RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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Bears quarterback Caleb Williams is still getting the full force of coach Ben Johnson’s fury on the practice field. It’s just hitting him a lot differently than it did last summer.
Williams laughed dismissively Wednesday when asked if Johnson has softened his tone toward him going into their second season together. It wasn’t so funny, though, when Johnson was so hard on Williams that the quarterback worried that his coach didn’t like him.
Johnson, of course, isn’t going to change. His style is based on relentless confrontation when something doesn’t look exactly the way it should, and while he doesn’t show it publicly other than in team-edited postgame videos, the feedback tends to be fiery.
As the two work through a relationship they both hope will last a decade or more, Williams has acclimated.
“We have a real common goal ... so everything he says, I’ll do it at 200% and won’t look back,” he said Wednesday after the team’s first practice of training camp, which was light work for about an hour and a half. “That’s how it is now. If he yells and curses at me or anything like that, I know it’s for the greater good of the team.”
It helps that Johnson earned credibility last season as he overhauled the vibe at Halas Hall on his way an NFC North championship at 11-6, in addition to helping Williams progress. Williams has mentioned multiple times that when Johnson says something to him, even if it’s in a scream and peppered with profanity, it shows up on the field.
That will extend to Johnson’s unwavering insistence that Williams completes 70% of his passes in practices and games. He was at 58.1% last season, last in the NFL among qualifying quarterbacks, and Johnson has spent extensive time going over what it will take to make that leap.
Williams has said several times he’s on board with that, though he seemed mildly annoyed with the media when the topic came up yet again Wednesday morning.
“I don’t know how many passes I threw last year, guys,” he said. “Probably threw 400-something, 500 passes or so. If I hit 90 more, we’re at 65%.”
Firstly, 65% isn’t the target. But to clean up that math, he was actually closer than he realized. Williams completed 330 of 568 passes in the regular season. Another 68 completions, meaning a little over a quarter of his incomplete passes, would’ve gotten him to 70%.
That’s an extra four completions per game, which doesn’t sound like a lot, but who knows what that would’ve gotten the Bears in Johnson’s offense and with dynamic receivers?
Williams wasn’t much better as a rookie at 62.5% and seemed stumped by the dropoff from what he did in college.
Johnson has been trying to untangle that mystery for him, pointing out footwork flaws, and steering him toward the path to 70%. Faster recognition of pass coverages and sharper anticipation will go a long way, too.
“Part of it is just confidence in the offense, and not Ben, but in the sense of knowing where I’m supposed to go with the ball, being decisive, eyes being in the right spot and things like that,” Williams said.
That often applies to quick plays underneath that don’t usually turn into viral videos but are the basis for great quarterback performances. Lions quarterback Jared Goff, Johnson’s former running mate, was second in the NFL in yardage last season, but averaged the eighth-fewest air yards per throw. The Bills’ Josh Allen followed a similar pattern.
Johnson’s job is to solidify that part of Williams’ game without scrubbing the talents that make him unique: speed, elusiveness and unorthodox throws that lead to huge gains. Williams’ interpretation of that coaching to be more reliant on the basics and save the heroics for emergencies.
“Just hit the easy ones when they’re there,” he said. “Be in rhythm with myself. Be confident in my guys [and] the play. Deliver a catchable ball. And then from there, when things happen, I put on the cape and do my thing.”
In addition to the checklist Johnson gave him, Williams devoted some of his offseason training to becoming even slipperier. He slimmed down by 10-15 pounds, taking him to 6-foot-1, 210 based on what the Bears listed last season, mainly, he said, by avoiding eating after 7 p.m. He able to “move a little bit better, be smoother” at the lighter weight.
That effort speaks to his ongoing quest to become a quarterback who doesn’t fit neatly into anyone’s box. It’s neither to become the machinelike passer Goff is, nor to be a reckless gunslinger. The goal is to be a hybrid of both: ruthlessly efficient and wonderfully unpredictable.
He and Johnson seem aligned on that idea, but both need to embrace the other’s strengths to get there.
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