Once the Chicago Bears had officially selected Caleb Williams with the first overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, many believed that the USC product was stepping into the best situation of any rookie quarterback in NFL history. Unfortunately, the reality of Williams’ rookie season proved to be anything but a disastrous outing.
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His head coach, Matt Eberflus, as well as his offensive coordinator, Shane Waldron, reportedly refused to watch film with him, and the entire ordeal quickly turned into a disaster, resulting in a 5-12 regular-season finish. Under the guidance of Ben Johnson, however, Williams has now transformed into one of the more promising prospects throughout the entire league, and he’s making sure to give the 39-year-old play caller his due credit.
“Ben and his staff,” Williams answered when asked to detail the biggest change between his first and second seasons in the league. “The control that they had of the situation, the belief and confidence that they had in themselves. They sacrificed to get this thing going. Ben got hired, and he got to work immediately.”
According to the former Trojan, Johnson and other members of his coaching staff immediately began sleeping at the team’s facility, missing time with their loved ones in favor of trying to get the Bears ahead of schedule. “Sacrifice and control,” Williams reiterated.
“When you’ve got a good coach and a coach that has that much confidence in himself and his staff, it goes a long way for the players. You start going out there, and you start actually doing what they are saying… The small details, the small information that they preached, that they harped on… You go out there, and it works, and it’s like ‘Okay. Alright.’ Then you start doing it more and more, and the results start to show more and more,” he outlined.
Simply put, Williams always maintained his belief in himself, but he needed to see the same from his head coach. Johnson gave him what neither Waldron nor Eberflus could, that sense of reassurance that can only come from someone confident in the work that they have put in and the system that they have created.
Now, the two of them find themselves heading into the 2026 regular season with all of the momentum in the world. Williams has demonstrated that he can make the throws, and Johnson has proven that he can design the necessary schemes; now all that’s left is to field an adequate number of playmakers who are willing to buy in.
Conveniently enough, that’s exactly what Chicago’s 25th overall draft pick is for: to find that one missing piece who can help to turn a one-possession loss against the Los Angeles Rams into a win that elevates the franchise to its first conference championship game since 2010.
