Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Best of the Bears: What Ben Johnson accomplished in Year 1 was 'so damn impressive'

Episode Date: January 25, 2026

In the Best of the Bears this week, Matt Spiegel and Laurence Holmes marveled over head coach Ben Johnson's impact on the organization in his first season in Chicago; Leila Rahimi, Marshall Harris and Mark Grote shared how they feel about quarterback Caleb Williams' future after he made big strides in his second NFL season; and ESPN analyst Matt Bowen joined the Spiegel & Holmes Show to explain why Williams could be one of the most dangerous players in the NFL in 2026.

Thanks, everybody. The Bears. You're listening to the best of the Bears. He's it for the touchdown. And the Chicago Bears have taken the league. A weekly mix of 670, the score's best NFL talk to get you ready for game day. I have some breaking news for you. Guys, we are getting news here right now.

This is per Tom Pelliserro. He says, a new day in Chicago. The Bears are finalizing a deal to hire Ben Johnson. as their head coach. Let's go. Her sources. That is an incredible bit of news from Tom Pelliserro. It is happening.

Oh my God. Okay, it's happening. Everybody stay calm. Procedure, everyone. What's a procedure? Say, go. It's going on. It's everywhere.

That is the number one target. Shefter, Bigsy, in on it. Wow. That's a wow. Tom Pelliserro of the NFL Network. The Bears have a lot going for them. You've got tons of cap space. You've got extra draft resources.

You've got an ice. iconic franchise that is hoping to break ground on a new stadium as soon as this year. And you have Caleb Williams. To the phone lines we go. Guys, what a day. This is a modern offense that we're going to be able to install. I'm blown away. Totally floored.

Today we win the off-season Super Bowl. And I am so stoked. Wow. I'm really ecstatic about the hire. I mean, I think Ben Johnson's a slam dunk higher. Andy is in Wisconsin. I'm extremely shocked that the Bears did things the right way. A local media affiliate just said,

Oh, boy, this is not good news. The stepbrother just grew up. TV's own Danny Parkins. It's a new day. The Bears hired a young offensive coach that everybody wanted. Game on, everybody. The Bears are hiring Ben Johnson. It was good times when Ben Johnson got hired.

And with how well things went this year, Speaks, it's, you forget that this was his first year as a head coach. And I knew that he could devise an offense. I knew that he could call plays because look at the success of the offense in Detroit. And I was wondering about all of the other stuff. And so watching, the whole reason I want to talk about this is because I feel like what he's done is so damn impressive. It's walking in and being a first year coach. and having a plan

and that plan being executed. And I'm not trying to rag on any of the former Bears coaches. I just feel like when he got the job, there was a level of belief in his forecasting on how this would go, that he walked in and said, this is what we're doing. And there was no question about it.

The buy-in was immediate. Small stuff. Players showing up to his introductory press conference. Caleb showing up to his introductory press conference. Everyone getting on board, it wouldn't have been hard for any coach after the mess that went down last year to walk in and things look instantly better. What Ben did was beyond that. He was somehow able to keep his play club. calling bona fides, along with building a culture, along with pretty much pushing all of the right

buttons in the development of the quarterback. Crazy. The volume of things that have gone right and that we saw develop is off the charts. Keep going. I know you're feeling it. It just, I'm struck by how well things went here. and it doesn't happen like this a lot. Now look, in Jacksonville, they had a similar bump,

but their quarterback is farther down the road. And he, look, his first year was hell too. The Urban Meyer experiment down there was a nightmare, but we're four years removed from that for Trevor Lawrence. And then you look and you go, look at this, what they've built down there in Duval. But this thing in Hall has been unreal. Yeah, you know, the thing in New England, obviously, has gone so well, too.

But that's a guy who had been a head coach before. It had been a coach of the year before. Like, you know, you know what his bona fides are. And you know he walks in with the ability to flip the culture. No, I think that is all spot on. I think that Ben was able to know that his offensive ingenuity and play calling and design and even malleability was without question, was just locked and loaded.

So he was able to not worry about that or have to prove that, you know? So he just has that and has a supreme confidence in that. What he had to prove was that he could lead, that he could lead people and that he could build a culture. And what he'd done was spend a year knowing that he could have had a job and chose not to, knowing that he was then going to get a job the very next year

in all likelihood. And he worked very closely with his agent and some advisors. And with Dan Campbell. And with Dan Campbell directly and said, what do I need to do? And he spent a year while doing his job as the Detroit OC, also plotting and scheming of how he was going to be as a head coach. And he attacked that with the same way he has.

attacked being an offensive coordinator and being a tight ends coach before that and all of that. He attacked that idea with the help of his people who have dealt with other head coaches. And he hit the ground running on that stuff. It's funny because I think most of us, if we feel like we've gotten to the point of being worthy of an opportunity, that when the opportunity presents itself, you're like, okay, I'm going. I love that what Ben Johnson did was let me study this because I want to get this next part right. I don't want to just walk into it because it's my time. I want to walk in and succeed.

So what are my blind spots? What are the things that I don't know about how to do the job? And then you go, well, let me find the best fit too. He was in a position and not everyone is. Sometimes the next big job comes up and you just have to take it, right? For sure. But he was in a position where he was going to be welcome back in Detroit. And so he used it.

He used that as, I know how to do my job, my quarterback's in good hands. We're going to keep improving what we're doing on offense. And they did, by the way. He did a great job as an OC during the course of that year. 100%. But to have the faith in yourself and the understanding of process, to go, let me work through this. And let me see, am I ready for this opportunity right now?

