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NFL Analyst Pressures Bears HC Ben Johnson to Help Caleb Williams Escape ‘Survival Mode’

Caleb Williams’ rookie season was chaotic for many reasons, few of which can truly be blamed on the quarterback. Of course, there were mistakes and an inevitable reality check transitioning from college to the NFL. Still, it’s fair to say that very few quarterbacks would have thrived in the circumstances he faced, with constant coaching changes and very little institutional support.

That’s why the 2025 offseason needed to be exceptional, and the Chicago Bears did everything possible to surround him with answers to the issues identified last year.

An NFL analyst weighed in on the situation, defending the franchise quarterback and placing the pressure squarely on new head coach Ben Johnson to fix a reality that has haunted Chicago for years.

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Colin Cowherd Analyzes Bears’ Reality Coming Into 2025 Season

No NFL franchise has had worse luck with quarterbacks than the Bears. Throughout the team’s history, very few quarterbacks have truly stood out enough to leave a mark on the NFL, and none have ever surpassed the 4,000-yard mark in a single season. This milestone has become relatively routine for good quarterbacks in today’s league.

This has become systemic for the Bears. The franchise drafted Mitchell Trubisky, and it didn’t work. Then came hope with Justin Fields, but that project also failed. Now, Williams has arrived, bringing yet another wave of hope from the fan base. What made 2024 concerning wasn’t that Williams played poorly, but everything else completely falling apart in Chicago.

Last season, the Bears went through an offensive coordinator change and a head coach change, which made it clear the franchise lacked real leadership. This was directly reflected on the field, especially in Williams’ confidence, and NFL analyst Colin Cowherd explained how this situation was impossible to thrive in.

“It’s hard to grow in chaos. You’re just trying to go day-to-day, meal-to-meal, week-to-week, and survive,” Cowherd said, about Williams’ struggles. “If you go last year, remember, they fired their head coach, they fired their offensive coordinator. And their passing game coordinator became their interim head coach against Dan Campbell, Matt LaFleur, and Kevin O’Connell. Not great.”

The situation was bad, and the results reflected that. The comparison to Jayden Daniels didn’t help either, as the quarterback selected just one pick after Williams won the Offensive Rookie of the Year award and led his team to the Conference Championship. But Daniels had stability and was able to work with fewer distractions to develop.

Ben Johnson Brings Ideas, But Caleb Williams Needs Stability

Even after a promising start with four wins in the first six games, the season began to fall apart after a loss to the Washington Commanders on a Hail Mary in the final seconds. A month later, they were defeated by the Detroit Lions, which was marked by terrible clock management in the closing minutes. Those losses represented the mess that riddled Chicago last season.

Cowherd adds that the franchise’s new head coach arrives under pressure to reverse the long-standing failure with quarterbacks in Chicago, and that Williams is the best chance to finally make that happen. Johnson, who did an excellent job with Jared Goff at the Detroit Lions, is seen as a modern offensive mind capable of connecting with Williams and maximizing his skill set.

“Caleb Williams is in survival mode, and there’s no growth in survival mode. And so Ben Johnson’s job in Chicago is extreme quarterback makeover. The talent’s all there, but they’ve got to renovate the house because Caleb, his last six games at USC and last season, along with a bare staff last season, it’s just surviving. It’s just getting play to play. And he developed some really bad habits,” Cowherd said.

Along with Johnson’s arrival, three players were added to improve the offensive line, plus a tight end in the first round, and a wide receiver in the second, giving Williams the best supporting cast possible. This inevitably puts pressure on Johnson to deliver results immediately.

There is no time for Chicago to keep going through a trial-and-error cycle at quarterback and head coach. Williams and Johnson need to get in sync so the franchise can become competitive again and fight for a Super Bowl, chasing a title that has eluded them for 40 years.

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