Ben Johnson May Have Totally Fixed The Chicago Bears… | Pat McAfee Show

Ben Johnson May Have Totally Fixed The Chicago Bears… | Pat McAfee Show

Let’s go to the other game last night. Bears Commanders. Bears get a huge win. Jake Moody hits a uh 38 yd field goal that he hits right down the pipe. Good for him in his career. Nice little bounce back since leaving uh the San Francisco 49ers. That just got weird out there. I don’t know why he just stopped hitting good balls. It felt like even though we all have an immense amount of faith, he obviously went to Michigan from Michigan. The Midwestern boy gets back in a Midwest team and does great. He slept in a twin bed the night before. He said he also didn’t have a shower with hot or cold water. It was kind of both of them. So, he took a cold shower uh before the game, which might become new routine. And maybe he buys a twin bed, which is what he was sleeping in uh before the game as well. He certainly took some time to chitchat about how life was much better now than it was whenever he was with the ners. And uh life’s great for the Bears, AJ. I mean, they started 0 and2. The world’s falling and then now they’ve won three straight. Your thoughts? I mean, it’s amazing to think of what we were saying about the Bears three, four weeks ago compared to what you think now. Like early on, remember we said, hey, he he wouldn’t have taken this gig. He wouldn’t taken this head coaching gig if he didn’t believe in Caleb. Obviously, he had many options he could have taken. So, he knew what he was capable of doing with Caleb. And I think Caleb’s kind of settling in and feels good about where he’s at. He he looks very confident in the pocket right here throwing. Also, you got DeAndre Swift. That guy’s a monster. That really helps. I think Caleb I love the blocking out here by DeAndre Swift here blocking for his QB. But the Bears are I mean are the Bears something that uh the people in the NFC North are going to worry about now? It feels like they may be making that hurt a little bit. AJ, you tell me. Now, here’s a stat to emphasize your point uh about Caleb and Ben Johnson. His average time to throw was 2.65 seconds last night. That’s first game under three. And if you remember Jared Goff, Ben Johnson, it was just like we’re making decisions. We know exactly what’s going on pre- snap and postnap. We know what’s going on. That’s an indicator, I think, of him understanding what the hell he’s supposed to be doing, right, AJ? I think so. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. And every I mean, there’s some wide ass open guys. Ben Johnson’s offense going to do that. But if he can operate that offense, they’re going to have success in the NFC North. Oh, yeah. We’ve already seen that obviously with the Detroit operation. And like Ben said whenever he took the gig, you know, Caleb can do stuff that Jared Goff’s never dreamt doing. If this play has to go off script, Caleb can make the magic happen. Are we going to see all of that, Bruce? Is everything that was the upside of potentially Ben and Caleb coming together, is that all possible for this season? Do we think it’s going to take a couple years? Like, what are we close to seeing Caleb Williams be a top 10, top five quarterback in the NFL with Ben Johnson’s leadership? I don’t think there’s any doubt as long as they keep giving that ball to DeAndre Swift because it all starts with that running game. If he doesn’t have the running game, he has to throw it 50 times, we’re going to see the old Caleb because he’s going to be running around for his life. They keep that running game going, which they did in Detroit. Ben always had a great running game and they looked powerful last night running the football, especially at the end when you have to run it. Then Caleb’s going to be a hell of a quarterback. They know you’re running it. We know you’re running it. Being able to run it is a tone setter. Ben Johnson’s attitude almost settling in Chicago as well. Debug, I love you all. We always see the tricky stuff with the Detroit offense and the Ben Johnson stuff, but it comes down to being able to run the ball. And then the second part of that stat that was just popped up there was 48% uh play action rate I think I saw. I mean, if if he’s living in that world, play action, turn his back to the defense, getting his his eyes back down and hitting guys wide open like that is what Jared Golf did. Then when it is when it does break down, when something happens, he can scramble for 15 20. So, he has all the tools. Ben had all the tools. It’s going to be about can they continue to put a good team around him. I uh I was out on the Bears again. Most people were most people were I not publicly. I didn’t I don’t think I did it in on the show into the microphone. I think I certainly did not have as much super optimistic praise about the Bears after seeing some things. I just thought humans wise this is not a good fit. Like I just think what we learned about Ben Johnson and what we thought we knew I guess about both these guys. But Caleb, it’s like this ain’t I mean Jared Goff was great for Ben Johnson because Jared Goff just like whatever you tell me, I’m I’ll do you know. And I I think the most outside of the lines thing I’ve ever seen Jared Goff do is when he dressed up like a Jo quarterback for I think it was Red Bull. Oh yeah. And he put on like uh Chad Powers basically. He did Chad Powers. Went and did a workout and everybody’s like whoa who’s this guy and he was like it’s me Jared Goff. Like that’s the most outside of football thing I’ve ever seen from Jared G. And then you got Caleb. Caleb’s obviously got everything. He’s got a fund. He’s got a he’s got this. Obviously, he’s got uh the nails. Uh I think he has a paint brand. Like he has businesses. He has everything. USC, Los Angeles, Hollywood, like Caleb has all the bright lights, everything that could potentially be considered a distraction, which is why it was so impressive with what Caleb was able to do because he was like the first one in this NIL brand who was getting paid more than everybody. He was getting more opportunities than everybody and he was still playing great and doing his thing. So, I guess you could say he was more mature, but there was a lot of [ __ ] outside of the world with the modern athlete than opposed to maybe the Jared Goff generation athlete, which is like 10 years ago, let alone 20 years ago. So, I immediately