And could I be more ready if I actually take some time and figure out how to make this work? And using that year that way, man, like the self-assessment. Yes. And the ruthless honesty with oneself that, frankly, we have seen this year. year. Think about it. We've seen him be that way about himself with accountability and saying when he's made mistakes. We've seen him force players to be that way. He undoubtedly did it in that year as he prepared. And he hit the ground running with the staff that he put together and with how he wanted to establish the culture. It's a good callback to think about the people who showed up

at the opening press conference, a lot of them and stood there. It is also a lot of instructive to think about who showed up at the voluntary off-season training activities and how those people included Montez sweat, your highest paid player, your biggest ticket item, your biggest star, who doesn't have to show up. Like in the past, like, well, he's a vet vet and a vet and all that stuff. Montez showed up and busted his ass. And say what you want about Montez in terms of results, but that guy works hard. has had a pretty good season, actually. Me too. Me too. But him showing up

set a standard right away. And he had belief and buy-in from Montez, from Byrd, who knew what it looked like. You think Byrd going to the other players, hey, guys, I've seen this before with Vrable. He told us on the record. This is what it looks like when you flip a culture. So, yeah. And I can tell you flat out that Ben's goal in year one was to flip the culture. If the wins were going to happen and playoff contention was going to happen, that'd be great.

But year one, the goal was to flip the culture. And that was done. And then what happened, Lawrence, when they started winning those games that probably they weren't supposed to win, you know? He had some fun with it. The way that he, the way that Ben embraced Chicago, I also really like. For sure. But last point on, like, when the wins started to come that he wasn't really expecting.

it raised the possibilities because the buy-in and the trust went to incredibly absurd levels. When there is proof of concept. Yeah, then all of a sudden. And it's like, I don't think that there were any stragglers because you're right. You start looking at the leadership levels of the team. And then some of the added pieces too, like a guy like Joe Tooney walks in. You know what I mean? For sure.

Like guys like that are there and they're telling you, no, no, no, no, this is how we're going to do. things. And he had proof of concept on offense and Caleb would say so. He said when the stuff that he says is going to happen, then happens on the field. So they might have had enough on offense for Caleb to be like, oh no, he's right. I got to do it that way. I got to do it that way. But then they start to

get wins. That means everybody on the roster. Every facet. Even the parts you're not coaching. The stuff that you're letting other people do, they're like, well, look, we're winning games and Ben knows what he's doing. So let's just go ahead and buy in. I hope that buy-in stays. I hope so too. And I think it will. I mean, anyone, if you talk to

anyone up there who was there before and is still there now, they will also tell you that it's a huge difference from what the previous three years were. And that's not a shot at Matt Iberfluse. It's a difference in style, leadership style. And Ben walked in acting like, this is my franchise. And everyone took note, including the general manager. General manager kind of was like, okay, yeah, we want it. We spend all this money on this guy to let him be in charge.

Let me fall back and I'll do the stuff that he needs, but I'll just fall back and let him straighten this whole thing out. And it seems like they have built a really nice partnership up there. I think so. And I think though that that system, that style, that relationship, that dynamic was necessary for him to accept the job. Oh, for sure. And you had Ryan Poles ready to sign off on that dynamic

because Ryan Poles was lucky to keep this job. He was. And now it's ended up working out for both of them. When you shine, everybody wins, man. And I give Ryan Poles some credit for that. Damn right. Because it does take a lack of ego to be like, I've been building this team and it hasn't gone great,

but I'm still the general manager of this team. I technically hired Ben Johnson, but let me just put my ego aside for a second because if we win, everyone gets love. Everyone gets opportunities. Everyone gets their name attached to winning. And the moves that even if you don't want to give Ryan Poles credit, I'm going to give him credit. But even if you don't, you can say he got the coach that made his moves right. So all of these moves that they make, Ben was able to put together a coaching staff that made those moves right. You go out and you reform the offensive line.

Dan Roeshar comes in here. Ben and the coaching staff makes it right. You have questions about C.J. Gardner Johnson. You have legitimate questions about C.J. Gardner Johnson. But they believed they were at an atmosphere that could withstand all that stuff. You meet them halfway. You talk with DA about it. Ben and DA and Al Harris make it right.

So all of these moves that have been made, having a coach that is capable of taking the player from this level to the next level, it makes everyone look good. And for Ben to be able to do that at a relatively young age, and I know it's weird because he and McVey are the same age, but McVey has been coaching since like 1987. but see him do that at a relative young age for a coach is extremely impressive. I think that's all spot on. You know, during the two or three years that the Detroit Lions were rising and they were kind of the model of how you fix a dysfunctional family football business, it became clear that the Bears needed a similar structure if they could get it. the Lions owner, Sheila Ham Ford, hired Chris Spilman, who then was a strong guy. She listened to him.

He then hired Brad Holmes, really strong guy, and they listen to him. He hired Dan Campbell, really strong guy, and they listen to him. He hired Aaron Glenn and Ben Johnson, really strong guys, and let them, like they empowered each other all down the line. The Bears never had a structure like that. Like maybe Ditka and Jerry Vinisi and like all that. You can go way back, but they clearly didn't. They needed it.

