Then-Bears head coach Matt Nagy spent the 2020 offseason trying to figure out what went wrong with the team.
One chief regret, Nagy decided then, was the way he had coddled his quarterback during preseason games.
The Bears played five preseason games in 2018, Nagy’s first season. Mitch Trubisky, the No. 2 overall pick in 2017, threw only 18 passes in them.
The next year, he threw zero. The Bears looked thoroughly unprepared for their season opener, a nationally televised ‘‘Thursday Night Football’’ game that celebrated the start of their 100th season. They lost 10-3 to the Packers in a game in which Trubisky posted a 62.1 passer rating.
The momentum that had surged through the Bears during the offseason — from dusting themselves off after the double-doink playoff loss to the Eagles to having alumni predicting a Super Bowl berth during their 100th anniversary convention — was ground to a halt in three hours’ time.
When it comes to quarterbacks, preseason coaching decisions matter.
New Bears head coach Ben Johnson is about to make his decision about Caleb Williams known, perhaps as soon as Tuesday. He might decide to sit him all preseason or give him a handful of snaps. It seems most likely he’ll have Williams warm up for the preseason opener Sunday against the Dolphins — the Bears, after all, never have prepared for a game day under Johnson — and then do very little.
Johnson’s call and his explanation behind it will be one of his earliest and most public coaching decisions. It will offer a glimpse into his confidence in Williams and in the Bears’ practices to this point.
Asked about his plans for preseason games when the Bears reported to training camp, Johnson said his initial plan was to treat joint practices like games. The Bears have one scheduled for Friday against the Dolphins at Halas Hall, two days before the preseason opener at Soldier Field. The next week, they’ll follow the same plan against the Bills.
There are clues that Johnson isn’t putting much stock in the preseason opener. The Bears have scheduled a practice for the next afternoon, something they wouldn’t have done if they planned for the entire roster to be banged up from the first preseason game. The fact they scheduled joint practices against two teams for the first time in team history shows the emphasis Johnson puts on them.
‘‘I’m going to take a lot of weight into these joint practices,’’ Johnson said last month.
Williams hardly has mastered things during camp. His inability to get the Bears’ snaps off on time Sunday frustrated Johnson, who said the Bears ‘‘were not going to win many games’’ without making some fixes.
Williams has struggled enough to this point in camp — on quiet back fields, in front of fans at Halas Hall and at ‘‘Family Fest’’ on Sunday at Soldier Field — that declaring him good to go feels disingenuous.
That’s what then-head coach Matt Eberflus did with Justin Fields in 2023. Minutes after watching Fields struggle against the Colts’ second-string defense during a joint practice, Eberflus declared he wouldn’t play in the preseason game two days later. He had played seven snaps in the preseason opener and would play 13 more in the preseason finale.
The Bears lost to the Packers in the opener — sound familiar? — and began the season 0-4 and 2-7. Sitting quarterbacks in the preseason — and controlling how often they’re hit in joint practices — is the modern way of thinking. In 2022, Johnson’s first full season as the Lions’ offensive coordinator, quarterback Jared Goff threw four preseason passes. In the last two preseasons, he threw zero.
Goff, however, was entering his seventh season in 2022 and had made two Pro Bowls and reached a Super Bowl. Williams, who threw 20 passes last preseason, is about to embark on his second season and first under Johnson. He needs all the work he can get, even if he’s likely to get it only in the setting Johnson prefers.
