‘The governor's off': Johnson and Williams set high expectations for QB on day 1 of training camp

Yahoo

12 hours ago

LAKE FOREST, Ill. (WGN) — Highlighted by high-flying expectations for Caleb Williams that are shared between him and his first-time head coach, Tuesday marked the first step in a journey of a thousand miles for the 2025 Chicago Bears.
And it was only natural for Ben Johnson to kick things off with an analogy to a Netflix documentary no one had heard of.
'There's really been one thing that's just been on my mind over the course of the summer, and I give Ryan [Poles] some credit for this,' Johnson said. 'Has anyone seen that Netflix documentary, Thunderbirds?'
Crickets from the audience coaxed a 'No one? Okay. Good!' from Johnson, who went on to explain how he and the Bears can draw parallels from the show.
'Spoiler alert. Alright, so it's the [Air Force] Thunderbird pilots, and what they do is come together, and it's four new pilots,' Johnson said. 'They've never worked together and through the course of their training, it's all about earning trust because it's a dangerous job.'
Ryan Poles finding a military source of inspiration to help mold his team's identity isn't a foreign concept. This time last year, the Bears GM said he challenged his front office staff to read 'The Wisdom of the Bullfrog.'
Written by retired admiral and Navy SEAL William McRaven, it's a book centered on developing leadership traits. The messaging behind one of the chapters was the foundation for how Poles said then-head coach Matt Eberflus and his staff would approach training camp as it got underway.
'One of the chapters was talking about, the only easy day was yesterday,' Poles said at the time. 'That's going to be our approach. A daily approach, a daily effort. The work ethic has to go in training camp this year in order for us to reach our ceiling, and really define who we are going to be in 2024.'
Hopefully, Johnson and the Thunderbirds pay better dividends than Eberflus and the bullfrog this time around, but I digress.
Johnson explained how, at one point during the documentary, a Thunderbird pilot described how he isn't concerned with where he's flying. Instead, the pilot talked about how he's looking at the lead pilot to decide his next move, and that's where he and his team share common ground with some of the best military aviators on the planet.
'I think about our team and where we're going into training camp. There are a lot of parallels there as a first-time … first-year head coach, a lot of new staff members on the coaching staff, a lot of new faces in the locker room,' Johnson said. 'We don't know each other particularly well, and we've tried to bridge that gap over the course of the spring.
'But really, the next six weeks are about us coming together because it takes time to build that trust. It's hard to earn, and it's really easy to lose that trust. So really, these next six weeks are huge.'
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When it comes to how well the Bears come together and that trust develops, nothing will have a bigger impact than Johnson, Williams and the relationship they develop. That started with the two setting benchmarks for their franchise signal caller on the first day of training camp.
4,000 passing yards and a 70% completion percentage by the end of 2025.
'It's not a secret. I told him I would love for him, on the season, to complete 70% of his balls,' Johnson said. 'That's hard to just magically arise in a game. So, it's a lofty goal, but it's one that we're going to strive for.'
'I have self-goals, and that's being the first 4,000-yard passer in Bears history. That's a goal of mine. 70% completion, that helps the team—keeps us on the field, puts us in better positions,' Williams said. 'Other than that, you go win. That's success for me. That's success for the team. That's all we wish for and all I wish for.'
According to CBS Sports NFL Insider Jonathan Jones, only nine quarterbacks in NFL history have hit those milestones in a single season. Drew Brees did it four times. Joe Burrow has done it twice. Kirk Cousins, Derek Carr, DeShaun Watson, Aaron Rodgers, Jared Goff, Geno Smith and Baker Mayfield have each done it once.
Johnson believes his relationship with Williams heading into training camp is where it needs to be for the former Heisman Trophy winner to achieve those numbers, but it will be a steady climb to get there, with a number of hurdles along the way.
'I think we're ready to go. The governor's off,' Johnson said. 'He and I have been talking all spring, all summer, constant phone calls, constant conversations … I think we're in a great place. He wants to get coached hard, and we're going to push him as hard as we can.'
Williams said he isn't intimidated by hard coaching. It's something he and other Bears players have asked for, going back to the doldrums of the Eberflus administration.
'I've had tough coaching throughout my years. I've had different type of personalities throughout my years of coaches. I would say [the] majority of my career playing football has been tough coaching,' Williams said. 'It's greatly appreciated because that's what you need … to be able to go out there and execute and play at your best—Somebody up on you, coaching you hard and pushing you.'
According to the Bears' head coach, the first hurdle along that climb starts with laying the foundation, which—when it comes to playing quarterback—is nailing the nuances of pre-snap procedure.
'One of the big points of emphasis we had in the springtime, and it's going to carry over to camp, was our pre-snap procedure,' Johnson said. 'So, that's calling the plays. That's the motions. That's the shifts. That's the cadence. We're going to continue to carry that. We [will] use that as a weapon, and that's not going to change.'
Should the two clear that hurdle, other things in need of clean up will be next on the chopping block, like footwork.
Johnson wants his QB to be able to trust the timing of his feet, and work on being able to anticipate throws. Williams wants his footwork to line up with the play so he can 'accelerate the clock,' while also working to be more decisive. He also said he wants to become better at taking what the defense gives him, and trying not to be 'the young cat wanting to go get that big play' so much.
'There's a lot of stuff that goes into that position, and rather than throwing the whole gauntlet at him, we're just building it from the ground up,' Johnson said. 'He took some homework with him over the course of the summer. He's come back, and even though we haven't done anything full speed over the last few days, we've noticed some improvements along the way.'
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Giving players homework checks out with a coach that's been lauded for his attention to detail and intensity at every turn so far through the early months of his tenure.
After the first time Johnson met Chicago's quarterback room this spring, Williams and backup QB Tyson Bagent recalled how their new head coach immediately quizzed them afterward to see what they retained.
The homework Johnson gave Williams over the summer largely served the same purpose, but also doubled as preparation for when practices officially begin Wednesday.
With that in mind, Williams approached his homework how most self-driven high school and college students approach weekly assignments—by blocking off time on a daily basis to get the job done, even if it meant listening to voice recordings of cadences, or reciting plays in the car.
'30 minutes, 40 minutes, an hour each day. It's 24 hours a day. If you can't give up an hour, 30 minutes of your day to go over the playbook, you probably shouldn't be in this position,' Williams said. 'I would listen to the play calls and voice record them … That was a big part of it. Then also just speaking it in the car, going over my cadence in the car while I'm driving.
'Small things like that … It helps everything be a little bit more fluid.'
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