Head coach Ben Johnson was detailing what he liked the best about the Bears’ nascent ground game Tuesday and eventually veered away from running backs.
“The exciting thing for me is we got some quarterbacks that are pretty athletic players as well … ” Johnson said. “Maybe they can do some damage on the ground also.”
Caleb Williams could — that is, if Johnson really has the stomach for it.
He has the ability — only six quarterbacks ran for more yards than Williams’ 489 last season. Among passers with 50 or more carries across the league, only three averaged more than his 6 yards per rush.
Williams quietly posted one of the best rushing seasons ever for a Bears quarterback — even if some of those yards were gained by him running for his life. In the Super Bowl era, only two Bears passers — Justin Fields in 2022 and 2023 and Bobby Douglass in 1972 and 1973 — had more rushing yards than Williams did last year.
That makes Williams’ speed unlike any quarterback Johnson has coached. Jared Goff, Johnson’s quarterback with the Lions, had only 56 rushing yards last season, which ranked 39th among quarterbacks in a league that starts 32 of them. That was typical of Goff’s tenure playing for Johnson — in three full seasons with Johnson as offensive coordinator, Goff ran for 150 yards. Over that same span, 56 quarterbacks ran for more.
Johnson, then, should be excited to introduce a new facet to his rushing attack — a quarterback that can take off and run. Either that, or he’s trying to give future opponents something to worry about.
The truth is probably somewhere in the middle — he’ll want Williams to run but not to become dependent on it. Williams’ strength as a rookie was his durability — he played 99% of the Bears’ snaps despite being sacked more than all but two quarterbacks in the history of the NFL. No coach, though, wants his quarterback to take unnecessary hits — particularly when that quarterback stands just 6-foot-1, 226 pounds.
When it comes to quarterbacks running, coaches — particularly first-time coaches — have to strike a balance between aggression and caution. Head coach Matt Nagy and quarterback Mitch Trubisky struggled to find it in 2019. In their first year together, 2018, the former second-round pick ran for 421 yards — 68 shy of Williams last year. Like Williams, Trubisky was in his second season and learning a new offense.
In 2019, though, Nagy emphasized that Trubisky needed to look downfield to pass rather than rely on his legs.
“Be a passer first,” Nagy said. “And then if you have the opportunity to run, based off of what they’re giving you, do it.”
The result? Trubisky became both a worse thrower and runner in 2019, with his passer rating dropping from 95.4 to 83 and his rushing yards falling by more than half, from 421 yards to just 193.
Justin Fields posted the second-best rushing season by a quarterback in NFL history in 2022 in an offense that unabashedly featured him as a ball-carrier. Fields was so dynamic as a runner that he gained more yards in three single runs that season — 67, 61 and 55 — than Goff did all last year. Fields’ passing prowess never developed, though, and opponents eventually focused on stopping him in the run game. He averaged 5.4 yards per carry in 2022, but 3.6 the next season before the Bears traded him to make room for Williams.
Johnson figures to be more creative in the run game than Fields’ offensive coordinator Luke Getsy was. He’s shown it already in training camp, using different formations to make, in Johnson’s words, similar things look different and different things look similar. He’s shuffled personnel too, and has even lined receiver DJ Moore up at running back.
“We have backs that can get it on the perimeter and make things happen out there,” Johnson said.
That includes Williams — he hopes.
While Goff might have been the least likely run threat in the entire NFL the past few years, he was still skilled when he rolled outside the tackles. In each of the last two seasons, Goff led the NFL in passing yards on play-action passes. In 2022, he was fourth.
Johnson can be allowed to dream of what his scheme looks like when the quarterback runs play action and is an actual threat to keep the ball.
Williams’ challenge, though, remains no different than the issues that eventually doomed Trubisky and Fields. Coming off a disappointing rookie season, Williams needs to master a passing attack installed by a new head coach.
There’s no running from that.
NOTE: The Bears signed former Northwestern tight end Thomas Gordon and tight end Jordan Murray with an injury designation. He had a groin injury.
