Bears Offense Implodes Under Ben Johnson Amid Shocking Weaponry Gaps and Alarming Playmaking Collapse

New is exciting in the NFL, or at least it builds anticipation.

With the Bears this season, the anticipation builds over what coach Ben Johnson's offense will look like fitted accordingly for Caleb Williams.

What will be different about the way the Bears offense attacks defenses with Johnson calling plays is a matter generating plenty of interest. It's not going to look the same as Detroit, Johnson said. However, there will most likely be similarities because personnel the Bears added fit Johnson's style of play in Detroit. Colston Loveland and Luther Burden are good examples, along with a better interior offensive line. They needed that regardless, but especially to run what Johnson has done before.

How they attack and where they attack in the passing game is a real unknown.

Detroit showed multiple types of run blocking schemes and variations like motion to get defenses moving one way while the offense countered back to ignite the running game. This isn't all that unusual and the Bears did some of it.

What looks like a point where Johnson does something different and ventures into the unknown is in the short passing game and with how it was critical to what Detroit did.

The Lions were an effective short passing team and especially to the middle of the field, partly because Johnson schemed receivers open there but also because quarterback Jared Goff is a taller pocket passer and he had an All-Pro slot in Amon-Ra St. Brown.

Also, tight end  Sam LaPorta could get open there and his running backs were able to take advantage of that area. But St. Brown was the key and the ball found the slot, as Johnson has described it.

If the Bears are throwing there the last three years, it might be with Williams or Fields running boot action and throwing back a bit across the grain or with a receiver slating in from the slot.

That's more dangerous than dart throwing from within the pocket.

The Lions used the short passes explosively. They led the NFL in yards after catch. The Bears last year were much better than in the recent years but still only 18th. Detroit did this all with the second fewest average air yards intended at 3,471 and 6.3 yards intended per attempt.

They didn't move Goff around as much because he could see down the middle of the field at 6-foot-4. Justin Fields and Caleb Williams are shorter, Fields only by an inch and Williams by 3 inches.

They're also better moving and throwing, so they wouldn't be as suited as Goff to standing in the pocket as much and firing short middle.

So far, we have seen essentially nothing of these plans because OTAs are merely calling plays and looking at players' skillsets, not scheming or suiting the attack to burn a particular defense or take advantage of a mismatch. Plus, no one has hit yet.

It will take games to know some of the answers here.

"This is not simply a dropping of a previous playbook down on the table and starting there," was Johnson's widely retreated comment. "Nope, we're ripping this thing down to the studs, and we're going to build it out with him (Williams) first and foremost, and then with the pieces around him next.

"I really look forward to challenging him and pushing him, as I said before, to continue to grow and develop.”

What it's all going to look like and whether it can actually be done will become more evident starting in just over two weeks.