Sean Hammond at the Chicago Tribune answers questions after minicamp:
As the Bears head toward training camp, the biggest question facing Caleb Williams is _____?
Sean Hammond: How quickly he can become Ben Johnson’s star student.
Williams will be spending a lot of one-on-one time with Johnson. During minicamp, we saw the beginning stages of that relationship. There were mistakes. There were huddles that took way too long. Instances when the coach chewed out the quarterback for being late on a throw. Those things happen — and should happen — in the spring. Johnson demands a lot of his quarterback.
The question becomes how long Williams will need before he’s thinking like Johnson. Here’s a thought that Bears fans probably don’t want to hear: This probably will take time. If this looks ugly in September and October, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Johnson seems so detailed and so determined to build his offense and develop his quarterback the right way that he won’t cut corners to get immediate results in Week 1 or Week 2.
It wouldn’t be surprising if the 2025 Bears feel a lot like the 2022 Detroit Lions, who started 1-6 before winning eight of their last 10 to finish 9-8. The Lions didn’t hit their stride until midway through the season, but when they did, they looked like a juggernaut in the making.
The real question in my mind is, “Can he learn what he needs to know?” The question is, “Can he learn what he needs to know from the coaching staff as it’s currently composed?”
I’m not going to harp too much again about the lack of quarterback coaching experience on the staff except to say that I continue to have doubts about Johnson,Declan Doyle, andJ.T. Barrett, none of whom has spent any time as an NFL quarterback position coach. Passing game coordinator Press Taylor has but, though he is occasionally mentioned as being involved, I’m not sure how much and on what level he is.
The problem is, perhaps, elaborated by a situation where Johnson was yelling, “Faster! Faster!” at Williams as he ran a play while the media was present. All present were apparently impressed by Johnson’s intensity and his willingness to coach Williams hard. But is that really good coaching?
The thing is, anyone can yell, “Faster!” at a player. Heck, I can do that. I’m sure Johnson’s mentor, John Shoop, screamed things like that all the time when he was the Bears offensive coordinator in the early 2000s. His intensity was very high, just like Johnson’s, and he reputedly used to sit in the dark and watch film until his eyes would bleed.
And yet, Shoop ran the most miserable offense I’ve ever seen. The reason was because, though he could tell a player that he needed to process faster, he very evidently couldn’t tell players how to actually do it.
In contrast to Shoop, Johnson ran one of the most successful offenses in the NFL for three years running. But he did it with Jared Goff, a veteran quarterback who could respond to shouts of “Faster! Faster!” with little extra coaching. And what he did need could be provided by Mark Brunell, the Lions quarterback coach since 2021. Goff age and experience put him into a position to take advantage of Johnson’s schematic ideas and execute them with just that little bit of extra coaching that Johnson and Brunell could provide. That’s why he was a success. But is second year player Williams in the same position after a rookie year with what was almost universally acknowledged to be subpar coaching?
Yes, Williams’ success will be dependent upon his ability to learn. But, probably even more, it’s going to depend upon Johnson’s ability to teach. And we should all certainly be hopeful that his technique will consist of more than shouts of “Play better!”