National Football League

Why Ben Johnson bet on the Bears, Caleb Williams: 'He's fearless'

Updated Jan. 23, 2025 2:05 p.m. ET

LAKE FOREST, Ill. — It's a new age at Halas Hall.

The Chicago Bears have hired former Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson to be their head coach, the most coveted candidate on the market.

They moved quickly and spent big to land him.

"We know you get what you pay for," team president Kevin Warren said.

According to general manager Ryan Poles, Johnson was their top candidate all along.

And Chicago was where Johnson wanted to be.

Quarterback Caleb Williams was a huge reason why.

Johnson has had his eye on the Bears for a while, if for no other reason than they shared the same division — the toughest division — the NFC North. Johnson has been known to see the best and bring out the best in people, as evidenced by the past few seasons in Detroit, and he saw something in the Bears.

"Going into the season, I felt this place was a sleeping giant," Johnson said Wednesday during his introductory press conference. "To be honest with you, I was more concerned about the Chicago Bears than any other team in the division."

Granted, the Bears' roar in the preseason ended up being mightier than their actual bite. The team won just five games. They suffered a 10-game losing streak, losing to Johnson's Lions twice in that span.

Through it all, though, Williams had one of the best statistical seasons ever for a Bears quarterback, passing for 3,541 yards and 20 touchdowns against just six interceptions.

Johnson will now be tasked with taking that potential and getting actual production out of it.

Williams was asked what he thought Johnson would be able to unlock in him and his game.

His answer?

"Score an insane amount of points," the 23-year-old QB said.

Johnson's offense averaged 33.2 points per game this year. That was the highest mark in the league. The Lions finished with a franchise-record 15 wins and secured the NFC's top seed. It didn't end the way anyone expected, with a loss in the divisional round to the surging Washington Commanders, but Johnson's offenses have undeniably produced.

For as innovative as Johnson is known to be with his trick plays and exotic looks, he takes a lot of his inspiration from an old-school, longtime NFL coach (and former Chicago Bears coordinator from the early 2000s) John Shoop: "Make the same things look different, and make different things look the same."

He's a master at shapeshifting, sometimes on a weekly basis. This beginning in Chicago will be no exception.

Though Johnson will be a head coach for the first time, he will call offensive plays. By his own words, Johnson said he will calibrate this offense with Williams in mind.

"It's not going to look like it did in Detroit," Johnson said simply. "We have a completely different personnel group."

Tom Brady on the Bears hiring Ben Johnson

So it begins. Johnson's plan, that was then echoed by Poles, is to "rip this thing down to the studs" and build it back up, starting with Williams first and foremost, as well as the pieces around him. Some of those pieces were in attendance, with D.J. Moore sitting next to a leather trench coat-clad Williams in the front row and wideout Rome Odunze and tight end Cole Kmet sitting on the other side of Moore. They each came from different places to be there, too. Moore had just escaped frigid Chicago to take his family to a Disney theme park. Williams had been in Florida. But there they were, all listening intently to their new head coach.

It wasn't the first time Williams had spoken to Johnson. The QB got a call from Poles, Warren and owner George McCaskey while driving down the highway informing him of the hire. Williams was so excited he let out a yell right there in his car. The guy that Williams had sought out on the field after both games the Bears played against the Lions was now on his side.

Johnson reached out shortly after that and the two dove in.

"We talked about the structure," Williams said. "He's a no-nonsense guy, but he'll always have my back, always give me support."

They talked about holding each other accountable and being on the same wavelength. They talked about holding the team accountable. They also talked about the competitive fire each of them has so much of.

"That's one of the most important things, is that fire — that will want to win," Williams said. "Being able to bring the accountability, being able to bring the discipline, like he said up there on the podium, if guys are stepping out of line, not just with him and things like that, but with the team, and you're not doing the right things, you got to be put out on blast from the whole team. That shows the accountability, that shows the discipline that he talked about up there, and being consistent with that throughout his long career here and our career here is going to be important."

Danny Parkins analyzes the Bears’ future under Ben Johnson

In a separate setting, away from Williams' eyes, I asked Johnson what he saw in the No. 1 pick of the 2024 draft that was so singularly special. What it was that made him believe so heavily in Williams that he'd come to the Bears.

"The ability for him to fit the ball into tight windows, I think it's a rare thing to see," Johnson told FOX Sports. "He's fearless playing that position. He's got so much confidence being able to not only throw outside the numbers, but between the numbers, there's just a lot to work with right there.

"What excites me as a coach, and what I'm going to challenge our coaching staff to do, is define weaknesses within their game that we can work to develop and highlight. Something that I've been a part of in the past and will implement here is each guy is going to have an individual action plan of how, what he's put on tape, how we can get certain elements better from him, and so that's already something I'm working on with Caleb right now.

"Whether he knows it or not, I don't know."

Johnson paused and smiled:

"He's going to find out when he comes in for the spring, but there are going to be elements of the game that we're going to really focus on getting better at.

Johnson wants his quarterbacks to be able to see the game through their playcaller's eyes. He wants to empower the people and players around him, just as he saw Lions head coach Dan Campbell do in Detroit.

And while that can sound ambiguous, there's a very tangible example Johnson offered up in his Zoom interview with the Bears' hiring committee.

They put him through a mock end-of-game situation. On the screen, they gave Johnson the score, the time left and the game scenario, putting him on the spot as to his thought process, what he's telling the quarterback, what his plays would be.

"I actually really appreciated that," he said. "It's a very deliberate plan of attack so that the head coach and the coordinators are all on the same page in these situations. They have to be practiced early. The quarterback has to be treated like a coach in these situations. … He really needs to be in tune to the head coach as well and what we're thinking and what we're trying to get done."

The quarterback has to be treated like a coach.

Williams clearly has all the tools. Johnson, with his many suitors, wouldn't be in Chicago if he didn't. Now, it'll be up to Johnson to give him and the entire team the instruction manual.

It's a new age at Halas Hall. At least, that's what Ben Johnson's Bears can now hope.

Carmen Vitali is an NFL Reporter for FOX Sports. Carmen had previous stops with The Draft Network and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. She spent six seasons with the Bucs, including 2020, which added the title of Super Bowl Champion (and boat-parade participant) to her résumé. You can follow Carmen on Twitter at @CarmieV.

Want great stories delivered right to your inbox? Create or log in to your FOX Sports account, follow leagues, teams and players to receive a personalized newsletter daily.