Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams had just won his first NFL game in nearly three months. After his exit interview at Halas Hall, he was preparing to pack up his belongings and head home for what he hopes will be a productive offseason after his rookie year.
So when he was asked Monday about some of the names that have emerged as top candidates for the Bears head coaching job, he said he had paid “not too much thought” to the list yet.
“I mean, if somebody pops up that I’ve met before, known or the track record has been pretty good, obviously you get excited about something like that,” he said.
Williams did, however, have an assessment when asked specifically about Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson, one of the top head coaching candidates in this cycle. Williams had watched the Lions’ season-ending win against the Minnesota Vikings and was struck by the design of running back Jahmyr Gibbs’ touchdown catch against Vikings linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel.
“Just knowing how (Van Ginkel) is going to play it and then go and counter, I think (Johnson) has done that all year,” Williams said. “It’s been really cool to watch.
“In our game (against the Lions), I’d just kind of sit back and watch, try to learn something. It was fascinating to watch because he always had wrinkles for counters throughout the game. He’s obviously done really well, so it would be cool to see how it all goes down.”
Johnson is scheduled to interview with the Bears soon, part of a coaching search that general manager Ryan Poles promised will include many candidates of many backgrounds. That includes some with head coaching experience and some without and coaches on both the offensive and defensive sides.
How a coach will work with Williams is obviously a “huge factor” in whom the Bears pick, Poles said at his season-ending news conference Tuesday. But he stopped short of saying the coach must have an offensive background.
“For a young quarterback, obviously there’s an ideal fit,” Poles said. “But at the end of the day, you’ve got to look at all the characteristics of what you’re looking for in a head coach, and then you’ve got to see what’s the best bundle of those to bring in the building.
“We’re talking about leadership, accountability … those have to be there. To ignore those just to go to the other (offensive) side, I think that’s a bad deal too. Really, it’s the candidate that has the best collection of all those things.”
Poles has promised to learn from past mistakes when it comes to the search, and part of that will be identifying a coach who can mesh well with Williams.
As Poles examined what went wrong for the Bears in 2024, he thought there were “compatibility” issues between Williams and offensive coordinator Shane Waldron, who was fired after nine games. Poles said Williams’ inexperience and need for growth, coupled with the way Waldron taught, resulted in some of the offense’s problems.
“That’s part of the ownership piece that I’ve got to take,” Poles said of his part in approving former coach Matt Eberflus’ hiring of Waldron.
And it’s part of what the Bears must identify in their future coach — someone who knows how to work with a young quarterback, who will set a demanding standard and foundation from the start and who will follow through on holding players accountable throughout the season.
Williams has said he wants a coach to challenge him.
Interim coach Thomas Brown, who also is expected to interview with the Bears, said the key to pushing the right buttons with Williams is honesty. He believes some coaches “baby” quarterbacks when they should be telling the players what they need to hear.
“You’re a coach for a reason, so coach him and don’t pass the buck,” Brown said. “Don’t overlook issues because it won’t just go away by itself.
“The more time that goes by, of course he’ll grow and mature more, which is normal for any player, not just him. But the understanding of how to teach guys, not expecting guys to come in from Day 1 and just have all the answers. That’s not realistic and it shouldn’t be the expectation.
“The collaboration piece is something you get to down the road as far as we work together, but the beginning is no different from any other position. You coach him, you hold him accountable and you show those guys how to be better.”
As the Bears go deeper into their search, Williams promised he will use the months ahead to focus on the improvements needed to make a second-year jump.
Brown said he and Williams had “intense conversations” in the days and weeks before the season finale as Brown tried to impress upon Williams what will make him successful in the NFL.
Williams mentioned one of the lessons he learned early this season was “all of the different things throughout the week that are needed for me to be able to go out there and play well, for the team to play well.” He offered specific examples after the win over the Green Bay Packers of other ways he can improve to help the team make a jump.
“Whether it’s off the field and maybe having less people around, less distractions, less time for other things,” he said. “Whether that’s on the field and being able to decipher things faster, be more accurate, have more game-winning drives. Whatever it takes is kind of where I’m at for myself.”
Poles didn’t get too deep into his evaluation of Williams during a 26-minute news conference Tuesday that mostly focused on the coaching search and the overall issues with coaching this season. He praised some of the flashes Williams showed on his way to throwing for 3,541 yards with 20 touchdowns and six interceptions. He said he loved Williams’ work in two-minute situations, how the rookie got the Bears in position to win games late.
But when asked about the offensive line and the league-leading 68 sacks Williams took, Poles also noted Williams’ responsibility in that number, among several other factors.
“Some of those things do fall on Caleb,” Poles said. “He’s mentioned that to you guys in terms of getting us in a position to pick things up and also getting the ball out on time.
“And that’s part of being a young quarterback. You’re trying to figure out the coverages and you’re seeing a lot of different things, but you’re also trying to be right and that leads to some of those sacks. So there’s a lot of learning to be done in that situation.”
Williams spoke several times over the last few weeks about his offseason to-do list, saying he would push himself “to exhaustion mentally and physically” in an effort to be ready for 2025. He said he’s excited to use his extra time to dive into learning — examining his own play, watching other quarterbacks and getting “in the books” to study.
Quarterbacks coach Kerry Joseph suggested Williams look at cut-ups of all of his completions and incompletions and ask why he did or didn’t make the throws, plus film of all of the sacks to ask who was at fault.
After the win over the Packers on Sunday, Williams keyed in on his work to make those improvements as one thing that will help the Bears take a leap forward from a 5-12 season. He also said the Bears need to put the “right people” in place to help him and the team get there.
Poles and the coaching search committee are working on that now.
“Just having the right people overall in the building to be able to help grow the culture,” Williams said. “I believe (Brown) has probably said this, but culture is people. And so being able to have the right people in the building, and then from there you can grow. You can have the right people with the right scheme and make monumental jumps.”
