Pretend you have a job at which your co-workers—while perfectly kind, hard-working folks—aren’t super-good at the gig.
Now pretend your company’s CEO decides that kindliness and hard-work, while fine and swell, aren't enough to turn a profit.
Now pretend your CEO tells his lieutenants, “Fix this.”
Now pretend said lieutenants fix it by hiring the right people. Like, the really right people.
Makes going to work fun, right?
That’s exactly what’s happening at the Chicago Bears' facility in Lake Forest, IL.
Gratitude
Since 2025 became 2025, the Bears have:
- Hired innovative former Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson as head coach.
- Remade the vast majority of their coaching staff.
- Traded for former Pro Bowl offensive guards Joe Thuney and Jonah Jackson.
- Inked center Drew Dalman on day one of free agency.
Each of these moves were geared towards giving Caleb Williams the chance to thrive. And man, is he psyched.
Special Relationship
Williams has been on-board with the Johnson hire since day one, as the coach explained at the NFL Combine:
“Man, I tell you what, he's hungry. I'm trying to watch the Super Bowl with my family. I made it back to Detroit just for a weekend and I'm watching and my phone just keeps buzzing. And it's Caleb. Time and time again. You know, what's going on here, what are we thinking, that was a cool play. Things like that. And so I just know this is a hungry individual that he's ready to get this career started because he's got a chance to be pretty darn special.”
The mutual respect is the kind of thing you need to see from your coach/QB relationship. Just look at the tangible love shared by Kansas City Chiefs head man Andy Reid and signal caller, Patrick Mahomes:
That Mahomes/Reid marriage is working out pretty well, isn’t it?
Line Up
Then there are Chicago’s new offensive trench mavens, who are eager to keep Williams upright, safe, and productive.
Jackson is notably optimistic, saying at his welcome-to-Chicago press conference, “[Williams] has taken a lot of hits. You gotta build confidence in a young guy like that, in any quarterback, honestly. I feel like that’s something we’re able to bring to the table. I’ve seen a lot of tape of [Thuney] doing great work protecting Pat [Mahomes]. That’s just part of our job.”
While he doesn’t have a Pro Bowl pedigree (yet), Dalman also will play a huge role in keeping Williams from eating turf. He’s the first Bears center since Olin Kreutz who can legitimately be called a stud—and considering that poor Caleb was dumped 68 times last season, he needs all the trench studs he can get.
So Ben Johnson had better prepare himself for the barrage of texts from his quarterback to continue, because now that Caleb Williams has the right people in the office, he’s ready to work.