thought Ben Johnson and Caleb were never going to work. That’s 100% on me. I was clearly wrong. What I didn’t, you know, remember at the time is that Caleb has like Tom Brady’s stats like on his phone. Like Caleb Williams, if he’s told what would make him great, which I assume Ben Johnson was able to do, like, “Hey, here’s how you can be great. This is what I need from you. Exactly. Yeah. It’s like Caleb from all understanding about his competitive spirit and what he wants to do, that’s all he cares of. Everything else is kind of outside of it. I guess I should have put more respect on that. Him buying into Ben Johnson’s culture because he thought there would be success on the other end. And there clearly has been here five, six weeks in. Totally. And and I think when you have an offense starting and they defense sees it, too. defense is going to start playing better and better and freer and looser because their offense is scoring points and not turning over every damn time. So it it’s hand in hand. That’s how that team gets built. And Ben’s doing a great job with Yeah. playing in Chicago NFC North too. Like you’re going to have to win ugly games like that one last night. You’re going to have to be able to run the ball. You’re going to have to be able to take care of the ball in shitty weather games. And that’s not something you necessarily thought of when you saw uh Caleb Williams. And we all talked about it building from the outside in, having those great weapons on the outside, but not having the O line. When you have that O line and you can run the ball, like we haven’t really even seen Luther Burden be a big factor in this in this offense week in and week out. We see what Rome is becoming. We know who DJ Moore is. Lovelin, who got drafted before Tyler War, he’s made some big plays, but I don’t think we’ve seen him yet. So, it’s a lot of growth there uh left for this team just on the offensive side. And then defensively, you got a former head coach of Dennis Allen. He’s gonna have those boys playing well as well. Yeah. I mean, I guess, you know, I’ll play Devil’s advocate just Green Bay Packers owner Smith. Exactly. Because I’m a Packers fan, so you can take it with a grain of salt. There’s no two ways about it. Like, they are getting better week over week, but you talk about competing in the North. Like, they got their asses kicked by the Lions and they’ve gotten beat by the Vikings. So, they’re only two losses have been to the NFC North. Now, granted, that’s earlier in the season. And I think one thing you could say about the Bears to give them a lot of credit is in years past they start out 0 and2 like you they start sprinkling a little bit it rains [ __ ] on them and then the season is just over like before Thanksgiving for them to start 0 and2 and be like hey every the sky is not falling we’re going to be okay and to look as good as they have the last couple weeks like that is obviously very promising if you’re a Bears fan. Moody good kicker in my eyes as well. NFC North though, AJ, if you think about it, obviously got Caleb and Ben, you got Jordan Laflur, Jared Golf, and MCD DC is just what we’re going to have to say now at this point, he’s a little bit older. And then there’s a really young duo over there in Minnesota con man. Yeah, that’s just like the biggest question mark. And to Tai’s point, just to kind of pile on the Bears for a second there, they did completely screw up Lovelin just cuz Warren’s already the best tight end in the league. But when you look at the Vikings, like that’s the next question. Just the law of averages. Okay, we got five quarterbacks from last year’s rookie class and they’re all playing incredible football and all of their teams basic I think all of them have winning records are 500 and then there’s JJ McCarthy. So if you’re thinking about it, you know, just zoomed out, you would assume that might not work and they’ve only showed one good quarter of football and it was against the Bears when they weren’t really hadn’t figured it out yet. So, like my question for you guys, like especially you, Bruce. Yeah. Like, do you think JJ and KC will work? Because at the current moment in time, they really screwed the pooch letting Sam Darnold go. Whoa. Yeah, I’d say Sam Darnold will be balling for KC. What could they do salary capwise and JJ McCarthy getting hurt and not playing more is not good. How do you feel they end up making and they let Dan Jones out of the building? Sorry, forgot about that. Yeah. And they had an offer allegedly that was a little bit more than a close but it wasn’t a cuz he’s pay what 13 million for us. Yeah. Something like that. Yeah. Which Daniel Jones we can’t Hey. Yeah. We love you D. We absolutely love you. Legitimately need him here for 10 for a decade. We are so thankful you were here. And let me tell you, I don’t have any say in it, but if I was a public owner like they are of the Packers, I would say give this man his money. Let’s go ahead and let Danny Dimes find a nice house here that might be for sale soon in Indianapolis, you know, and maybe, you know, call himself home here in Indiana. But yes, Minnesota Vikings had him in a building last year. And because of how much they liked him, I think that is why a lot of other people liked him as well. Like, hey, KOC and the Vikings are saying good things. Now, they get Aaron Rogers was potentially going to go to Minnesota. They said no. Sam Darnold was there. Danny Dimes was there. And Aaron Rogers said he wanted to be a V. allegedly said he would be open to conversations with the Minnesota Vikings, even though I don’t think that was ever completely confirmed by either party and we’re not confirming that right now. But whatever you think about them choosing JJ, they’re going to give him a lot of time to figure it out, you think, because of that decision being made, or what do you think on them building back their relationship? I don’t think there’s any doubt. They put that C on his chest for a reason. When a rookie quarterback gets a C on his chest, he’s got something special. Now, he’s got Carson Wentz playing really good right now. So, it’s like I’m not counting out the the Vikings for sure and especially Kevin O’Connell. Uh that’s going to be a division kind of like the SEC on a nineame schedule. They’re going to knock the [ __ ] out of each other every week. The NFC North is going to be a dog fight.

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