Fifteen years have passed since the Chicago Bears last appeared in an NFC Championship Game, but after about 45 minutes of game action this past Monday night, it was starting to feel like it was about time Bears fans could begin thinking about playing deep into January once again. But as we all know, you have to go a full 60, and the Bears learned that the hard way against the Minnesota Vikings.
Now, as the sky continues plummet toward the ground in the Windy City following a tragic 4th quarter collapse, there are some troubling parallels emerging between Caleb Williams and Jay Cutler, the quarterback who was under center the last time the Bears played for a spot in the Super Bowl.
Much of the conversation during the offseason in Chicago was rightfully centered on the progress of Caleb Williams under new Bears head coach Ben Johnson. Unfortunately, Johnson needed to go back to the basics as he started coaching up his franchise QB, working on fundamentals like footwork, throwing mechanics and succeeding within the structure of an NFL offense.
Even now as the season has begun, it’s still a topic of conversation every time Ben Johnson is asked about his 23-year-old quarterback.
“There was a lot of good that came out of it,” Johnson said of Williams’ mechanics, per The Athletic’s Jon Greenberg. “When he was doing it properly, the ball came out on time. I thought that he was delivering accurate footballs. But it’s still not 100 percent all of the time, and that’s something that we’re working through.”
Greenberg, a Chicago resident and longtime sports columnist, explained that this Ben Johnson quote and Chicago’s handling of Caleb Williams in totality reminded him of an interaction he had with former Bears offensive coordinator Mike Martz prior to the NFC Championship Game in January 2011.
“He’s had a whole career of running around and trying-to-make-it-happen kind of mode,” Martz said in Cutler’s defense. “I like his progress. He’ll get there.”
Spoiler alert for those who are uninitiated in Chicago Bears lore… Jay Cutler didn’t get there. After that NFC Championship Game — a game in which he left early due to injury and was replaced by Caleb Hanie — the Bears didn’t get to the postseason again during his tenure. He was 34-37 from that point on as the starting QB in Chicago.
Caleb Williams Has Trust in Ben Johnson’s Process
For the Ben Johnson-Caleb Williams partnership to be as successful as the Bears front office intends it to be, there has to be a level of trust reciprocated by both coach and quarterback. Johnson has to trust that Caleb possesses enough raw talent and all of the intangibles necessary to become a true guy in this league. Caleb has to trust that Ben Johnson and his coaching staff is the group that can get that out of him.
From the sounds of it, Caleb’s confidence in the process isn’t wavering, even after things went so south so quickly during the opening game of the season.
“Some of it is just trusting and believing,” Williams said after the loss. “I think that’s the biggest part of it, is being able to trust coach Johnson and being able to trust my teammates. Keep doing what I was doing in the first half (Monday). Just taking what the defense gives me and moving the ball down the field and being decisive. There was a lot of positive that came out of that.”
There was indeed a great deal of positive to take from that opening drive. Williams was perfect as he marched the Bears down the field, getting Chicago on the board on their opening drive for the first time since the 2023 season. But from that point forward, the Bears offense stalled and the problems that plagued Williams during much of his rookie season popped up yet again.
As a result, a dominant 17-6 start turned into a 27-24 defeat and now the Bears, who had hopes of stunning everyone and going from worst to first in the stacked NFC North division, are behind the eight-ball right out of the gate.
“We felt like we were dominating the game, like you said,” Williams said, per ESPN’s Courtney Cronin. “We were in control up to two scores coming out of half. That mentality is something that we have, something that we preach. That didn’t happen today. It’s not a playcall thing. It’s not anything like that. It’s just being able to go out there and execute the plays that are called, be able to execute them at a high level. That’s something we take pride in. Today, that didn’t happen.”
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