Tim Jenkins: Bears finally have an offense that doesn’t rely on Caleb Williams making unreal plays
What fires you up? What did you see in the tape that you really liked about the Bears win over the Saints? To be honest with you guys, I think we actually finally started to scratch the surface a little bit on true week-toeek play design. Um, there was a play in the game where we motioned Luther Burden across the formation and we did this last week. So, we motioned our guy across the formation and then we ended up hitting a vertical. We ended up hitting him on a go, right? The motion guy ended up running a go. This week, we motioned him across the formation. And it’s an identical look. Identical P identical pass pro run action. And then instead of the go, we break off on a dig. And you can tell that the Saints, right, they’re thinking go. The corner bails the heck out of there cuz he saw this on film and it was a go and then he’s wide open. So I actually think what we finally started to see was true week to week changes from Ben that are based on wrinkles from the week previous. Um, which for me is the most exciting part because those are the kind of things that that we were, I think, all really excited about when we heard he was coming to Chicago. Would you say that’s making the same things look different and different things look the same? That’s bingo. There you go. That’s exactly what it is. So, to me, it’s like I think Yeah, I it’s it’s awesome stuff. They had a little game winner too that they showed something very similar early in the game, you know, not a gamewinner, but the fourth the fourth quarter, the fourth day on one where it was like, okay, hey, we could get into victory is, you know, the tight end instead of breaking out like he had all game on the same exact look, he snapped across the face on what we would call like a little ship route, a little short post. Um, and then we hit it for an easy one. So, to me, it was like I don’t know. I I I I think we’re finally seeing this offense start to adjust week to week, click week to week, which I think is a testament probably not only to Ben, but also his belief in what Caleb can do and handle. Um, and we’re seeing it pay off. So, we see the good in the scheming and the play calling, but I I I know we saw a step backwards from Caleb in his play. I just want to know from you, how big of a step back was it, and what did you see? Yeah. See, I Yeah. I mean, I saw two really bad plays, right? Like, if I’m being honest with you guys, I mean, I So, if we separate to me, it’s always hard. I like to separate the physical errors. Like, when he’s scrambling around and he dirts a ball that we think he could put on somebody, my general belief with Caleb Williams is that’s not going to be an issue long term, right? So, for me, it’s like I we’re going to have physical air. So I kind of put those in a different for me when I sit there and I look at the tape it was we had two glaring bad decisions which is the deep out interception. That’s just a terrible decision to go to the deep out on that situation where he’s trying to force it to Rome and it’s like it’s third and 15. It’s just not a feasible throw. The corner played it well. And then we had one that was really egregious which was him trying to force it to DJ Moore against bracket coverage on the we would call it a bang eight route like a bang post. Mhm. That was a terri that was the worst decision that I’ve seen him have all year. With that being said, I still kind of get what his thought process was, which was he was trying to move the safety with his with his eyes. He wasn’t actually looking at the safety, trying to move him, snap back, try to throw on time. Guess what? Safety didn’t move. We got problems, right? Uh, you know, you could throw the CQ issues in there, too, which seem like they’re starting to pop up more frequently. Um, which I, you know, I I I don’t really it’s hard to tell why they’re happening between the bad snaps in the gun and the under center miscommunication. So, do I think it was like a drastic step back? No. I do think we we we’ve probably got to start to accustom ourselves though to the fact of we finally have a football team that our quarterback doesn’t have to make unreal plays every single week for us to win football games. And that’s exactly what you want. Like Mahomes does not make insane plays every single week when the Chiefs are chugging along and beating the Saints, right? Like we want to be a football team that can win ugly or hey, our quarterback has three or four bad plays. Hey, we can still overcome it and win. So to me, it’s more or less this team is doing a great job. And I think Caleb is playing exactly the kind of game we need, which is, hey, dude, don’t go give it away by making, you know, rookie or secondyear quarterback decisions. Play within our offense. There are going to be 400 yard days and there are going to be 200 yard days and we got to be okay with that as long as we’re walking out of there with a win. Well, Tim, I also thought that maybe as much as Caleb Williams has talked about how he he liked his turnover to touchdown ratio last year, you know, that he only threw six interceptions. I feel like the Saints with the early interception may have gotten him a little bit, you know, and then we saw those two batted balls by Chase Young. It was pretty obvious the Bears wanted to set up the screen game and the Saints knew it and they didn’t want it to happen. And I wonder how much that affected him for the rest of the game from a passing standpoint. I mean, I think you could be on to something, right? To me, it’s it’s always hard, right? Because I think different quarterbacks react different ways on that psychological front, right? Like some guys, it’s almost like you see him throw an interception. You’re like, great, we’re going to have a good day cuz now he’s pissed off and he’s going to come back, right? You like you think about old school Tom Brady getting salty. It’s like that was kind of the best thing for him. Whereas, you’re right, Caleb could be one of those guys who, man, hey, he really wants to have a great touchdown interception ratio. So, when he does get aggressive with it early, hey, does that prevent him from being aggressive later? I would tell you that I didn’t see I thought he was equally as aggressive, you know, throwing the dig route or throwing the can sail that, you know, as he was early on. Um, with that being said, like I I I could see exactly what you’re saying with some of those scramble throws, some of those screen, you know, the screen balls that get batted down where it’s like, you know, hey, are you kind of taking a little something off this? Are you trying to be perfect? Which I think would be something that I’m I’m assuming this Bears staff would be dealing with behind the scenes, which ultimately we’re going to get into a game where he’s going to make