With first-year head coach Ben Johnson, he's establishing early on that no details will be overlooked.
During the 2024 NFL season, Emmanuel Acho criticized Caleb Williams on an episode of “The Facility” after cameras caught Williams showing poor body language on the bench.
Johnson saw that footage and made sure to address it with his quarterback.
“Early in the process, we sat down and watched some tape from a year ago and we talked it through,” Johnson said. “It's like, do we really wanna, is this what we want to look like or not? We come to an agreement, no, it's not, OK, we learn from it, we move on to the next thing. Body language is a huge thing. Demeanor. We don't want to be a 'palms-up team' where we're questioning everything. No, no, no; to me, that's a little bit of a sign of weakness. We don't want to exhibit that from anybody on the team.”
Johnson also highlighted during his Wednesday press conference that there will be adversity throughout the course of a season, but despite the circumstances, the first-year head coach doesn't want his players dwelling on the past, and their “body language needs to reflect that as well.”
This correction doesn't just apply to Williams, though. DJ Moore, a veteran entering his eighth NFL season, also had moments throughout the 2024 season that portrayed him poorly. One of the most notable games was Week 2 against the Houston Texans on Sunday Night Football. The Bears lost 19-13, and the offense struggled.
The body language police will love Ben Johnson
“We talked to the entire team about what we want it to look like, what good teams do, what playoff teams do,” Johnson said. “This is the example we're setting, and this is the direction we're going. The good news is this: we have a phenomenal coaching staff, a lot of whom were former players and did it at the highest level, and what they say carries weight with our guys. They know what it looks like. We have a number of guys we brought in in free agency this year who know what good football looks like as well. It's all about educating, showing them what we're going to be about going into next season.”
Johnson isn't just fixated on making sure body language is corrected with his players, but also on how the operation looks and sounds in the huddle. There have been several times throughout OTAs when Johnson has blown the whistle and demanded that Williams and the rest of the offense rehuddle.
“There's a certain way that the play needs to get communicated in the huddle,” Johnson said. “There's a certain way that the break should sound to us around that means that we're ready for business, and we're ready to get going. And if it doesn't sound that way, then we're just not going to allow the practice to go south. Fatigue is something that we're going to combat. The longer practice goes, the more fatigue guys get, and the mental toughness has to come through of still doing the little things correctly. So that's a part of it.”
Johnson knows what he wants, whether that's in his players’ body language or the sound of the huddle, and that provides insight into the demand he is requiring to help establish a new culture within the Bears’ organization.