With the NFL Combine in the rear view, the Chicago Bears can check another box off the offseason to-do list. Now, it's on to the free agency period in just a few days.
But, at the Combine, we did learn quite a bit about each team. The fodder, whispers, rumors and reports came aplenty. And, when it came to the Bears, one of the hotter topics was, of course, new head coach Ben Johnson and how he's going to impact quarterback Caleb Williams.
The Athletic's Adam Jahns and Kevin Fishbain put out a column, recently, which highlighted some excellent tidbits on the matter.
According to Fishbain and Jahns, there were league sources and assistant coaches raving about the Bears' hiring of Johnson as it pertained to Williams.
One coach was adamant that it's only a matter of time before Williams is a great quarterback in this league; that there is no "if" in the matter.
Ben Johnson's coaching style is going to be the complete and polar opposite of what Caleb Williams saw under Shane Waldron
Another source noted that Johnson is going to be all over Williams in practice and in games; that Johnson will be "on his case," and it will be interesting to see how Williams responds to Johnson's style.
That style was described as "red ass" and "pissy" at times, per the sources connected with Jahns and Fishbain.
Other sources told the two beat reporters that Johnson is going to be good for Williams and that the quarterback should definitely play better going forward.
This is all exactly what Bears fans want to hear. It is entirely what many fans expected after the team hired Johnson. It's especially notable due to how we saw Williams' rookie year pan out under Shane Waldron, until the Bears fired him.
Let's be real, here. When is the last time we heard of NFL players calling out their coach for being too nice? That's essentially what happened early on last season with the Bears and Waldron. Some of the captains and veteran leaders called Waldron into a meeting and basically told him, "coach us harder," for lack of a better explanation.
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Some players noted that there were guys who might not have been giving it their all. There were players not being held to a high standard, and that's on Matt Eberflus as much as it was on anyone else. But, Waldron was a common pain point for players and it came out publicly.
Waldron was described as someone who wouldn't push his players to be better. He wouldn't tell them what they needed to hear. He tiptoed around the truth rather than asserting himself.
Now, in Johnson, the Bears have a true offensive guru who, at the same time, is unafraid to tell it like it is. His expectations are sky-high. Johnson's goal, from Day 1, has been to get the most out of each and every player and to get them out of their comfort zones.
If there ever was an anti-Waldron in Chicago, it's Johnson -- and his arrival is right on time.