I would like covet that structure. When Ben comes in, he can't rebuild all of that. But he and his people said, oh, you're going to empower me. I have to be empowered. Or also I'm not taking the job. I'm not going to take the job. Because there are other jobs out here that I will have that and I need that for it. to work. They sold

Ryan Poles and Kevin Warren and the McCaskies on what they needed to allow to happen. Using Detroit as proof of concept. And I think Kevin deserves a lot of credit for making

stuff happen on that side of the football operation, which quite honestly, I didn't know if he was going to be someone that mattered in the football operation. I figured like the goal was to get a stadium deal done and that's still an issue,

although it looks like the Bears are going to be on the spring agenda for the assembly. So we'll see how all of it goes. But on the football side, he streamlined their process in a way that I don't think Poles was capable of without the help and the infrastructure of what Kevin Warren was able to be like, okay, now that I've been here for a little bit,

here's here's where we went wrong and here's how we can improve it and again give credit to Poles for going thank you for that but but but but hold my ego aside but yes but Poles couldn't sell that image and that idea to the McCaskies on his own it the he couldn't at Kevin came in he wasn't really speaking from a position of strength at that point or experience Kevin at least to the McCaskies they believed in his strength and his experience and he was able to tell them you need to do this. Now this would be the right thing to do. This is the way it's supposed to be

structured. I've seen this before. And they were like, okay, let's give the coach $14 million, which is way more than people thought he was going to give, and let's give him all the power that an NFL head coach is supposed to have. Okay, let's do it. And so they did it. But I just come away so impressed, because it's not,

it's not supposed to look like this. Like the way that they made it, even with, all the comeback wins and everything that the craziness, the magic of Caleb and all this other stuff, the fact that you have a guy that never seemed to flinch in his first year, like in his first year as a head coach, like that's a big deal, you know, like he didn't flinch. And because of that, he was able to get the most out of everyone. And I also love the buy-in. Like him being, him becoming a Chicago one.

And it's not necessary to win, but it made it more fun. For sure. That's why he wanted to be here. Ben being at Cubs playoff games and then the Wiener Circle stuff and him hearing the whole, like, hey, man, take your shirt off. And at first being like, oh, no, no, I'm not going to, no, I'm not going to, well, maybe. Maybe. And then to have that moment. Take a pretty special win.

Yeah. You get that special win and you have someone that has embraced the culture of the Chicago sports fan in a way that's difficult for people to latch on to. Yeah, man. You know, it's funny. Like the way we've talked about how Ben kind of rejiggered the football philosophy from thinking that a quarterback could show up and be the savior, the way that he was in Cincinnati with Burrow. But, like, it's pretty damn rare to have a rookie quarterback or a young quarterback. be the thing that flips your culture, you know? Yeah.

And Iber Fluse and them, they wanted Caleb to do that last year. They kind of wanted Caleb to be the only person that did it. Yeah. Like it was extremely unfair. Totally. The one, the level of expectation from the outside. And I think the internal expectation on Caleb was like, well, we're done. We got the guy.

So here we go. And in the NFL, the head coach is the guy who might be able to flip your culture. And I think that maybe a quarterback could too, depending on what else is there. But when you have a coach where everything was falling around him, where you had scandal. Hey, man. Like, think about it. Like, there was scandal. There were multiple scandals with the coaching staff.

Oh, ridiculous. We don't even know why guys got fired. We have ideas. And maybe one of the people that you saw last night at the Miami. I was just thinking that, that the Bears' former defensive coordinator. Probably enjoyed that cutaway in the national title game. Probably. So look, you have all of that stuff, and then you ask this kid to come in and go,

hey, man, can you lift up the entire franchise? And he's like, I'll try. Yeah, it's good. I'll try. I'll do my best. It's pretty rare that you can do it. Tampa did it with Brady. Like, he came in and flipped it.

But that's a guy that had six championships. And even then, when it's somebody successful, like the Jets tried to let Alan, Aaron Rogers do it, How'd that work out? Not great. You know what I mean? Because he wasn't really in it for that part of it. He's in it for... Because not everybody's Brady, you know?

So, yeah, you can't ask a quarterback to do it. They let the coach do it, and this coach was up to the task. The whole thing is just extremely impressive. Being able to go back and look at things that could have done better, was I too far forward? Was I too far back? You know, did I, no, was I not consistent enough with my footwork? And, you know, did I lean off and fall?

off the mound is what we call it and things like that. So it's just, you know, super small things to be able to be more consistent for the guys for the team, be able to keep the offense on the field, you know, as long as possible and, you know, be as efficient as possible. That's Caleb Williams talking about what he wants to improve upon. This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 670 the score. We spent a lot of time earlier today talking about the coach of the year candidates for which Ben Johnson is up. The MVP candidates, which. are four quarterbacks and Christian McCaffrey.

And it is time to delve into a little bit more of what not just Caleb Williams had to say, both on Sunday and then Monday after the Bears game in the locker cleanout. But then also what his supervisors had to say, head coach Ben Johnson and Ryan Poles over at Hallis Hall. Mark Grody, you were there. We sussed out a little bit. What were your takeaways surrounding the discussion that you heard both with locker cleanout? And then just in your own impressions. and then while being at Hallis Hall listening to Ryan and Ben.

Yeah, if I had to come up, like, aggregate one sort of evaluation of Caleb Williams from both Ryan Poles and Ben Johnson, it would sound something like, wow, this guy did some spectacular great things, and we've got our quarterback, but there are still things that need to be cleaned up. He needs to continue on the path that he has been on for the last five or six games. And if we can, even some of the things that Caleb was just talking about, footwork. And as he put it, I love that. Falling off the mound. I love that. And you even heard Ryan Paul's talking yesterday about like almost like saying what he does is awkward. And I can't even begin to figure out how he gets out of some of the trouble that maybe he gets into that there is, and we've been saying

it all year. There's a box that has been checked with Caleb Williams. And it's a huge. huge box and that is the ability to win games late. Now just fill in the rest, fill in the first couple of quarters of the game, fill in the consistency, the overthrows. And I know that his receivers have not been helpful to him this year, way too many drops and it reared its ugly head again in the playoff game against the Rams, Roma Dunzee. But now you have the luxury of putting it together. And I would even say, and this is me talking now, like Caleb Williams, like in terms of, I know, like I did learn the bears have a quarterback. There is no doubt about it. Caleb, no problem saying that about Caleb Williams. What I don't know and what I don't think the bears

