Ben Johnson on offensive development, competition | Chicago Bears

Ben Johnson on offensive development, competition | Chicago Bears

All right. Hello. Hello. It’s the energy. It’s mid camp, huh? Um, all right. So, you guys, uh, everyone saw we had to make some roster moves there. We had a number of injuries coming out of that game and, uh, so to get through the next, you know, couple weeks here, we we added some guys on the on the team and, uh, we’ll see what they got and get some good practices coming up here. Excited about today. We got some some good situational work that we need to get to. A lot of unscripted in practice today that I’m excited about. It’s uh you know, it’s it’s more like real football at this point now that we got our installs in and and all that under a controlled setting and we can get all the situations that we’re looking for and uh you know, we we’ll take it one day at a time, but this is a big one for us. So, I’ll go ahead and open it up from there. And with that DB’s room, how does that injury toll challenge you here in the short term, the next couple weeks of just being able to have enough guys to to work with? Yeah. No, I think we we’ll have plenty of numbers and it’ll give those new guys some opportunities to get some reps and uh and and compete. Um, you know, schematically we’ll be smart and and keep it fairly simple in the game so that they can go out there and they can play ball, but uh I think we’ll be just fine in terms of getting the reps that we need to get over the course of the next two weeks. How long do you We asked you for a Jaylen Johnson progress report. What stands in his way uh of playing in week one? He he is right on track. Everything I said last time, he’s right on track. He’s right where he needs to be. Um, it’s really, like I said, those type of injuries, you don’t know short-term, long term. Every guy’s a little bit different, but I think we’re we’re going the right direction right now. How long do you expect Ker to be out? Uh, he’s he’s more week to week right now. Um, but hopefully before camp ends, we’ll be able to get him back. We see the pre- snap issues with Caleb, the delays and stuff like that. Can you explain what is exactly the issue is and what’s complicated about that? What are we not understanding about why it’s harder than it looks? Yeah, I I would say it’s not just him. We had some procedure issues in the in the game the other day as well. So, um I I don’t think we’ve hit it from the beginning in terms of how much we’re loading guys down. Some of the play calls are a little bit longer than others. Um you know, he and I met yesterday. I’m I’m pleased with how he’s able to spit these plays out. Right now, he’s made significant progress in that regard. And once we get going here in a gameweek, we’re going to condense the verbiage even more. So, we’ve challenged him. It’s been a lot. Uh that was by design. And so, um if we struggle at all in the huddle getting the play out, then yeah, the the delays are going to pop up and and that’s uh that’s a little bit of part of the learning process and us growing. But by design, we’ve made this very challenging and and hard. And we know what we need to do as a staff to alleviate some of that pressure. And I I think week one, we’re going to be in a good spot. So So you’re you’re getting to play in right away, I assume, immediately because you’ve talked about the importance of that. There are times that that I’m a little bit slow as well. So that’s that’s on me. So it’s it’s all of us. When it’s in quick, then the the slowdown is coming when he’s trying to relay the different parts of it to each player that’s out there. It could be every every play is a little bit different, but we’re not here to come in and point the finger at any one individual. All of us collectively, we need to know what to do. We need to make sure we communicate that and we need to go out and execute. Last last week, you came up with a plan for how many guys were going to play on Sunday after the day off. Day off was yesterday. Did you guys settle what you wanted to do? Yeah, I’ll go ahead. Uh, our starters are going to play. Everyone’s going to play. What’s the value of that for particular? Well, last week u and really all through camp, I’ve been pretty consistent with the thought of reps, reps, reps are the most important thing to get get him up to speed. And uh by the plan that we had a week ago, we were able to get him probably somewhere between 80 and 100 more reps than we would have been able to do had he played in the game. Um, this week it’s a different schedule, uh, different length of time in terms of in between games and all that. And so our plan right now is is the guys that sat out last week, they will be playing this week. What do you learn from players who are established starters who are playing in a preseason game? What do you What do you look for out of them? Uh, I think the trust that we’ve been talking about from the get-go, that’s really where where that comes into play. Um, we haven’t been here with this group, you know, as a coaching staff. And so, uh, that trust has been earning and and we’ve been developing that, uh, amongst each other. It’s it’s it’s not a one-way street. It goes both ways. And so, um, I think that’s just another step in the progression. You know, I think it’ll be great for them. Also, it’s it’s a night game. And so, the the ability to get ready, uh, you know, at the hotel the night before the game, we kind of went through that with the family fest with those guys that didn’t play the other day. um family f we stayed at the hotel and then getting to the stadium early and going through that process and then now it’s a night game and so it’s a little bit different procedure and and uh it doesn’t matter if you’re a rookie or if you’re a 10th year guy I think going through those steps with a new staff I think those are already critical components and we know the plan Caleb roughly to be determined we’ll talk about that