Bear Digest

Why Caleb Williams Calls Bears Coach Ben Johnson a 'Unique Cat'

Caleb Williams' podcast interview with Maxx Crosby revealed a different side to the QB-coach relationship and one necessary today to build an NFL winner.
Gene Chamberlain|
Caleb Williams gets off a deep ball against the Detroit Lions in a 2025, Week 18 loss.
Caleb Williams gets off a deep ball against the Detroit Lions in a 2025, Week 18 loss. | Matt Marton-Imagn Images

In this story:

Chicago Bears

Caleb Williams’ relationship with coach Ben Johnson is always going to be the center attention with the Bears, as it has been since Day 1 at Halas Hall together.

A QB and coach have been the centerpiece for dynasties with Kansas City and New England in multiple Super Bowl runs and this is the kind of thing Williams has aspired to since he was drafted.

That relationship for the Bears is getting better and better, their quarterback said in a podcast interview Tuesday with Raiders edge Maxx Crosby.  It’s hardly a conventional relationship, largely because Williams found Johnson a bit quirky in a positive way..

“He’s a unique cat,” Williams said. “Love him to death. He’s a unique cat in that he’s like a mad scientist that doesn’t speak what he’s thinking. You try and figure him out and I’ve gotten a lot better with it over time now.”

It should be easier for Williams if he remembers the key from Day 1 with Johnson’s warning: Get comfortable with being uncomfortable.

“Like, he’ll crack jokes but you’ll think he’s dead-ass serious and so you don’t laugh,” Williams said. “Then he’ll say, like, it was a joke. You all can laugh.”

He finds figuring out his coach fun and also a continuing challenge over the next few years, but has found something he likes about Johnson already that isn’t hard to understand.

“He wants to whup everybody’s ass,” Williams said. “He’s like a player, in a sense, because it’s like he’s out there.”

Williams was not speaking literally in this regard because he said Johnson doesn’t try to act like he is one of the players or that what he does is more important.

“He is like a player: He wants to whup everybody’s ass, every coach, every defense,” Williams added. “And for me, I love it because I feel the same way. I’m on the same wavelength. I’m on the same vibe.”

The goal to Williams is putting 50 up on every team, if possible.

“But going out there and putting up 50, being the best offense to ever touch the grass is kind of the mindset,” he said.

Could this be the next step forward for the Bears' offense after finishing sixth overall in 2025, one year after they were last in the league?

As long as they’re on that same wavelength there’s no telling how many 50-burgers can be produced and wins. It’s the kind of QB-coach relationship the Bears saw other teams have for decades and envied.

Now it’s their good fortune to be in this situation.

More Chicago Bears News

X: BearsOnSI

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.