know based on what they said is how, to what level do we go with Caleb Williams? Will Caleb become great? Will he become elite? Right now I think Caleb is good and I know that he's the bear's quarterback. That's where I put it right now with Caleb Williams. I don't know that, I would stop it good. I think good is underselling it. I think Caleb already is great. He's not elite because of what you just talked about. But the hardest thing to figure out if you're a quarterback in the NFL is,

can you get it done late and in the clutch? And he's shown repeatedly you can put the ball in his hands at the end of games, and he can get it done. You understand there's a lot of pedestrian quarterbacks above average quarterbacks that can get it done. And like you said, quarters one through three and kind of keep your game in it, or keep your team in it, game manage, if you will. But at the same time, Caleb Williams has already.

shown that he can do that. And I think what really we have discovered through the end of this season is the answer to one question, which is, do you have your quarterback? Which is a question I've been trying to answer the entire time I've lived here over five years now. And so what I want to know is, can he clean up, like you said, the little stuff at the beginning and be more consistent? But as far as him being the quarterback for the future, I already told you, he's the, the Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams thing should be good to go for at least the next. next 10 years. Yeah, I sit with it like this. Caleb Williams in the regular season threw for 3,942 yards on a 58.1% completion rate. If that rate gets slightly higher, think about how many more

yards he's throwing for. That was good enough for seventh in the league on its own with the yards. Seventh behind Matt Stafford, who I mentioned, Jared Goff, Stafford had a 65% completion. rate. Jared Goff was not at 70. He was at 68. Dak Prescott was 67.3. He threw for 4,552. Drake May had a 72% comp rate. He was 4,394. He had his second year as in conversation for MVP. Then at Sam Darnold, Sam Darnold had 67.7, 4,048 yards. Trevor Lawrence had 4,07. He had a 60.9% comp. Caleb Williams has one stat that he needs to improve right now. that's it in my opinion just the one and it's the one that could take him from already the top 10 in the league

to perhaps that top five so when it comes down to just one variable like that for me then already i consider him in the upper third of the NFL without question and how are we talking about him if he takes that completion rate to just 62 percent how many yards are we discussing then Is it 4,300? Is it 4,400? So I'm at Good. He said, Great. Where are you? Good, Great, or Elite? I don't think he's at Elite yet because I think the elites are in the 4,000-yard club, and they're probably throwing the ball at least 61.2%. Trevor Lawrence was at 60.9. So I think he's an MVP candidate and he's very, very good. I think Caleb Williams is at the very, very good standpoint of this.

And he's on the edge of Great. And I don't think it's going to take much to get in there. I'm listening to, Marshall. It's, to me, evaluating this quarterback. Of course, it literally is a fluid situation because we just watched him play in 17 games. And by the way, I shouldn't even just breeze past that. The durability has been excellent with Caleb Williams this year.

There was a time in the middle of the season, maybe even a little bit earlier. I was like, I'm not seeing the things I need to see out of this quarterback. But then guess what? I started seeing the things I needed to see out of this quarterback over the last five or six games of the season. And what I am trying to really take in, Marshall, is what you said about how,

and maybe I'm not giving enough credit to what he does in the fourth quarter. Because he made a really good point about how there are quarterbacks who could play great for three quarters, and then they choke it away and can't do anything in the fourth quarter. So maybe I need to give more points than I already am to what he does in the fourth quarter. I think the biggest reminder is understanding how much he had to process, whether you want to call it unlearning, all the bad stuff that happened to him in year one,

to realizing this is his first year in an offense, first year with a head coach, and how much progress we saw over the course of his second season. How can you look at, let's say, the last six to seven weeks and not say that this guy is not exactly where you want to be as far as, just on a not finished product, but as far as development. He did everything I asked him to do in year two. In fact, he exceeded those expectations.

So I don't want us to have some kind of revisionist history. Like, well, he's not good enough. I never expect him to be good enough after year two. I'm really looking at year three, beginning of year four, for more of a finished product. Here's the thing. If I told you that Caleb Williams was going to have more yards than Justin Herbert, Baker Mayfield, Josh Allen, and Patrick Mahomes,

what would you say? I'd say what? I would say, was that because... Does it please you? No, I would say, is that because they were behind and they just had to throw, throw, throw, and their rushing attack is 15th or below in the league. And then you would tell me, no, no, they had a top three rushing attack.

And I said, oh, Ben Johnson's done his job in year one as a head coach. And now Caleb Williams just continues to get better. That's why I say he already is great because I've seen him do enough great things. He will need to get more consistent, but he's already done enough great things for me to understand. He's the best quarterback to play the position for the Chicago Bears. Yeah, I mean, I just, I look at it like, you try to give a context because that's what we try to do. but I think even if at the beginning of the season I'd ask that question, we'd all be shocked.

I don't know how many of us would have said in the league, specifically Justin Herbert, for example. Don't doubt. Or even a month into the season, Baker Mayfield? How far away did that seem at the time? Yeah. That's the point of number one, the course of an NFL season and why the bears are understanding

that these playoff appearances are not guaranteed. Go back and... But at the same time, it shows his progress. Yeah, I mean, go back and just listen to our visits with Tim Jenkins, which were always stellar. Like there was a time where he was kind of biting his lip and like his tongue's trying to say, like remember when he was talking about repeating plays? Like how he had never seen a coach repeat plays for a quarterback.

