{"id":180143,"date":"2025-07-04T06:03:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-04T06:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/180143\/"},"modified":"2025-07-04T06:03:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-04T06:03:11","slug":"espn-insiders-caleb-williams-has-no-excuses-in-year-1-under-new-bears-coach-ben-johnson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/180143\/","title":{"rendered":"ESPN Insiders: Caleb Williams has ‘no excuses’ in Year 1 under new Bears coach Ben Johnson"},"content":{"rendered":"

QB Caleb Williams<\/a> didn\u2019t live up to be the No. 1 pick in the 2024 NFL Draft<\/a> as a rookie last year in what was another bad season for the Bears. Now, in his first full offseason, he may have a better chance at success in his second year in the league.<\/p>\n

\u2018Get Up\u2019 answered questions about teams in the NFC North on Thursday morning, with Kimberly Martin discussing if Williams would make a jump in year two<\/a> with Chicago. She prefaced it, though, by noting how many thought he would take one from the start in year one for him.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people thought, last year, he was set up for a jump,\u201d said Martin.<\/p>\n

That said, the Bears have invested in Williams even further since their season ended at the start of January. That starts with the hire of Ben Johnson, who spent the past three seasons as offensive coordinator, while posting a top-five scoring unit in each year there, of the Detroit Lions, as their next and latest head coach<\/a>.<\/p>\n

They also reworked some of the offensive line, namely acquiring LG Joe Thuney<\/a> coming off three seasons as an All-Pro and Pro Bowler with Kansas City, while focusing on offense by taking TE Colston Loveland<\/a> (Michigan)<\/a>, WR Luther Burden II<\/a> (Missouri)<\/a>, and OL Ozzy Trapilo<\/a> (Boston College)<\/a> in the first two rounds of the 2025 NFL Draft<\/a>. They\u2019ll now pair all of that with Williams along with their other pieces like RB D\u2019Andre Swift<\/a>, WRs DJ Moore<\/a> and Rome Odunze<\/a>, TE Cole Kmet<\/a>, and OL Darnell Wright<\/a>. Even so, that does all still have to come together for Chicago, especially under a first-time head coach in Johnson.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think, on paper, being paired with new head coach Ben Johnson is a great thing for Caleb Williams. Obviously, this roster has some pieces,\u201d said Martin. \u201cBut, again, it\u2019s still on paper.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams also has to take some of that step himself too after completing 62.5% of his throws for 3,451 yards, 20 touchdowns, and six interceptions, finishing the year with eleven turnovers while taking a league-high of 68 sacks. That, paired with all that his franchise did for the team around him, is why Harry Douglas and Damien Woody thought later on that Williams has the most at stake for this upcoming season in the NFC. <\/p>\n

\u201c(He) told the world that he wanted Ben Johnson as his next head coach. Well, he got Ben Johnson. They revamped their entire offensive line, they continuously got him weapons,\u201d said Douglas. \u201cWith everything that\u2019s around, now, Caleb Williams, I think he has the most pressure on him when it comes to the NFC.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo excuses (for Caleb)<\/a>. I mean, Chicago has basically taken all of the excuses away \u2013 new head coach, more weapons, rebuilt offensive line,\u201d Woody said. \u201cThe one thing with Caleb Williams? We know he has a flare for the spectacular but you\u2019ve got to be able to play in structure. You know, that\u2019s really been the one issue we\u2019ve been talking about going back to his USC<\/a> days. Can he play in structure? Because, ultimately, that\u2019s what wins in the National Football League<\/a> and he has yet to show us that he can do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams still has the potential to be amongst the very best quarterbacks, with these additions only helping him to start to make that as early as this fall, in the NFL. Still, Martin thinks some trust from the fans for the Bears wouldn\u2019t hurt either as this next season begins for him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think, for right now, we can expect some good things but, give him patience,\u201d said Martin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"QB Caleb Williams didn\u2019t live up to be the No. 1 pick in the 2024 NFL Draft as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":180144,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2070],"tags":[374,23740,692,391,2493,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-180143","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-bears","8":"tag-bears","9":"tag-caleb-williams-21-gonzaga","10":"tag-chicago","11":"tag-chicago-bears","12":"tag-chicagobears","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114793454303419531","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}