Fans will get their first look at the partnership between Bears coach Ben Johnson and quarterback Caleb Williams on Sunday when Williams starts the second preseason game against the Bills — the launching point for a connection that will steer the Bears’ future both immediately and in the long term.
Of all the responsibilities Johnson took on when the Bears hired him in January, none is bigger than elevating Williams to the top tier of the NFL, which he’ll attempt to do with a coaching structure that involves at least five different voices.
The main people in Williams’ ear are Johnson, quarterbacks coach J.T. Barrett and third-string quarterback Case Keenum, a 14-year veteran who was signed in part to be a mentor. Johnson also has passing-game coordinator Press Taylor and offensive coordinator Declan Doyle on staff, but they have less direct input to Williams in order to keep the process “very clean,” as Johnson put it.
“There can be a lot of cooks in the kitchen, so by design, we’re very selective of who is in charge of what with him,” Johnson said.
Barrett is the only one of the group who has previously worked with Johnson, having spent the last three seasons as a low-level assistant when Johnson was the Lions’ offensive coordinator. He delves into the details with Williams daily. Johnson is always involved to some extent, of course, and meets with Williams in more depth any time the players have a day off.
The goal is to win the “race,” to use Johnson’s word — to have Williams ready to run the offense by the season opener against the Vikings on Sept. 8.
Everyone in the crew working with Williams, including Johnson, is under 40. Keenum, at 37, is the same age as Taylor. Doyle, 29, and Barrett, 30, are extremely young for their roles. Taylor, who was the Jaguars’ offensive coordinator the last three seasons, is the only one of the coaches who has held his current job somewhere else.
None of that is a factor, though, in how they work with each other. Everyone gets a voice, but ultimately, Johnson calls the shots.
“There’s a hierarchy to everything,” Doyle said. “Ben is the guy that’s going to speak to [Williams] on the field a lot of times and provides a lot of insight in the meeting room, but his time is valuable, so he can’t be in there all the time.”
Taylor portrayed it as Johnson setting the big-picture agenda and Barrett handling the day-to-day while he and Doyle “chime in” during group discussions.
“The biggest thing any time you have a multitude of voices talking to one person is everybody being aligned,” Taylor said. “A lot of it is everybody putting their egos aside, making sure there’s one message for the quarterback and there’s no confusion.”
Training camp has been up and down for Williams so far, although he looked sharp for most of practice Wednesday as he repeatedly hit wide receivers Rome Odunze and Olamide Zaccheaus in 11-on-11 work. In the two-minute drill against the second-string defense to finish practice, he hit Zaccheaus for a 23-yard pass up the left side to get the offense in field-goal range.
Williams’ main struggles as he has been learning Johnson’s offense have been pre-snap procedures and throwing accuracy. Neither was an issue Wednesday. After wrapping up an accuracy drill, he playfully flashed a peace sign to the TV cameras on the sideline.
Delay-of-game penalties have been frustrating, but Johnson defended Williams on Wednesday, saying he’s not the sole reason for those flags and that the coaching staff is “loading” players with an expansive playbook.
“The whole inventory of the offense can be thrown at you at any time in a practice,” Taylor said. “In a game, it’s honed in — you’ve repped it every single day, and by Sunday you’ve seen four days’ worth of work and the quarterback is anticipating the play calls.”
Taylor also noted that Johnson’s scheme is full of “tags” giving direction to various players to go in motion and “kills” to change the play. He acknowledged, too, there have been instances of him getting the call to Williams “a little bit slow.” Overall, he was happy with how Williams “is able to spit these plays out” and credited him for making “significant progress” grasping the playbook.
“Week 1, we’re going to be in a good spot,” Johnson said.
That’s ambitious, considering how things have been going. And it’s why Williams playing against the Bills is significant after he sat out the first preseason game against the Dolphins.
A crisp, clean performance — even in a preseason game — would back up his coach’s optimism and calm everyone down.