And there was some real, like, legitimate concern, not just from me, but the people who really delve into the tape. I love some of these text messages. This is a great one here from the 9-17. He's not elite, but he makes elite plays. That's true. And that's where it gets cloudy and difficult. Like for the people who are like, dude, he's great.

What are you talking about? Grotty, how come you're not calling him Elite? How dare you? Like, because he does make Elite plays. He does spectacular things. And then there's the part where, okay, you can put that together. And it feels very doable to put together the first two quarters of the game. You might have a great to elite quarterback for the next 10 years.

And like 773 makes a good distinction. Like, I have a second item he needs to improve on passing from the pocket. Yeah, there are aspects of the game. I'm just saying if I'm looking from numbers to numbers, like stats to stats, and accuracy and completion rate goes into that passing from the pocket point, that if that improves slightly, because of the elite plays he makes, you're talking about an exponential increase for those little completions in yards. You're talking about a very few amount of completions that need to be made to get him even farther ahead.

And what I'll also say to that texter is, did you not see the last few games? where, in my opinion, he stayed in that pocket too much and did not use his legs. And it was almost the opposite as he got closer to what Ben Johnson wanted him to be more of a pure pocket pastor because it's a timing-based offense. That, I'm not going to say eliminated the special, because we saw several examples of that, but he relied less on the armed talent itself and more on running Ben Johnson's offense the way it was designed to be run. And that's a good thing.

To the point where in one of my silly little videos that I did on my walks to Soldier, Philly was the Green Bay game, I was like, hey, man, Caleb would like to see him just like burst out, run. You see that opening instead of going down field, run for 27 yards. And here's another really good text here for just the eye. You'll like this. Just the eye test alone, Caleb over everything was a resounding success. It really was.

True. It truly was. And it won five and everybody who's chimed in on this, Caleb has just, to do more work to be elite. His wide receivers also need to make the catches they are paid to make. And Roman Dunesay falls into that category. Colston Loveling didn't have his best game on Sunday. That will happen.

So, yeah, that's been a problem. And when Ben Johnson illustrated when asked about what he wanted to improve upon, catch the ball. Catch the doggone ball. I'm using doggone because, you know, I like to use proper language here on Rahimi Harris and Grotie as we discussed, Caleb Williams. season and the success that he had and whether or not he's, I don't know, good, better best. I have him better.

Grotie has him at good. Lail is somewhere in between the good and better. She's sneaky. She did a very good. I'm definitely above, I'm very, very good. I'm very, very good, very good. He's knocking on the door of being one of the best in the league. So better then.

You're in the better category. I don't know that I, good, better best. I, very, very good is better than better. You can't just say best because Adam plays like three people. But we know what you say. Like what? There's one level. There's a second level.

I'm just saying there's a third level. I'm just saying there's three level. One, two or three. And you're on the second level until you get to the third level. I'm not dividing the NFL team. I'm not dividing 30, what, we'll say six quarterbacks because of injuries. I'm not dividing 36 quarterbacks into three tiers. I'm doing like five and I would put Caleb Williams in two.

Well, well, well, look who's got five categories. That's how the athletic does it. Oh. So you know the athletic. You're part of Dan. We're trying to be original here. We're not stealing from the island. How would be original.

What are you talking about? Key to the game. No, we're talking about one. Good Better Best. Three levels is what we're talking about. Around the NFL. I was just trying to give it. When I said Good Better Best,

I just wanted to give it to the people in language they clearly, after a season of Ben Johnson understand. Yeah, but we do decimals and stuff. What was Caleb's year on a scale of 1 to 10? Say it one more time? A scale of 1 to 10. How's that tenable? But what was the question?

Seven's a good number. What was the question? How good is Caleb on a scale of 1 to 10 this year? his season on a scale of one to ten. How would I put his season one to ten? I'm going to put his season at a 7.2. See? There's that decimal again. Okay. All right. My bad. Next thing you know, we're eliminating the quarter. I just wanted to get us on a scale that we all agreed with. Okay. So one to 10. And what did you say? I'll go 7.1. I'm going to go 7.1. See? See? Splitting the difference. Actually, I should go 6.8 because I was good on the

good, better, best scale. Do you think that we can hear what Ben Johnson and Ryan Pohl said yesterday? and try to figure out where they're putting him on this. I love that. All right. So let's listen to the guy who said good, better, best, originally, but not originally, originally. He's just the one using it the most. Ben Johnson yesterday.

My main message to him was he needs to get out of football for a little bit. He's done a phenomenal job in terms of staying focused all year long. He put a lot of time, a lot of effort. I thought he grew up as a professional. I thought his communication to the coaching staff grew. I thought his communication to his teammates grew. But we will certainly have a number of points of emphasis that he can dive into when he comes back this springtime. But it's important for really all of us, coaches, players support.

We get away for a little bit. We hit the reset button. I think everyone needs that here at this point. The things that we highlighted for Caleb to start the season, I did think they improved as the season went along. You know, we revamped the footwork a little bit last spring, and I think the comfort level grew from that. He certainly got more comfortable with the concepts that we were running over the course of the season. That's something that we can build upon, and yet there's still a lot more that we can push through in that regard. And so I'm really encouraged about the steps he took this year.

I'm Caleb Williams number one believer. You know, I have a lot of faith in him, what he's capable. of doing and the player that he's still striving to become. Man, that sounds like a 6.5. I think it sounded like a 7 right out. I'm more Layla on that one. And I appreciated it. Like Ben Johnson's whole thing right now is not so fast, everybody.

