Is Ben Johnson hiding Caleb Williams from Bears fans?

When news broke last week that Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson was sitting Caleb Williams in their preseason Week 1 game, I wrote that it was probably the right call. The Bears underwent an intensely physical joint practice with the Miami Dolphins two days prior to the game and had another practice scheduled for the day after. A lot of fans and analysts disagreed, and they made good points about getting a second-year quarterback badly needed reps, but it's not like Johnson is neglecting Williams during practice.

One NFL analyst, however, is taking this decision to a worst-case scenario. Colin Cowherd once again spoke at length about Caleb Williams on his show, and not in a positive light, which seems to happen frequently on his show. Just last week, his fill-in gave the worst hot take of the offseason by calling Caleb Williams the next Johnny Manziel. Now, Cowherd is suggesting that the real reason that Williams and most of the Bears' starters didn't play in the preseason opener is because Ben Johnson doesn't believe Williams is ready to play yet.

"When tech companies delay the release it's usually because you're still in the beta stage."@colincowherd reacts to Caleb Williams sitting out the Bears preseason opener pic.twitter.com/A8g68CXdwi
— Herd w/Colin Cowherd (@TheHerd) August 11, 2025

As a reminder, we're talking about a former first overall pick who entered the league with near-generational status. If he's not even ready to face a bunch of backups in a meaningless preseason game, then the Chicago Bears are in serious trouble. However, that is one monumental, gigantic 'if'.

The fact is that Cowherd is purely speculating here. As aforementioned, he's not stranger to dishing out hot takes, especially regarding a fanbase as passionate as the Chicago Bears. All we know for now is what the Bears tell us, which is that Williams didn't play in the preseason opener because he and the other starters got a ton of work in during their joint practice last Friday. They also ran 70 reps by themselves before the game, and were right back in practice today on Monday.

Most importantly, we've already been through two and a half weeks of training camp, and it's been mostly good news for Williams and the offense. They had a rough start to camp and there's been a couple of bad practices since then, but they've also had some incredible practices in which they dominated Dennis Allen's defense. If Johnson was so worried about Williams' development that he'd hold him out of a preseason game, we would have seen red flags far earlier in camp.

I'll conclude by giving Cowherd a tiny sliver of the benefit of the doubt. If Johnson once again holds WIlliams out next week against the Buffalo Bills, then maybe this kind of speculation will be warranted. Williams has to play in a preseason game at some point, after all. But it's way too early to be going straight to a doom-and-gloom scenario.

Caleb WIlliam — Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images

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