a mistake. It’s going to be against a good football team where we still have to rally back and hunt with the football and be aggressive. and we’re going to need him to do that uh later in the season when these games really start, you know, get some of these division games where, you know, playoffs are on the line. We need him to be hunting with the football. Tim Jenkins joining us, founder and CEO of Jenkins, a late here on Raheem Harrison Grodian. Tim, I’m I’m a little bit concerned about Caleb just from this standpoint. He talked about how he’s struggling and I feel like he’s in a a slump here when he talks about throwing on the run. This is one of the things that he’s been known for, one of the things where he can put on his cape and do the Superman thing, but right now he’s just not able to do it very well and consistently. Is there a remedy for that? I mean, I know Ben Johnson, he’s going to try to bring the best out of him, but if a players believes that he’s in a slump, what what what what happens next? Yeah. Yeah. I would agree with you. Like that quote’s concerning. I say it’s concerning because you know you have to be borderline narcissistic arrogant right to play that spot. You know like uh Andrew Luck had a really great long article about retiring and like the kind of toll it takes to be a quarterback in the NFL on I think like maybe borderline not healthy thoughts about yourself, right? Like nobody wants to, you know, work with someone who’s always thinking about themselves simultaneously like if you’re going to be under center in the NFL, you need to be doing that. Um, so then when you hear a guy say, “Hey man, I’m a little I don’t feel great on the run.” Yeah. How much of that feeds itself, I think, is a is a really big question that I don’t think we contemplate enough when it comes to sports psychology and the things that go into actually performing, you know, on that stage. What I’ll tell you is from just a quarterback evaluator standpoint, Caleb on the run has always been a the best term for this. He’s always been just the best kid on the playground. Like I don’t think he’s ever done anything from a you know, hey, he’s technically perfect, right? like he’s always done more or less like amazing throws like his chest is flat to the line of scrimmage verse maybe his you know off shoulder pointing at his target. He’s he’s always done stuff where it’s like man he’s almost doing it in spite of his mechanics. So what I would argue is I think there’s you know if he feels like he’s in a slump I would argue that just some like old school hey man get your shoulder the target a little bit. Hey let’s get our Jstep right to where my back inseam is pointing at my target. get my weight a little bit going forward, not necessarily completely horizontal. I think some of that stuff could actually help him, which is funny because it’s like the same thing, you know, you’d be talking about with a younger quarterback, but when you’re as skilled as Caleb is, like I I don’t blame guys for not, you know, touching him mechanically because it’s like, why would you? Like, he hits all his spots. There’s no need. Don’t mess with, you know, don’t fix something that’s not broken. With that being said, if he’s starting to say, “Hey, man. I feel like this part of my game is broken.” I think a return to some of the old school fundamentals could really help him more or less snap out of that slump that he feels like he’s in. No, I agree. I think that that’s a good way of putting it because he he’s learned how to build his identity and make money off of doing so for so long at this point. You know, he made $10 million and I say that as a compliment. That is uh that’s incredibly successful as we know to be able to do that in your college career. So I would imagine a lot of this is is going to take a lot of work for him. And when I think of when Ben Johnson says the offense is going to look a certain way in December as opposed to now, this is kind of what you’re getting at. You know, even the baby steps of what you’re seeing Tim on film is a lot of of what that probably builds to. you know, how do you how do you absorb all of that knowing like we are seeing steps that lead us to probably a much different product a couple months from now? Yeah. And I that’s what I think, you know, when you sit there and you look at the game and you kind of go you walk away from it thinking Caleb didn’t play great. I do think there’s a lot of hidden things too that are progressing the operation at the line of scrimmage. Think about how many fewer pre- snap penalties we have. You know, you’re actually seeing him touch his head and yell can can, right? They’re getting from one play to another. you see the timing in in not only the pass game with the motions, but the run game. Those are all the little things that I think he’s doing right that we probably don’t credit enough, but if we all just take a step back and go back to week one, we remember how bad it could look, right? So, to me, that’s where I think you see this offense trending. And I think the most exciting part is imagine pairing all of that, right? you pair all of the him doing the little stuff right with let’s say we get a return to Caleb’s form on his throwing on the run some of these other things this offense is going to be pretty salty pretty dangerous down the stretch which I think is what Ben is probably alluding to which is like guys we’re finally taking steps in the right direction operationally we’re going to get all this other stuff right and when they do watch out because I think it’s going to be a pretty explosive offense we love it the vote of confidence from Tim Jenkins is a good thing I assume assume you’re working or have already released the uh breakdown on YouTube. Yeah, breakdown breakdown is out. It is uh yeah, it’s not it’s not as exciting as you know normal. We didn’t have like you know five tuddies, but there’s some really good stuff. It was good. And I’ll tell you what, I I’ve said this a lot on the program, but I I truly mean it. There is nothing like the comment section on Chicago Bear stuff. Like people tell you to post in Ghost, that couldn’t that just couldn’t be further from the truth. the amount of joy from reading some of this stuff. They’re awesome. Even if they’re trashing you, you got to admit, I’m sure you guys get it too on Twitter. Even if you’re getting trashed, there’s some stuff that’s pretty funny. I read I go, “That’s a good dig. That’s a good dig at me.” So, I uh yeah, I love it and I appreciate you guys having me on and hopefully another win next
On the Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show, Jenkins Elite founder Tim Jenkins shared his takeaways from reviewing tape of Bears quarterback Caleb Williams’ underwhelming performance in a 26-14 win against the Saints in Week 7. Was the film as bad as we thought or did Williams just make a couple mistakes?