This season's not going to carry over. Don't be putting a 10 on my quarterback. Yeah, we got lots of work to do still. That's Ben Johnson saying, 6.5. No one is putting a 10 on Caleb Williams, just to be clear. Who is a 10 in the NFL? My mother's 99. and a half. Patrick Mahomes got to be pretty close to a 10, right?

Peak Patrick Mahomes. Pre-pren ACL. Oh, okay. Like, he's hurt right now. Yeah. But don't you? He didn't have a 10 of a season. He's not done, though.

You guys think he's not going to ever get back to the promised land? He's not done. He's not done. Is Matt Stafford? Old Matt Stafford. Old Matt Stafford. He had a 10 season, but he's not a 10. Okay, that's a good example.

Yeah. Yeah. But that's what we were talking about, the season. Just the season. Okay. Hey, speaking of that, I think your best list out of these coaching lists is the Maxwell Football Club Coach of the Year list. Because, like, for example, in 2018, Andy Reid got Coach of the Year that year.

Thank you. Okay, so maybe you're more of a Maxwell list guy than an AP Coach of the Year guy. I am going to subscribe to all things Maxwell. Now, here's the dangerous part is Sean McDermott was Coach of the Year last year. Oh, wow, they just lost their credibility. That goes back to our 10 o'clock conversation if you're interested. Who did you think should be the coach of the year last year? I thought you didn't like Sean McDermott.

I, for the bills? No, I don't. His time is, it's over. Dan Campbell was before that and Nick Siriani was in 2022. But like John Harbaugh was 2019. It's good. It's not just a turnaround award to them. Okay.

Wow. Let's see. That's the real question. That's the real grody question. In the meantime, I found Marty Schottenheimer's name before I found Kyle Shannon. In between time. I love how Ben Johnson saying, hey, tell him he's got to get out of football. And everybody is like, oh, that's why he's going to all these games that he's

going to around town. Have they met Caleb Williams? This man travels the world. Nobody needs to tell Caleb Williams to turn off football for a little while. He's good at it. And I like that he's good at it. Now, it's fun that you're saying that because I remember certain people were complaining last year when he was doing the magazine shoots abroad and all that. Why isn't he studying film? Why isn't he getting better at his? But I'm glad Ben Johnson put that out there for everyone to hear. Watch Matt Bowen. Bowen's a tough guy. Matt Bowen A lot of time

With the coverage is good with Matt Bowen Seven-year NFL veteran What's coming from Bowen and he knocks it out The wrenskins fall on top of it Matt Bowen's been the guy applying all the pressure Coach for an I-Cath Catholic football Matt Bowen A man from Glen Ellen, Illinois

He's very active NFL writer and analyst for ESPN When you break down that two-point conversion The one the loved one where they come out there And big personnel, Ben Johnson And he had it dialed up in his head already. He immediately signals. Let's get big on the field here.

You go to 13 personnel, three tight ends out there, and then they get over the ball and spread everybody out. Loveland is one-on-one. How difficult is that? Williams looking left, throws left side. Got his hand for the two-point conversion. It is Tolston Loveland. Who else?

Nick Neiman had coverage on the near side. I've been in that situation. Multiple times, even, you know, back at my career, and they do that, you're thinking, oh, no. This is not where I want to be. This is not why I'm in the football game. Matt Bowie. I have a simple rule of beer.

I only drink beer that you can buy in 30, so I'll leave you with that. With Spiegel and Homes on 670 the score. Been looking forward to getting Matt's thoughts on what transpired on Sunday and glad that we have them here. He joins us now on the Circus Sports Illinois Hotline. Download the Circus Sports.

Sports app today. What's up, Matt? How are you? Good, guys. How are you? We're doing well. We're doing well. Spee's a little bit better than he was at the start of the show. He's fallen into a funk now that he's realized that the bears aren't playing on Sunday. Yeah, I've processed it a little bit, Matt, but enough about me. How are you as a guy, a former player, but obviously you felt some emotional investment along the way here, and you're also a coach and parents of players, and I would assume there's some Bears love going on in your household this year. It's been really fun. How you doing?

100%. All four of my boys are all in on the Bears this year. 100%. That's all he talked about all season. That's all the kids that coach talked about at school, right, was watching this football season. I think the game on Sunday, you say, you know, I haven't seen anything like that. You have if you watch the Bears this season, right? Just amazing what they could do at the end of football games to compete, to stay in games, and the win games. Ultimately, it didn't happen on.

Sunday night. But if you're looking at this football team moving forward, you're talking about the critical pieces, the foundational pieces, the building a franchise into winning in this league. It's the head coach and the quarterback. And right now, that's what the Chicago Bears have moving forward. I was thinking about the Caleb touchdown, Matt, and the only

you're someone who played for a while at the highest level. The only thing that I kept thinking is wide is the widest, deep is the deepest. but there's no rule for that. There's no rule for the thing that Caleb did in that game. No, now when you run back for what, 20 plus yards, at least, right? Yes. And then throwing off your back foot, I haven't seen something like that.

And I've seen similar plays when I played in Green Bay with Brett Farb in terms of the playmaking ability giving ground, but not 20 yards. They aren't telling to do that. And that's what I said it when it happened. this will come up throughout the draft process it does every year that arm strength does not matter to the quarterback position okay it doesn't matter until it does and that's the situation where it mattered

when Caleb made that throw you can also look at the Los Angeles Rams in the throw Matthew Stafford made in overtime on the outrought of Devante Adams from the opposite hash flat footed that's what arm talent matters as well but I still haven't seen a play like that when Caleb did I still haven't because to your point Lawrence is a defense the back in that situation, I would freeze a little bit too.

