PALM BEACH, Fla. – When the Bears kick off their offseason program Monday, first-year coach Ben Johnson will begin building a foundation with quarterback Caleb Williams from the ground floor.
“You need to be able to see the game as a play caller through the lens of the quarterback and vice versa.” Bears coach Ben Johnson
"You go back to the basics," Johnson said Tuesday at the NFL owners meetings in Florida. "It's the fundamentals of the quarterback position: What's our footwork going to look like under center? From the shotgun? What are we calling the formations? What's the defensive identification going to look like? So that we're all speaking the same language.
"We've got to get on the same page because it'll be a little bit different for him than what he experienced last year, and if we can mesh together and start speaking the same language, that's when things will really start to take off."
Johnson is eager to begin working with Williams so the two can begin thinking as one.
"You need to be able to see the game as a play caller through the lens of the quarterback and vice versa," Johnson said. "He needs to see [the game] through the [eyes of the] play caller as well: Why are we calling certain plays? What is the intent of the play? For me, everything that I do really is to try to set it up within how he sees the game."
Johnson revealed that Williams will take more snaps from under center during offseason workouts to gauge the second-year pro's comfort level. Last year the Bears ran 70.8% of their plays out of the shotgun formation, tied for 16th most in the NFL, while the Lions lined up in the shotgun less than any other team (44.0%).
"There are some things that we're going to encourage that he looks to do a little bit differently," Johnson said. "He's been predominantly a shotgun quarterback for most of his high school and college career, and so he's very comfortable there.
"We're going to work to see the comfort level under center and how much of that applies. We had a lot of success where I was last, that going under center for the run game did translate in play action."
More play-action passes should help the Bears limit the number of sacks they permit in 2025.
"It takes a village," Johnson said. "I don't know what the number was in terms of seconds that [Williams] held onto the ball before releasing it. But we would certainly like to bring that number down. Part of that is, 'How well can we scheme No. 1 or No. 2 in the progression open for him?'
"The protection up front can get better. The route runners [can] get to their spots faster. We can move the pocket a little bit more. There's a lot of things that we have at our disposal that can help with that process."
In Detroit, Johnson coordinated one of the NFL's most explosive offenses. Over the last two seasons, the Lions led the league in average points (30.1) and yards (402.2) per game. In 2024, Detroit scored an NFL-leading 68 touchdowns and ranked second with a franchise-record 409.5 yards per game.
Last season, Johnson learned the importance of Expected Points Added (EPA), a metric that measures how much each play impacts the likelihood of scoring points. Plays are quantified by factors that include down, distance and field position.
"The EPA in the passing game is really one of the most critical factors in determining wins and losses right now," Johnson said. "That's probably changed over the last five years or so. I would have said five years ago turnovers, takeaways, that was No. 1. From what I understand now, EPA for the passing game has now surpassed that. Whatever team has the higher passing game EPA at the end of the game, they generally win that game over 80% of the time.
"It's a huge stat. That's where we look to: how do we help inflate that number? Higher completion percentage, more run after the catch opportunities. That's not to say we're not going to take our shots down the field and look for big explosive plays, chunks or touchdowns that way. There's a lot of ways we can get that done."
