There is one major stumbling block ahead for Bears coach Ben Johnson and the team's hopes of getting their offense quickly off the ground when the season begins Sept. 8 at Soldier Field against the Minnesota Vikings.
Surprisingly, it has nothing to do with Caleb Williams, but could hinder his abilities to make the passing game work if it falters.
It's the most basic of problems in football and that is establishing the ground game first.
To understand what the Bears face requires looking back at what transpired last season with Shane Waldron calling offensive plays in a miserable attack, but there is no doubt about this task's importance.
Ben Johnson's history
When Johnson started out as Detroit Lions offensive coordinator he didn't yet have the dominant offensive line in place they had in 2023 but gradually it came together by midseason 2022.
Then the attack took off. The Lions came out running, gaining 181 rushing yards in a tight loss to the Eagles, 191 rushing yards in a win over Washington. They averaged 145.7 rushing yards for their first six games before being held below 100 for the first time. The base was then set for the key to Johnson's success.
That's play-action passing, which sets up everything he wants to do.
"My philosophy is to make the same things look different and different things look the same," Johnson said at his opening press conference after being hired. We want defenses to be on their heels at all times."
Lions quarterback Jared Goff led the NFL in play-action pass attempts in 2024 by 52 passes with 203 attempts. He led in 2023 with 151 attempts and in 2022 was fourth with 154 attempts.
No doubt Goff would have had more 2022 but the Lions fell behind more that season and the run threat is lessened then so play-action isn't is great of a factor.
Last year Caleb Williams had only 85 play-action pass attempts. The Waldron offense came out of the blocks running for 84 yards against Tennessee, 71 yards against Houston and 63 yards against Indianapolis. It wasn't until they focused on the run in Week 4 and beat the Rams 24-18 with 131 rushing yards that their offense began to take shape. Then it soon collapsed.
Can these Bears run early?
More important is what Johnson will do this year to get the run going right off the bat.
It is not going to be easy.
The Bears open the season against the Vikings, who had the NFL's second-best run defense. In Week 2, they're at Detroit and the Lions had the fifth-best run defense. In Week 3 they might get a break because Dallas was 29th stopping the run, but Matt Eberflus is now coordinator and once he had his plans in place with the Bears they rose to No. 1 against the run after is Colts defenses for four years had been second, fifth, ninth and 11th against the run.
The key for Johnson's offense operating rapidly and efficiently is to establish the run but their running back group of D'Andre Swift, Roschon Johnson and Kyle Monangai was graded 30th by Pro Football Focus.
They're obviously facing the potential for something happening similar to last year when there was no running game early, then they could have only limited potential for play-action passing success.
It becomes more difficult to make things look the same in that case.
Fortunately for the Bears, their greatest area of improvement could be their offensive line and this can make for a better running game early. Then again, throwing together an entirely new offensive line takes time for them to become a cohesive blocking group.
Getting line to work
"I would say my experience has been when you get a new group together it could take up to half the season before they really start to mesh and come together in terms of the run game more so than pass pro," Johnson told Fox Sports' Colin Cowherd during an offseason appearance on The Herd. "I think we should be a pretty good pass pro unit right off the jump, but that run game, the communication, the angles with which we're all going, trusting each other particularly in the wide-zone scheme that we're installing right now in OTAs, that's something that we want to make sure that we get plenty of time on task on."
He knows exactly how critical this will be.
"I think that's going to be the challenge here during training camp is how quickly can we come together," Johnson told Cowher. "They're really bonding as a unit right now communication-wise but we don't have the pads on. I think we need the pads on before we truly start jelling together."
The running game holds the key for this season with the Bears. The hard route to success on offense would be to start without one.