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18 comments
Tim is the best! I watch his show every week 🎉
Perfect analysis! Play the game the way it’s played. Don’t turn it over run da ball get first downs. If ur not gaining big yardage don’t worry. And look we’ve been winning dat way. I feel Caleb now knows what Ben Johnson wants he just is trying to find a way to put his dna into wat Ben is tryna do. Seems like a couple of those scramble plays he was tryna force. Just play the game and it will naturally come. Once he gets that he will be so deadly
With Johnson we may finally have a real good coach , the first one since Lovie and Johnson will be more successful than Lovie
We are winning games what’s people problem. I don’t care if we winning like Trent dilfer ravens. As long as we winning or do we want Joe Burrow situation?
He is being coached very hard and Johnson has said that they throw everything at him until he breaks. I think throughout this season he has played football with all of the coaching in the back of his mind, trying to make changes actively. Once all those changes come together, the natural stuff will be less difficult bc he isn't thinking the entire time. Just be patient and support them, Johnson clearly has a vision
Caleb sucks period!
Beter stop Derrick Henry this week. He worries me more than Lamar playing or not.
Question tim Jenkins if u see this. Kurt warner said it wasn't a bad decision to make the pass to rome if he put it closer to the sideline would it still been a bad decision? It was a bad throw not decision
So when you don’t say “if I’m being honest” are you not being honest?
it does take a few weeks to get plays and formations on tape. Once there is tape, Ben can start play calling against trend.
the Int didn't bother me, it was so unlike Caleb.
I will be glad when Caleb stops depending on his arm strength so much. Don't get me wrong, I am as impressed as anyone when he flicks his wrist while standing flat footed and the ball goes 40yds on a rope. I will be a happy camper when he can just read the field fast enough to throw on time instead.
Take a shot every time Tim says "right" or "like"
Jenkins in a national treasure.
The best breakdown of Caleb’s performance last week by far great Job Tim, these other two talking heads have no idea of qb play a lot of nonsense talking points
The Washington Post made the same point about the Bears I have. They are at best, an average football team (WaPo says they are below average). I see the Bears finishing 8-9, give or take one game.
It's always interesting how the talking heads always are quick to run with a simplistic narrative, e.g., "Caleb was bad today", "Caleb is regressing!", and then that simplistic take readily gets smacked down by experts who actually know what they're looking at in context, like Tim, Kurt, Sims and others. Interesting.
The bye week tends to ice any mometum Caleb has been building early on for whatever reason, or maybe this is a result in an the overall gameplan shift to fully establish the run. One thing for sure is I expect Ben to come out dialing up aggressive plays this next week.
Ok gang. Are 'we' ready to admit Now that Caleb is Not Our answer at qb? That Caleb has The Yips? That Caleb can Only play when its scripted? He can only see Half the field and thats best case scenario. His nerves get the best of him and the mistakes Flow. He is a 1 or 2 look QB that panic runs. Once his nerves take over he can Only Lazer passes . He loses his touch, he loses his internal clock, he fucks up the presnaps. Hes taking the wrong # drop back steps and throwing out of time. Sacks. Boneheaded plays. Death by 1000 yips. Every big game he had in college, Caleb got the yips. Every meaningful game last year. Falls apart. This year, if the defense and special teams dont play lights out, the offense is screwed. The problem isnt the Offensive Line. They are Proven Veterans and our current coaching staff is a Dream Team… so knock off allllll the Caleb slurping. Be honest about what Bagent can bring.