Column: If Chicago is ‘the place quarterbacks go to die,' Bears coach Ben Johnson embraces flipping that script

Chicago Tribune

21-05-2025

In the introductory episode of 'Forged in Foxborough,' a team-produced, behind-the-scenes look at the New England Patriots, new coach Mike Vrabel expressed in clear terms he's not interested in how the once-proud organization spiraled into consecutive last-place finishes in the AFC East.
'Why the (bleep) would I care about what happened last year?' Vrabel said. 'I'm worried about what's going to go right today and tomorrow and the next day. We're not worried about what went wrong. We're focused on what's going to go right.'
In an alternate universe, you can imagine Vrabel — who interviewed for the Chicago Bears job in January — saying the same thing within the walls of Halas Hall.
Of course, if last summer's sanitized season of 'Hard Knocks' is an indicator, there's no way that R-rated expression would have made it through the team's censors. But you get the point.
The Bears also are trying to claw their way back to respectability. They've just been at it a lot longer than the Patriots, who won 11 consecutive division titles from 2009-19. To count the Bears' last 11 division crowns, you have to go back to 1984.
Similar to Vrabel, first-year coach Ben Johnson doesn't have a lot of bandwidth for dissecting what has kept the Bears in their current quandary, without a playoff victory since January 2011.
So whatever happened in 2024 and during the lead-up to last year's draft — when No. 1 pick Caleb Williams and his father, Carl, explored ways to avoid landing at Halas Hall, according to an excerpt from Seth Wickersham's upcoming book 'American Kings: A Biography of the Quarterback' — it is what it is.
Williams is here now, preparing for his second season in the first week of organized team activities with a new coaching staff and dramatically changed roster. The focus is on teaching and learning with a new playbook and minute but important details such as adjusting his footwork when receiving the snap.
'I wasn't here last year and so I can't speak too much in terms of what it was like before he got here and when he got here,' Johnson said after practice Wednesday. 'But from my four months on the job, he's been outstanding to work with and we just are focusing on getting a little better every day.'
In the book, Carl Williams told Wickersham, 'Chicago is the place quarterbacks go to die.' Attribution probably should go to former Bears wide receiver Muhsin Muhammad, who in 2008 told Sports Illustrated's Tim Layden that 'Chicago is where receivers go to die.' It's also a place that has derailed the careers of highly regarded offensive coordinators and play callers. Yes, we're talking about a lot of grave markers.
'I love it,' Johnson said. 'I love the opportunity to come on in and change that narrative. That's where great stories are written. So we're looking to write a new chapter here — 2025 Chicago Bears — and looking forward to the future.'
Photos: What we saw at Chicago Bears OTAsMuhammad had returned to the Carolina Panthers after three seasons with the Bears — playing with quarterbacks Kyle Orton, Rex Grossman and Brian Griese — when he shared his frustration with the team's passing offense. The Bears won 31 games in those three seasons, and the last time they had consecutive winning seasons was when he was their top receiver. He's fortunate they at least were winning when he was around.
There's a chicken-or-the-egg riddle to determining which came first — the Bears' quarterback issues or receiver issues — but in recent years they've been repeatedly set back by picking the wrong QB and then feeling the effects of lost draft capital they wasted in the cases they had to trade up.
The issue facing the Bears is whether Williams can be the quarterback after they passed on Jayden Daniels, who went to the Washington Commanders at No. 2, was the runaway Offensive Rookie of the Year and even garnered MVP votes. A case can be made the Patriots' Drake Maye, behind a woeful offensive line with a poor cast of skill players, and the Denver Broncos' Bo Nix also outplayed Williams as rookies in 2024.
That's where Johnson is particularly optimistic about the opportunity to work with Williams, whom the team did not make available to the media Wednesday.
'He's been in the building 6½ weeks now, and getting to know him on a personal level and the more time we spend together, the better I feel,' said Johnson, who said the mix of assistant coaches and quarterbacks, including veteran Case Keenum, is aiding in the process.
No one will dispute the Bears had a flawed plan to develop Williams last season. Offensive coordinator Shane Waldron flopped. They didn't have the necessary infrastructure on coach Matt Eberflus' staff, even though there was some thinking at this time last spring that Williams was walking into the best setup a rookie quarterback had encountered in a long, long time.
The best thing you can say about Williams' rookie season is he was one of 14 quarterbacks to start all 17 games — impressive considering he took an NFL-high 68 sacks — and he did a particularly good job of protecting the football. He has high-level arm strength, zipping a tight-window pass to wide receiver Rome Odunze along the sideline during a seven-on-seven period Wednesday, as well as the mobility and a penchant for big plays that show the talent for sure is there.
Williams has said he wants to be coached hard by Johnson, and you can envision this being a perfect match. Then you stop and wonder if quarterback mismanagement is systemic at Halas Hall.
It's not a tidy situation in which you can assign blame to Waldron and move on. Because before Waldron there was Luke Getsy and Matt Nagy and Dowell Loggains and Marc Trestman and Mike Tice and Mike Martz and John Shoop and Gary Crowton (and others in between), and swapping out the top offensive coach has yet to be a sustainable solution for any parties other than North Shore realtors and moving companies.
It's the Bears, it's the quarterback position and it's a little drama in May — which won't affect whether Williams ascends in September.
'Have we talked about it?' Johnson said. 'Yeah, we talked about it last week after (the book excerpt) came out. But he's his own man. He's going to be treated as such. I think we're both really looking forward to turning the page on years prior and focusing on the here and now.'
That's Johnson's way of saying, 'Why the (bleep) would I care about what happened last year?'