Caleb Williams Finds Life Preserver As Bears Hire Competent Coach
Image: newsweek.com
By Clayton Kilgore
I don’t think anyone would argue that the Bears 2024 season was a beautiful disaster (good song, shoutout 311).
The treacherous optimism last April when Caleb Williams was anointed Chicago’s savior melted into putrid disappointment and a fanbase once again found themselves self-diagnosing, grasping for reasons as to why their favorite team stinks out loud.
The good news is that Chicago had collectively seen enough to comfortably move on from Matt Eberflus. His shit-canning was imminent after week 8 when they allowed an impossible Hail Mary which marked the beginning of the end.
Sure, Eberflus had a new haircut, which was nice and all, but that one singular play was the final nail in the coffin. He was never coming back from that and it resulted in what we like to call “a good old-fashioned midseason shitcanning”.
Perhaps this didn’t fix the root problem, but it certainly kickstarted the healing process.
Yesterday, in a stunning display of competency, the Bears hired the best available guy: Ben Johnson.
As the Lions’ OC starting in 2022, Ben Johnson was responsible for three straight top-5 offensive seasons and was an integral component in helping Jared Goff look like an expert tactician seven years into his career. Just to be clear, Goff was never what he is now before Ben Johnson came along.
Now, Goff’s rubbing elbows with the league’s best and he’s married to a swimsuit model. His resurgence will be studied for centuries.
To top it off, it’s rumored that Ben Johnson is bringing Dennis Allen along as defensive coordinator. This would be, as the kids say, “huge”. The staffing issues for the Bears might just be resolving before our eyes.
Everyone with a coaching vacancy was calling Ben Johnson, but I like to think the allure of some untapped potential at quarterback was too much to pass up the Bears job. He put Jared Goff in the conversation among the elite quarterbacks in the league, is Caleb Williams next?
I’ll say that If Ben Johnson is as good in Chicago with a different supporting cast as he was in three years as the Lions’ OC, then consider this a life preserver for Caleb Williams.