Like, what is going on? Why is you moving backwards? And then you lose track of space. You lose track of your assignment. Your eyes drift all over the field because you probably can't even locate the quarterback in that time. You know, let's stay on the draft idea because Matt Bowen's, you know, other job or main job or one of them is really good draft expert and prospect analyst over at ESPN.

And it's like the Caleb crazy plays, that's what he was known for. Like that's, and here we are, and we have seen him develop in the other ways. But the crazy genius, impossible plays are still there. So it's really just going to make people bank on that stuff even more with quarterbacks. If they see magic, they're going to get sold even more so, aren't they? They are. And it comes in different forms. But I remember writing my little report on Caleb.

and I wrote in their natural playmaking ability. Okay, and that's something you cannot really coach, right? And even from a defense perspective, you look at something like a Tyron Matthew during his time, especially at LSU and in the National Football League. I'm a defensive back coach. I can't teach that, right? Either have that or you don't.

There's rare instincts, rare playmaking ability. And Caleb does have that. And cheer point speaks, he also really developed this year in terms of the other parts of playing the position, throwing on time, throwing with rhythm, throwing with better location, keeping his eye level up, working on his footwork within the pocket.

Everything developed this year. Now you have someone you're looking forward, and you're saying, when we come back in 2006, he'd be one of the most dangerous players in the league. What did Dennis Allen do in this game? And maybe the elements played a role, but it looked like that first 15 for the rounds

was real good. And then after that, they struggled to move the ball. So what did you see Dennis Allen do? Well, first I got some numbers for you. So I thought they were really interesting what the Bears did in this football game. Okay, during the regular season, they had a blitz rate of 27%. Sunday night, it was 37%.

That's a major jump. When you're looking at numbers and how it plays out in the football field. Man coverage in the regular season, 49%. Sunday night, 62%. They played 26 snaps of dime defense. And I think they did that because of the T.J. Edwards injury to get their 11 best football players in the field. So you bring CJ Gardner Johnson into the football game and Kyler Gordon. I thought Gordon played one of his best football games.

And we talked about this last week, Lawrence, that we didn't think he was quite ready to play in the wild car round. You could see it. But he turned it out at the end of the football game. He had it for all four quarters in this game. And I thought Dennis Allen brought great situational pressure, closed the edges. They played man in coverage. they challenged top receivers, and they put, you know, they put Matthew Stafford in conflict situations for the majority of that football game.

I thought it was Dennis Allen's best game of the year by far. Wow. You did. Wow. Yeah. And Stafford is not a guy you thought he could rattle, but, but Dennis found a way. Great stuff. How about the usage of Brisker?

Brisker had the game, maybe his best game as a bear. Did Dennis Allen do different stuff with them, or did Jaquand just show up in a different way? I think he played within the structure of the scheme. There's no question about that. But I think a lot of that with this individual playmaking ability. And doing it multiple ways, really did it at all three levels of the field. We saw him pressure. We saw him tackle.

We saw him run the alley. We saw him play from depth and create on the ball production down the football field. One of my favorite plays is when they're in split safety coverage. And I run away, when you're playing a quarter's technique, you have the cut back A gap. That's where the ball is going to cut back. And you see him get down here with urgency and tackle and make him. play at the line of scrimmage. That's just really solid defensive football. I thought he did that all night.

We've been having a discussion about the DJ Moore play this past couple of days. How did you see that play? What were your thoughts on what happened? Well, I think Caleb looked at the front side at first, and he didn't have what he liked, and there's a reason for that.

Frontside wide receiver that collusioned off the line of scrimmage, couldn't get into the route quick enough, and that disrupts the time. So what do you do as a quarterback, you work backside? and they had a clear and replaced concept. The deep seam route with DG and the over. Now, again, this is a question that Ben Johnson has to answer. I can tell you what I see.

I don't know what quarterback and receiver are thinking at that moment. But when I look at the game of football, I think that route should have been much flatter. I think it should have been a deep endbreaker because there was a void to throw the football in. And when you take that route more vertically up the field, what are you doing? You're bringing the safety into play.

You're creating a much shallow, or distance for him to break in the football. And look, Cam Crowe made a great play. Great finish of the ball, too. But I think if DJ does flatten that route on, that's how it's supposed to be now. And that's what Ben Johnson wants. There's a void there to throw the ball.

And I think that's where Caleb was trying to put the football. Do you think that DJ Moore has been on his details and as professional and on point as a Ben Johnson wide receiver needs to be? Overall, when you think about his season? I would say this, big. I think throughout this season, the Bears had to find out what they were on offense because they have so many targets in the past game.

And I think DJ's numbers are probably a little bit lower than we expected, but that's because Colton Loveland emerged Luther Burden. We know about Rome. They have a lot of options in the past game. But I thought during the playoffs, he was outstanding. He's talking about being professional outstanding. And again, that one play removed because I can't answer that question. But throughout the playoffs, he made a bunch of plays for this football team.

Well, speaking of Rome, I'm trying to figure out, now that we've seen him for a couple of seasons, I think that the floor is in. I think that he's a good, wide receiver. I'm wondering how can we get him to great? Right. Well, I think that development was disrupted this season with an injury. You miss some time. Anytime you miss time in the field, you are not developing.

