers T.J. Edwards and Tremaine Edmunds and running back D’Andre Swift were among the players featured. Thuney, Jackson and fellow newcomers Grady Jarrett and Olamide Zaccheaus also started their first Bears offseason program. Zaccheaus, a slot receiver, smiled to the camera as he was dropped off at the front door.
“First day of school,” he said.
And the promise that comes with it.
“I can’t speak too much about what went on last year,” Johnson said last week. “I can speak to what we’re going to do, and I feel good about the vision that I have, that the coordinators are going to help employ here once the players get in, and what we’re going to become. That’s Chicago Bears football moving forward.”