The Bears were still waiting to draft Caleb Williams a year ago, but they already knew how they planned to coach him. Offensive coordinator Shane Waldron would run the meetings, quarterbacks coach Kerry Joseph would focus on fundamentals and assistant Ryan Griffin would provide the wisdom of a former NFL quarterback. Pass-game coordinator Thomas Brown would filter his ideas to Williams through Waldron but not talk to the quarterback often. The Bears wanted to control how many voices were in Williams’ ear.
The whole thing failed spectacularly. Brown — who wasn’t even part of the chain of command that dealt with Williams directly — was named the offensive coordinator after 10 weeks and head coach after 13.
So the Bears’ new brain trust has a low bar to clear and a lot of mistakes to clean up. Ben Johnson’s presence as the coach and offensive play-caller will ensure the offense has a distinct personality — and a person in charge. Those below him will work to deliver that message to Williams in a critical season for the second-year quarterback.
Besides Johnson, three coaches are tasked with developing Williams:
• Offensive coordinator Declan Doyle, who at age 29 will cover many of the administrative duties of the job to free Johnson to coach the entire team. He had been a position coach for only two years, mentoring Broncos tight ends in 2023-24, before being hired in January.
• Quarterbacks coach J.T. Barrett, the 30-year-old former Ohio State star who followed Johnson to Halas Hall after spending three years in Detroit, the last two as the assistant quarterbacks coach. Barrett is five years removed from being on an NFL roster.
• Pass-game coordinator Press Taylor, 37, who spent the last three years as the Jaguars’ offensive coordinator but called plays for only one full season. Taylor spent seven years with the Eagles and is credited with delivering “Philly Special” to the coaching staff after watching the Bears run it in 2016.
“J.T. sees the game from a quarterback’s perspective,” Doyle said Thursday. “He’s a young guy in [coaching], but also he thinks from Caleb’s perspective in some ways, as a teacher. Press, obviously, has been a coordinator in the league. He’s called plays. He sees the game that way. Then, with Ben’s experience and being able to lead the implementation of the offense itself.
“Everybody has their own background that they’re bringing to it, but we all have a hand in implementing Ben’s vision.”
Johnson prided himself on assembling a staff with diverse backgrounds. Doyle, Barrett and Taylor have never worked with each other before, and only Barrett has worked with Johnson. Doyle served as an assistant in New Orleans alongside Johnson’s future boss Dan Campbell, while Taylor’s brother Zac worked with Johnson as Dolphins coaches.
None have tutored Williams at any level.
“It’s really just getting to know Caleb,” Taylor said. “Where do we reach him best? How do we reach him best?”
Taylor, who joined the Jaguars when former No. 1 overall pick Trevor Lawrence was entering his second season, said the coaches have been “intentional about spending a lot of time together” so they can deliver messages in lockstep. Not that they will always sound the same.
“It’s crazy to think that J.T. and I are going to be exactly the same in how we deliver a message, or Declan and I,” he said. “As long as we’re on the same page with what the message needs to be, then you feel out the process of getting that message across. Then it’s all just staying in alignment. That’s the biggest thing.”
Having the architect of the offense be the coach will help.
“Really, from an organizational perspective, Ben has a very, very high standard every day,” Doyle said.
The coaches are already holding Williams to that standard. They like what they see so far, even though they’ve spotted plenty of mistakes in last year’s film.
“The traits are there,” Taylor said. “The physical traits, throwing the football, the ball exploding out of his hand. It’s like that is a special God-given gift right there. And you start to envision all the cool things you can do with something like that.
“But then there are certain flashes where it’s like, he looked like a young quarterback. Either he didn’t know what he was looking at or he missed what he was looking at or he was a little late to pull the trigger.”
Barrett, whom Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow once called the greatest vocal leader he’d been around, said it’s clear Williams cares about getting better.
“He knows what is expected of him going into this year, but the biggest thing is that he cares and loves ball,” Barrett said. “And with that, there’s a lot of room to grow.”
That started earlier this month when the Bears reported for offseason workouts and continues next week with a voluntary minicamp.
“He wants to be great — it’s really important to him,” Doyle said. “He’s been very open to accepting feedback, accepting coaching and really starting to build that relationship where we’re going to be able to build this thing — and really hit his ceiling.”
