The information feed was both obligatory and routine Monday at Halas Hall as new Chicago Bears coach Ben Johnson started to supply his quarterbacks with vital details to aid their orientation into his offense.
By Tuesday morning? Recall time.
“Ben walked in, flung open the door and made a grand entrance,” quarterback Caleb Williams relayed with a smile and a knowing storytelling flair. “And then we got to work with him testing us about what we talked about yesterday. Already, first day in and (he’s) challenging us.”
Whatever Williams lacked in specifics with that anecdote, he made up for in enthusiasm.
“Everybody loves a challenge,” he said. “It’s one of the great things about this sport. Every day is a challenge. And today we got our first one.”
Such challenges promise to be nonstop for Williams as he acclimates to a new offense, a new teaching style and a new set of demands under Johnson. There’s a lot of ground for the two to cover between now and Week 1 in September, and that process started this week during Phase 1 of the offseason program in Lake Forest.
It will be a bit before there’s meaningful on-field work. But already Williams and Johnson have a mutual understanding that the strength of their bond and how fast it grows will be vital to how quickly the team’s turnaround can occur.
Williams has made it clear he wants to be pushed — and Johnson has every intention to lean into that request. Williams appreciates the energy he’s feeling, likening it Tuesday to the connection he made with coach Lincoln Riley upon Williams’ 2021 arrival at Oklahoma.
“I think I have a knack for being able to tell when I vibe with somebody and connect well with somebody,” Williams said. “I would say this was a pretty similar feeling from when I met Lincoln … Obviously (Johnson) is different in his own unique ways. But it’s a similar feeling for sure.”
Now Williams will strive to get similar results.
At Oklahoma, he had a stellar freshman season, taking over the starting job in mid-October to propel the Sooners to six victories in their final eight games. After following Riley to USC in 2022, Williams won the Heisman Trophy as a sophomore and did enough in 2023 as a junior — despite up-and-down team results — to establish himself as the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft.
Coming off a turbulent, trying rookie season with the Bears, Williams is eager for a reset under Johnson. Packed into the syllabus, Johnson said last week, will be a push to expand Williams’ comfort zone, specifically as it relates to playing more from under center.
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Williams is willing to give that challenge his all, and he stressed Tuesday that he must be sharp and consistent with everything from under-center footwork to knowledge of route concepts to visualization of how plays should unfold. Then there’s the matter of his huddle command, line-of-scrimmage cadence and ability to make checks.
“It’s practicing those things now, visualizing those things now, and building on those.” Williams said.
Johnson was emphatic during last week’s league meetings in Palm Beach, Fla., about highlighting expected points added (EPA) as an important statistical measure of winning quarterback play. That’s a metric the Bears coach values as much as any other, pushing for a high completion percentage and more run-after-catch opportunities for playmakers.
“The way I understand it right now from our analytics team,” Johnson said, “the EPA in the passing game is really one of the most critical factors in determining wins and losses.”
Williams may not be ready to teach a class on EPA, but he did acknowledge his ability to improve his performance in that category would, at least partially, come down to being mentally sharp and instinctive.
“It means being decisive,” he said. “It’s being accurate mentally, sharp mentally. Just being on top of it. … Everybody plays a lot better when you’re decisive. The QB position, when you’re on the field, is played in gray. But having everything else that I can have in black and white is part of it.
“So that part, when you’re on the field and you’re decisive and you go out there and you rip, you’re more accurate with the ball and you place it where you want.”
In the short term, Williams understands he has a lot to learn. And a lot to study. As Johnson teaches and tests, the Bears quarterback has vowed to be receptive.
“Us growing together is key,” Williams said. “Starting now. Him pushing me is key. I know that and he knows that.”
