At some point during the offseason, coach Ben Johnson said, almost every Bears player has walked into a coordinator’s office — or his — and said he wanted to be coached with intensity.
‘‘The great ones, they want to be coached hard,’’ Johnson said. ‘‘That’s really the assumption we’re making with all these guys.’’
This is the time of year when the coaching staff can see who means it. That includes quarterback Caleb Williams, who is in the midst of his second week of voluntary practices during organized team activities with Johnson.
The Bears will open practice to the media again Wednesday, and it’s unclear whether Williams will go to the podium to answer what has become the Bears’ looming offseason question. It’s up to Williams to explain the report that he wanted to be drafted by the Vikings and that he and his father debated whether to trash Chicago to get there.
He also will have to answer — eventually — just how happy he is with the Bears after a rookie season that saw his and father Carl’s biggest fears come true.
On the field, he’s likely just as uncomfortable as he will be whenever he answers those questions. Johnson isn’t afraid to make his players uneasy during practice. He showed as much last week, barking loudly at tight end Cole Kmet for lining up in the wrong spot.
Asked how typical showing such agitation was, Johnson smiled and said he thought that was normal.
‘‘Everyone seems to be really intent, intense and focused,’’ guard Joe Thuney, who won Super Bowls with the Patriots and Chiefs, said last week.
That wasn’t the case last year. After only three games, the Bears’ leadership council met with offensive coordinator Shane Waldron and practically begged him to coach them with more intensity and hold players accountable for their mistakes.
They’re not asking that anymore.
‘‘We’ve got really good teachers here, and we’ve got people that hold people really accountable — like Ben,’’ special-teams coach Richard Hightower said this month. ‘‘He don’t mess around.’’