Why play-action could be the action play for Bears QB Caleb Williams

The first thud of Monday’s Bears practice shouted what all the drills and sprints and stretching of last week could not.

Pads are on. Football’s back.

“It’s real football now,” rookie running back Kyle Monangai said. “Now the defense can’t say, ‘That’s a tackle,’ when they just grab some cloth. We can finally tell them this is a good four- or five-yard pickup on a carry. We’re starting to see the realistic looks.”

That wasn’t the case in the first four practices, when offensive linemen didn’t have any pads to grab onto when trying to block, and when defenders couldn’t do much more than try to bear-hug a ball carrier as he ran past.

The arrival of padded practices means it’s time to build the run game — a strong rushing offense that should help quarterback Caleb Williams make the jump in his second season because it would allow new head coach Ben Johnson to do what he does best: call play-action passes.

Johnson said he won’t merely copy his offense from when he was the Lions’ coordinator the previous three seasons, but it’s clear he believes in play-action.

“Football 101,” center Drew Dalman said. “The more stress you can put on the defense being able to run the ball, that opens things in the pass game. When you’re a team that can attack as an offense from multiple directions as far as run and pass, that makes you really effective. It all ties together.”

Johnson’s formula in Detroit relied on a dominant and dedicated run game. Only two NFL teams ran the ball more often than the Lions last season. No team ran more than them over left tackle and only one team ran more over right tackle.

The scheme revived Lions quarterback Jared Goff’s career, helping him earn Pro Bowl honors two of the last three seasons after the Rams cast him aside as salary ballast in a 2021 trade for Matthew Stafford. Goff’s 203 play-action passes in 2024 led the NFL by a mile; Stafford, the next-closest player, had 151. Goff finished with 2,060 passing yards on play-action last season; Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold had the second-most with 1,474.

It was a similar situation in 2023, when Goff threw an NFL-most 151 times on play-action for an NFL-best 1,415 yards. In 2022, he ranked fourth in play-action passes but still led the league with 1,445 yards.

Put more simply: His 4,920 play-action passing yards over the last three years are more than every Bears quarterback combined for (4,871) over the last six.

Williams, who last year finished 16th in the NFL with 85 play-action passes and 20th with 626 passing yards on play-action passes, is actually better-suited to throw off play fakes than Goff is. At 6-1, he has been forced to do so his whole life. His “superpower,” Johnson said, is his ability to roll to his left or his right and decide whether to throw or take off running.

The Bears couldn’t see what that looked like in real time during the offseason program or the first four training camp practices. But on Monday, with pads on, they could — and it was encouraging. Williams’ first completion in team drills was a pass to rookie tight end Colston Loveland, the Bears’ first-round pick, on a play-action pass. Later, in seven-on-seven drills, Loveland soared into the air, arms extended above his head, and snatched a pass for a long gain. Williams found wide receiver DJ Moore, who also lined up in the backfield during practice, for two completions. Later, in another round of team drills, Williams completed passes to tight end Cole Kmet and slot receiver Olamide Zaccheaus.

“Every day, [Williams is] going to give you one throw or do something that’s going to make you open your eyes and say, ‘Whoa,’ ” Monangai said. “The skillset that he brings, it’s something that’s going to carry this offense to where we need to be.”

The only way to make the play-action pop is to improve the run game. The Bears’ 102 rushing yards per game last year ranked 25th out of 32 teams, while the Lions were sixth with 146.4. The Bears brought back their three top running backs, adding just Monangai, a seventh-round pick who was the second-leading rusher in Rutgers history. Without a new group of rushers, the Bears are counting on a revamped offensive line to help and have spent the offseason putting Williams under center, rather than in shotgun, to better sell run fakes.

Johnson, however, figures to be the difference-maker. He has been before.

“He’s incredibly knowledgeable. He’s detailed,” Dalman said. “Those two attributes are excellent to have in a play-caller. I’m sure that plays into his success.”