The Bears want Caleb Williams to put his best foot — and his left foot — forward.
Williams took shotgun snaps with his left foot pushed forward Wednesday, the first glimpse of the quarterback during OTA practices under new head coach Ben Johnson. Last year, he waited for shotgun snaps with his right foot forward.
Johnson identified the switch early in his scouting of his new quarterback. When he told Williams he wanted to change his footwork, the quarterback said he already had considered making the move.
“I think it helps out, certainly, with the quick game from the gun, and then it helps us be in a little bit better throwing posture for a lot of the other things that we’re asking him to do,” Johnson said Wednesday. “It wasn’t so much us telling him to do it, it was more of a mutual, ‘Yeah, let’s see what this looks like.’ ”
There will be times this season when Johnson needs to tell Williams what to do, though. The quarterback will want it that way.
Lost among the disturbing details of Williams wanting to be drafted by the Vikings last year was what Williams said happened once he landed in Chicago. At times last year, he told his father Carl, he was left to watch film alone without any instruction from coaches.
“No one tells me what to watch,” he told his dad, per Seth Wickersham’s upcoming book “American Kings: A Biography of the Quarterback.”
Williams has yet to speak publicly about his film claims or the plot he and his father considered to avoid the Bears. The franchise knows that him feeling like he’s on his own can’t happen again. It’s a two-way street, though — Williams is responsible for aspects of his own preparation. He isn’t a rookie anymore.
He has done that so far.
“[Williams] did a great job in the downtime, just going ahead and taking it and running with it, and when the coaches weren’t around, as well,” Johnson said. “We’re not talking so much about the feet and the footwork anymore with him, it’s more big-picture plays, routes, ball location, coverages. It’s more big-picture stuff now.”
Soon it will be the small stuff. Williams will need Johnson then, too.
Williams never quite mastered game-day prep last year, with or without someone with whom to watch film. Former Bears coach Chris Beatty, who took over Shane Waldron’s role as offensive coordinator in November, detailed in late December what Williams needed to improve. The quarterback was “eager to learn — and learning how to learn,” he said then, but needed to find his rhythm during the week. What did he do on Monday to rehab his body? On his off day Tuesday? On Wednesday, when teams typically practice first and second downs? Thursday for third downs? Friday for red-zone plays?
He’ll get that guidance from Johnson in a way he didn’t last year, but he’ll still have to develop his own rhythm. He needs to be more efficient in his preparation.
“It’s not so much a work ethic issue [for Williams], in terms of the time, the energy, the desire part of it,” general manager Ryan Poles told the Sun-Times at the NFL’s annual meeting in March. “It’s, how do you organize the day? How do you structure notes? How do you watch tape? In what sequence do you watch tape?
“I think that really is a part that I’m excited to see [Williams] grow and really have a plan of attack and then go execute that. I think he’s going to get a lot of help from Ben and our staff in that way.”
For the second consecutive year, Williams has to learn a new playbook. He’ll have to practice spitting out the plays at home and inside Halas Hall.
“It’s different when you’re a 21-, 22-year-old young man sitting in the huddle,” Beatty said in December, “and there’s 32-year-old people sitting back looking at you.”
Or a 39-year-old head coach.
Last season, Williams had no veteran backup to mentor him — the Bears thought assistant coach Ryan Griffin, who was 34 and a recent NFL alum, would suffice. He had a defense-minded head coach. And he had an offensive coordinator in Waldron who struggled to communicate effectively as far back as training camp. It’s hard enough to learn the most efficient ways to prepare without those factors working against you.
As was the case last year, the Bears have surrounded Williams with a cadre of offensive coaches: new quarterbacks coach J.T. Barrett, new offensive coordinator Declan Doyle and new pass game coordinator Press Taylor. But there’s also someone playing a role that the Bears didn’t have last year: a veteran backup. The Bears signed Case Keenum in April, about two months after his 37th birthday, to mentor Williams. Keenum, who has been in the NFL so long that he once played for the St. Louis Rams, spent 2022 mentoring Josh Allen and the last two years with C.J. Stroud.
Keenum, who will be the third-stringer behind Williams and Tyson Bagent, will spend more time around Williams than the collective bargaining agreement affords coaches. The Bears hope that time together will wear off.
“He does a great job with his experience, bridging that gap sometimes between coaching and playing, and finding any potholes that could be in there,” Johnson said. “I feel really good about the mix around him, and that allows the relationship just to naturally form.”
That’s the hope, at least.
“It starts with developing a rapport and a trust, and that’s earned over time,” Johnson said. “You don’t walk in Day 1 and expect that to be achieved. The more time we spend together, [Williams] understands that I have his best interests at hearts, and vice versa. He’s going to go out there and play as well as he possibly can, not just for himself or me, but for the whole team and the city. That’s really what it comes down to.”