And when you come back, a lot of times you're not 100% yet. but to get to the elite level of being in a top 15 pick, I think it's more scoring production. I think it's utilizing him within scoring position to be an isolation target because he can win one-on-one and because he has incredible ball skills. But again, Lawrence, if this entire offense is back next season, his ceiling is going to be lowered a little bit

because there are so many targets to throw the football too. Matt Bowen is here with us on Spiegel and Holmes. It's been an interesting progression to watch Ben Johnson in short yardage all season long as he's gotten more comfortable and believing in the run game and stuff. And then we saw what we saw on Sunday night. What did you think of the calls and the collection of short yardage moments that the Bears had? Yeah, that was an area of the bear struggle, and especially down the low red zone area of the field because it's hard of the field shrinks.

your passing game is limited and defensive players don't play with enough depth. They don't have to. So there's a lot more to account for. I think Ben really wanted to run the football. There's no question about that, that he believed in his run game, especially the right side of the offensive line,

that he was going to run behind that right side and he was going to move the chains. And he kept going to and going to. What I like to see speaks is some boot, some movement with Caleb Williams in those situations. I think there were times you can make that call. And look, I'm not really trying to question the head coach here. It's his job, not mine.

But if I'm calling the plays in those situations, there's a couple times, I think, can I get Caleb to the edges? Because what I think we've seen with Caleb this year, I know he didn't test in terms of the 40 and stuff, I don't believe. I would love to see his 10-yard split. His short area speed is outstanding. So when you get him on the edges, for him to get one yard, I think he can get there if he has some space. Yeah, I totally agree. Matt Forte made a great interesting point with us an hour ago that if they are going to run the ball in spots like that, he really likes wide zone stuff. Like to really get the back outside so maybe the offensive line can win and the back

can win as opposed to interior stuff where the offensive line has to win or else the back cannot win. That made some sense. Your thoughts. It does. It does speak. Especially talking about the opponent. We haven't mentioned that yet.

The Rams defense is really good. It is really good, right? So to Matt's point where you are getting to the edges, I like what he said, that the running back can win too, because when you run wide zone or outside zone, or whatever you want to call it, you can press the ball of the edge, you can get north-south,

or you can cut the ball back. You really have three pass to take as a running back, and it does give you more options. How would you describe the Caleb phenomenon? Because you talked about it with your boys, but this thing that's happened with him, how have you viewed it? Well, I think it's a lot for a young player. Let's put it that way.

I think it's a lot to rise this fast in your second season because of what he did late in football games. And becoming that quarterback in the National Football League who wins those critical moments. That's really, but there's a million ways to describe the quarterback position. When we're talking about the game on Sundays, the best quarterbacks win those moments, right? And he did that a lot this season. I think it's a lot for a young player to take on. And that's why I wanted to say that because he did an excellent job doing that.

I thought he was very mature. And you can see just how he developed too over the course of the season when he addresses the media, when he's in front of reporters, and how he talks, and how he takes the blame for things, and how he never blames his teammates, and how he lifts his teammates up when he talks. I think he developed so much this year, and it's not just in the football field. Yeah, it's really cool to see. I feel like, Matt, there's been kind of a slow acceptance of just who Caleb is as a player by the head coach. Like just sort of a begrudging acceptance.

Like, maybe I don't have my 70% guy. But boy, I got a guy who's magic at the end. You ever have a player like that as a coach? So you're like, well, that's who he is. And he's pretty damn good. So I'll just make the most of it. Yeah, I think that from a coaching perspective, you have to understand that. That not everyone you can coach a certain way.

I want to mean by that is everyone has to be coached differently, right? And you have to learn that relationship over the course of a football season, how you can coach a young player and get the most out of him. He also will be willing to pull back and say, he doesn't have to do everything like I want him to do at all the times because there's some things he can do. That's why I brought up Tyron Matthew, that I just can't teach and they help us win football games.

So I'm going to allow him to play out of structure when he needs to because I know what he can do with the football and I know he can win those critical moments for me. You care a lot about the profession of coaching, and Speeks and I are going to have a discussion in 5 o'clock about Ben Johnson's rookie season. What stood out to you about this first year and what Ben Johnson was able to accomplish?

One, I would say he's a leader of men, because it is very hard at that level. And I played for five head coaches. It's very hard at that level to motivate professional athletes at times and get them believe in a group almost to the point where you have that a similar belief that you did as a college player and you believe so strongly in your program and I think you saw that this year with Ben Johnson especially after games especially at the way he talks to his football players very detailed oriented coach we've seen a major difference between the bears the last

couple seasons compared to this year in critical situations and how they won those situations that they did not do in the past. As a credit to the head coach and his coaching staff in terms of the details they preach. And the way they play the football game, the way they grew over the second half of the seats, if you're a good coach in any sport, your team should not look like it did in week one.

You either go up or down. There's no in between. And that team throughout the course of the season gradually improved over the course season. I think at the end of the year, you would say the arrow was pointing up. So I can go back to our discussions early in September when they started 0-1-2. Much different tone, right?

Look where they are now. Look where they finished. And obviously they didn't get to the end. Look, only one team gets to hold the trophy. And if you're a real NFL coach and a real NFL player, you will say this season was not a success because you did not win a championship. But looking at it from the perspective of building a program, there are a lot of positives here, and that's because of the head coach.

Yeah, it's the nuance of it right there. As you're saying that, I'm thinking about your season, you know? Right. your high school season and how it ended and all of that. But this is pro football and he's got to think about it that way. But, boy, it's been undeniable to watch the culture get built and see it happen. And he's really helped us understand that in addition to the X's and O's. So great stuff all year, Matt.

We appreciate you. All right, guys. I really enjoyed it. And I'll tell you this, real quick. Thanks for always giving me a good platform to speak. Whether it's high school football, talking to bears, talking to anything. You guys are the best. I really appreciate it.

We appreciate you, and we really learn a lot when we have guys like you and Matt and Olin on the air. It just makes the listener smarter, and that's the goal. It makes us smarter too. So it is much appreciated all the time, man, and we'll talk to you soon. All right, guys got free and see the draft coming up. Never stops. We'll talk soon. Yeah, we will.

It never stops.