‘They know what’s at stake’: 3 storylines that emerged from the Bears offseason program
· Yahoo Sports
CHICAGO — The offseason program is in the books. The Chicago Bears wrapped up minicamp Thursday and sent the players home until training camp begins in late July.
Coach Ben Johnson was proud of the work his team put in this spring, both in the weight room and on the practice field. Johnson has projected the same no-nonsense approach in Year 2 that Bears fans saw in Year 1.
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He’s not here to have fun. He’s here to win.
The spring once again set the tone. Here are the big-picture storylines that stood out from organized team activities and minicamp.
Hype is fun. But legacies are built on winning.
New Bears safety Coby Bryant missed the final day of minicamp Thursday. It was, however, an excused absence. Bryant was heading to Seattle to pick up his Super Bowl ring.
His new teammates haven’t been shy about asking about his Super Bowl experience.
“The biggest thing is I tell them, just take it one day at a time, one play at a time, one game at a time,” Bryant said.
The hype in Chicago hasn’t been this high in years. With quarterback Caleb Williams in particular, it’s skyrocketing. He’s on the cover of Madden NFL 27. He was a guest on the popular “New Heights” podcast with the Kelce brothers. Oddsmakers have him among the 10 likeliest players to win the MVP award.
But all of that will be quickly forgotten if the Bears don’t win in 2026.
“Every year for me is: championship,” Williams said. “So nothing else needs to be said from there.
“It’s something that Ben and I have talked about. Completions or touchdowns or whatever goals you’re trying to reach, you’ve got to start with one. Just speaking on completions, if you go 1 of 1 27 times, you’re 27 for 27. You’re not thinking of going 27 for 27. You’re thinking about that one play, that one pass.”
What’s unspoken in that example is that the same logic applies to Super Bowl rings. Tom Brady had to win one before he could win seven.
The hype is warranted after the rabbits Williams pulled out of his hat — or rather his helmet — to lead the Bears to seven fourth-quarter comeback victories last season.
But the Bears know the hype doesn’t matter.
Thinking back on last year, defensive end Montez Sweat was struck by how Johnson didn’t care about anything unrelated to results.
“Everything was really about winning,” Sweat said. “If it wasn’t about winning, then it was nonexistent.”
If one person isn’t going to get caught up in the hype, it’s Johnson. He seems well-equipped to steer the team away from distractions.
Asked about Williams’ Madden cover just hours after the June 3 announcement, Johnson said simply, “I saw it this morning.”
Thoughts?
“No reaction,” he said.
Johnson has no worries about his quarterback, who he said is “wired the right way.”
But Bears fans know hype can be a double-edged sword. This franchise hasn’t had back-to-back playoff appearances in 20 years. Seemingly every time there’s hype, a corresponding letdown follows.
Perhaps none was bigger than in 2019, the year after the Bears won the NFC North before losing in the playoffs on the infamous double doink. They fell flat the next season, finishing 8-8. Quarterback Mitch Trubisky, the No. 2 draft pick in 2017, didn’t take the steps that then-coach Matt Nagy hoped he would. Nagy’s Bears never truly recovered.
Sustaining anything in the NFL is hard.
“They know what’s at stake,” Johnson said. “We had a solid season the year before, and they’re looking to build upon that.”
Johnson is doubling down on the things that work
The NFL draft said a lot about where the league is heading. The 22 tight ends selected were the most since 2002. The Bears took Sam Roush out of Stanford in the third round.
The tight end love isn’t just about creating mismatches in the passing game. It’s also with an eye toward the running game. Roush will be a weapon in the passing attack, but his real value comes in his willingness to do the dirty work as a blocker.
The Los Angeles Rams built the league’s No. 1 offense last season while working out of 13 personnel (one running back, three tight ends, one wide receiver) more than 30% of the time — more than double the rate of any other team.
The NFL is a copycat league. Per usual, everyone is copying Rams coach Sean McVay.
The Bears last year ran the sixth-most plays in 12 personnel (one running back, two tight ends, two wide receivers). With the addition of Roush, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see that continue and to see their 13-personnel usage increase from last year’s 8.5%, which ranked fifth.
Yes, Johnson’s offense can be complicated, but its basic principle is to use deception to create mismatches. Having three interchangeable tight ends helps do that.
“I love the challenge of looking at Luther Burden and how we get him the ball and maximize what he does best, along with Rome (Odunze) and Colston (Loveland) and Cole (Kmet),” Johnson said. “We have this whole slew of weapons we’re looking to maximize. That’s the fun part.
“The plays don’t matter so much to me; it’s more so how do we get these guys the ball in space to do what they do so well.”
The NFL’s best coaches tailor their offense to the weapons they have. Johnson doesn’t plan on taking much of a vacation this summer. He suggested that some of his most creative ideas come during this stretch, when he knows what each of his weapons is capable of after OTAs and minicamp.
But whether it’s extra tight ends or finding ways to get unique players such as Burden the football, there’s really no secret sauce.
“The reason why we’re able to do some fun stuff, some creative stuff on offense is because they take those simple fundamentals to the next level,” Johnson said.
Chemistry takes time
The focus on fundamentals is most notable on defense, where coordinator Dennis Allen admitted his staff probably put too much emphasis on X’s and O’s last year and not enough on the basics.
“That totally falls on me,” Allen said this spring. “If we do a better job of the fundamentals and the techniques of doing those things that we’re going to ask them to do, we’ll get better.”
The Bears added new starters in key places on defense, notably at safety with Bryant and first-round draft pick Dillon Thieneman plus free-agent linebacker Devin Bush.
The defensive line is largely the same as last year. If the Bears are going to improve their pass rush, it’s going to have to come from within. Johnson challenged his coaches to do better, and Allen has taken that to mean a focus on fundamentals.
“He’s honed the output a little bit,” Sweat said. “It’s less plays, more fundamentals, more worried about us and how we can get better.”
There’s no guarantee it will lead to overnight success. Bryant, fresh off that Super Bowl run in Seattle, played for the best defense in football last year. Even he didn’t know it was something special until October or November.
“Honestly, it wasn’t until the middle of the season where I knew we were elite,” Bryant said. “Obviously training camp is where you put in a ton of work. There’s going to be ups and downs. That’s just part of it.”
With three new starters, it’s going to take time.
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