Bear Digest

Training wheels are now off the Bears' offense says Ben Johnson

Every Bears player at skill position now has the potential for being used in a trick play after earning their coach's trust.
Gene Chamberlain|
Luther Burden III hauls in one of his career-high eight receptions during the Bears' loss to San Francisco.
Luther Burden III hauls in one of his career-high eight receptions during the Bears' loss to San Francisco. | Kyle Terada-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

Perhaps it can serve as a warning to the rest of the NFL, although they've probably noticed if they've watched Bears offensive game film.

The full playbook is open for the Bears and this goes for every skill position player. Coach Ben Johnson says they all can execute the full playbook with precision.

“I would 100% agree with that," Johnson said. "We've taken the training wheels off. These guys are doing a phenomenal job coming into the building each week and taking a plan and bringing it to life.

"I can't say enough good things about whether they're rookies, undrafted, veteran players. It doesn't matter who it is on offense right now, they've really bought into how we go about our business."

The Bears have seven players with between 28 receptions and 49  receptions, and five between 39 and 49 receptions. This came about largely because Rome Odunze had been out for a month with a foot injury.

Johnson said Odunze is on track to return when they  expected, though he won't say this week is when they expected or if it's the wild-card round playoff game.

Nevertheless, all receivers seem to be getting involved and it makes for a more unpredictable offense. DJ Moore leads with 49 catches and Colston Loveland as 48. Both Odunze and Luther Burden III are at 44 and Olamide Zaccheaus has 39.

"I've got immense amounts of trust for everybody on that offense right now," Johnson said. "Like I said, it is just every week you see them go about their business."

The hook-and-ladder they called in a situation with the game on the line is one that drew Johnson some criticism. It seemed risky for the moment, but they nearly scored.

The problem was D'Andre Swift didn't get out of bounds after taking the lateral from Loveland, but he picked up a first down. He probably wasn't going to be able to get both and definitely wasn't going to score the touchdown with too many defenders near the 2-yard line.

Still, the mere thought of a trick  play with the game nearly over seemed to spark criticism.

"I'm not going to call a play that I don't fully believe that we're not going to execute at the highest level," Johnson said. "If we go down, we're going to go down swinging like that.”

Johnson trusts his players now, and anything goes. He has proven in the past both in Chicago and Detroit that he'll use anything in the playbook with the game on the line.

"Obviously, I'm not happy with the result," Johnson said. "Would've loved to have scored a touchdown, would've loved to get it out of bounds. And yet, I think the guys did a pretty good job with the execution of the play.”

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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.