we’ll see how the joint practice goes and and reassess there there’s things that you kind of have in the back of your head when you make the plan for training camp. And as you go through training camp, things change and that’s what we do. We adjust. Uh we like to say upstairs, no one adjust better than us. I think our players understand that. Um and so that’s that’s just what we do as coaches is is we e we we flow. Uh we get the numbers from sports science. Whatever we need to do, what’s best for the team, what’s best for each individual player, that’s how we we determine that. How do when you have two tight ends that you really like? How do you determine workloads? Because there always seems like there’s one who emerges more in the passing game. How do you go about divvying up those roles? Yeah, in practice there’s really we’re not trying to to dictate that a whole lot. Once we get to the games, we’ll be a little bit more specific on which plays are for who, or there might be plays where it really doesn’t matter who’s out there for those, and we just get in a flow of a game and and uh maybe a guy’s got he’s the primary one and 11 personnel for that series unless we get to one of the specific play calls. Um, we’re at the point now where we’re still learning more about our players every single day. So, I don’t want to pigeon hole them and say Coloulston’s only good at this or Cole’s only good at that or Durham’s just this like that. That’s not where we’re at. We’re still evaluating and we got another call it a week and a half to two weeks to to figure that all out. Man, what is what is the uh benefit of giving the quarterback and the first team offense so much to start off and then as you’ve gotten into this portion kind of dialing their back a little bit and giving them a I guess an easier version to digest versus just giving them that version initially. Yeah, we haven’t taken anything off their plate. This is still this is still what we installed from the get-go. And so it it’s been a little bit overwhelming for some particular players. Um, I think guys are starting to get a better feel for it and they’re settling in. Uh, this has been the plan from the get-go is that we don’t know who we’re going to be yet on offense. Zone scheme, gap scheme, up front in terms of the running game, play action, pass, are we going to be more from the shotgun, under center, and so by design, we gave a lot so that we can determine what we want to do and and which direction we want to go. We’re at the point now where we’ll start honing in on some of those things, but uh as far as they know, everything that we’ve installed up to this point, that’s still alive and well. Coach Lash, he splashed a lot when he’s got his opportunity and continues to play at a very high level, assuming keeps playing at that level with Rome and DJ. Does Luther’s opportunities become more package based at least early going? It’s a beautiful thing about competition, isn’t it? is that each week each week you got to earn what you get on game day. So that’s that’s exactly how we set this up. That was Ryan and my vision in terms of acquiring all this talent particularly on the perimeter. It’s and it’s not just within the position group. It’s not just receivers battling out amongst themselves. It’s receivers versus tight ends versus running backs. Um and and we’ll kind of we’ll do whatever is best for the team number one to help us win games. But those guys, they want the ball. They got to earn it. And I said in the springtime, and I’ll say it again now, what they do when the ball’s not in their hands goes a long way in terms of how much we as a coaching staff want to prioritize trying to make them primary. What are you seeing from Luther in terms of his role when the ball’s not in his hands? I I see improvement. It’s It’s not where it needs to be, but he is getting better every single day. Ben, what’s your phil what’s your philosophy on the coaching structure around Caleb where you have you press Declan JT and I think you probably would even count Case as part of that group that works with them. Yeah, it’s uh there can be a lot of cooks in the kitchen and so uh by design we’ve been very selective in who is in charge of what with him. JT’s leading the charge. He’s a quarterback coach in that way. And I’ I’ve stepped back a little bit over the course of the week and allowed him allowed uh Declan allowed Press to really lead the charge in that room in terms of what’s the intent of the play, what should we be doing with our drop, what should we be doing with our eyes. They see the game uh through my lens, so I trust them to be able to articulate that. And then uh I do sit down one-on-one with Caleb. I told you every every player day off, we we end up sitting down and we hash out what the past has looked like past four days, past 5 days, whatever it’s been, and then what we need to do going forward. So, um I think we’ve had a very clean and and concise process in terms of the information that’s being articulated to them. Um and I I think uh I think it’s gone really well so far in camp. And you talk about the competition in the on the field. Does that go to the coaching room as well? You got a lot of bright minds in that room that I’m sure want to add plays to the playbook. Yeah. Yeah. There there’s no doubt about it. And uh we have a million ideas. Um no good idea has a rank. So it doesn’t matter if you’re the coordinator, the the play caller, the the position coach or or one of the young bucks that’s working his way up on the totem pole. Like if you got a good idea, we’re going to use it. We’ll find a way to to fit it into the system and and get it done. So, um, yeah, I think I think we got a healthy healthy amount of ideas, energy. I I love the mix of our staff right now. Thanks, man. You want good ideas for Ross, too? I I am always willing box in here or something.

Head coach Ben Johnson addresses the media Wednesday at Halas Hall.

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