Bear Digest

Caleb Williams' skillset has Ben Johnson pondering Bears' potential

One particular play Caleb Williams flashed Sunday has coach Ben Johnson thinking about a limitless potential for the Bears' attack.
Gene Chamberlain|
DJ Moore celebrates his TD catch on Caleb Williams' throw Sunday in a 31-14 Bears win over Dallas.
DJ Moore celebrates his TD catch on Caleb Williams' throw Sunday in a 31-14 Bears win over Dallas. | David Banks-Imagn Images

In this story:

Chicago Bears

Bears coach Ben Johnson is just starting to realize what he has in quarterback Caleb Williams, particularly in regards to his ability to move and throw.

It's a multidimensional weapon like he hasn't had in the past. Johnson alluded to this a few times in the offseason but never really saw how it might work in an actual game until Sunday's 31-14 win over the Dallas Cowboys.

Williams' mobility played a role on the key 4-yard TD pass he threw to DJ Moore Sunday as he stepped to his right briefly and then fired back across to the back of the end zone for a backbreaker score. It wasn't Williams' running ability, but his ability to make a pass play off the run.

“It’s fun," Johnson said about Williams' mobility. "I don’t have to be perfect as a play-caller. I’ve always tried to be that where you get the primary receiver open the majority of the time and I don’t feel that necessity anymore. He has a way of, if No. 1’s open, he’ll take it.

"We’re getting to where he’s progressing to 2 and 3, but if we need to escape or extend, yeah, it’s his natural playmaking and that’s the balance we want to strike. It changes every week what that balance looks like, but I think we’re really finding out a lot about each other because he’s learning what my expectation is as well. But I think he’s doing a good job understanding when it breaks down a little bit what he can do to ad lib.”

On Sunday, Williams didn't have to escape much. He played a full game without a sack for the first time in his career.

“When the offensive line protects like that, it’s a lot easier to play from the pocket. Zero sacks," Johnson said. "We had a very clean pocket for the most part. That’s a starting point. And so he’s got the ability to escape and extend and all that, but man, if we can keep him in there, our playmakers are some dynamic route runners that we can get the ball to them in space.

"I think he saw when he plays on time he’s trusting the hitches within his drops and we can be an explosive offense that way. There’s a lot of ways that Caleb Williams can hurt you and like I said when we have pass protection like we had yesterday, that certainly helps.”

The offensive line isn't taking too much pride in this "milestone" to Williams career.

"It’s good, it’s good for Caleb, good for us," center Drew Dalman said. "But I don’t really think we’re chasing things like that.

"We’re chasing what our standard is and what we can do. Like, you could give up no sacks but maybe Caleb bailed us out of a few. It could have been better from our end and so I think that’s how we’ll focus on that."

However it comes about, the Bears offense can't be patting itself on the back too much considering the Giants offense had just scored 34 on Dallas and then scored single digits for the second time this season on Sunday in their 22-9 loss to the Chiefs.

More Chicago Bears News

Published
Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.