Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - What does Ben Johnson believe the next frontier is for Caleb Williams? | Take The North

Episode Date: February 20, 2026

From 'Take The North' (subscribe here): Dan Wiederer and Mark Grote want to know how Bears head coach Ben Johnson views the next steps for quarterback Caleb Williams. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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summer that they wanted Caleb to get the pre-snap stuff ironed out, right? And then we watched it with their own eyes and we go, yeah, there's a reason that this is their one and only priority for a while because until you can get this nailed down, nothing else matters. Caleb made great strides in that department. So the next frontier, you know, what do you need in his play that's going to take you to the top? It looked like this was the offense last year that that was really, really good and ridiculously good by bear standards, right? Like we know what we're used to seeing in terms of scoring and yardage production from bears' offenses. And this was not that. Where they need to go now, I think, is this whole idea of Caleb distributing more, right? Like adding on to the wonderful things he does

as a fourth quarter player, as a guy who avoids pass rush, as a guy who limits turnovers. And now you just want to see that completion percentage come up. You want to see him distributing the football. You want to see him throwing those runners balls, which as you and I both know are hard to throw and even more painful to have. And so what you want to do in that regard is just find a path, find a path for your quarterback to understand the sufficiency part of the quarterbacking equation.

And it looked like if we learned anything about Ben and his coach, staff in year one and said they were not hiding their cards with any of this stuff. They were pretty out front. Yeah. Challenging their quarterback to his face and then telling the media, this is what we've challenged him to his face to do. So that's going to be fun to learn kind of where they see the next one to. Right.

And, you know, what we learn from the postseason press conference is that Ryan Poles and Ben Johnson probably feel a lot about Caleb Williams the way people listening and watching him do. Yeah. He's your quarterback. he's definitely your quarterback. You prove that he makes elite throws. He proved that you could win because of him. It's just the consistency throughout the whole game.

I mean, and, you know, it's accuracy, as you indicated. You know, it's just, and I don't know how obsessively I'm going to look at completion percentage, but we just, just eye test stuff throughout a game that we know simple throws when he is, as, you know, the runner's ball, we can go back to that again, putting players in better situations to make place. I think that that's all stuff that he can continue to work on and making sure. And he got way better at all this stuff too, like finding the right guy in the right situation. But there are still too many times where we're going back and looking and say,

that could have been a play that was made. Why didn't you throw to that guy? So decision making, too. I think decision making throughout the course of a game can be better in the making of knowing that this is your quarterback and making this quarterback better. And look, and you're going to hear the phrase put the ball in play, right? Like that's, that's going to come from the top, from the front office and the head coach and the coaching staff and getting Caleb to understand that like sometimes just, just if the read is there, get the ball out, let that guy make a play and let's go live to see the next play. I'm not going to get obsessed with completion percentage, but I'm not going to dismiss it as many do either because Ben made it very clear that that completion percentage is important to him.

And it's not going to become unimportant to him anytime soon. And so, like, you don't need to get, like, completely enamored with it on a game by game basis. But when you have a big body of work a month, two months, an entire season, and you see the coach set the bar at 70 and the quarterback's at 58 for the regular season and you say there's things that need to be worked on here. And you're not just going to shrug it off and go, oh, well, he can make a miracle throw late in the game. And we don't need to worry about completion percentage because of that. Trying to win Super Bowls. You're trying to win Super Bowls, plural. Yeah.

Yeah, you are. And ultimately, I wouldn't mind. seeing Van Johnson get to what he wanted to do when he first came here and that is blow teams out and embarrass teams. I'll take less tense. I'll take less stressful watching a bear's game. You know? I mean, one score games. I know it's the NFL, but that's still scary, man.

You're playing on thin ice when you have those games that you have to wait until the fourth quarter to win. Well, and here, I'll give you another thing because maybe I'll write this at some point for the athletic if I find enough meat on the bone with this. but you talk about the whole concept of take the north and never give it back. Well, I went and looked since the NFL in the early 2000s went to the eight division format when they did the expansion and everything sorted out that way. There have been 10 teams that have won the division at least four years in a row. You go look at those teams. You could probably name six of them off the top of your head right now.

They all have otherworldly quarterbacks, right? That's the prerequisite to having this sustained success in a division. It's the Packers. It's the Packers with Rogers. It's the Patriots with Brady. It's the Saints with Breeze. It's the Colts with Peyton Manning. It's not hard to rattle them off.

And so that's really the formula. It's getting your quarterback to be elite. And then you get that sustained success. And when you're winning the division year after year after year, you're doing what you and I talk about all the time, which is just giving yourself the swings in the postseason and the chance to get hot once and then go try to find your way to a parade. America leads the world in medicine development.

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Learn how at AmericaCures.com. Pay for it by pharma. Our last minute, that would be so nice. Our last question here of these five, shovels in the ground. Will there be shovels in the ground? That's a great question. Man, I can't wait for the July 22nd episode when we go, where the hell are the shovels and where's the ground?

Which side of state lines is the ground and what kind of shovels are they using? Let me add them. And so we are here. We're here in an important time period with this entire stadium conversation. We obviously know what's been going on with the back and forth between Indiana and Illinois. It's a week here. You obviously were out in Arlington Heights last week at a rally at the double tree. This week it feels like there's going to be the potential for.

I need to emphasize that. The potential for a hearing down in Springfield that would advance this pilot legislation. And so like that's that's the next step, right? Like that's step one in order for this proposed legislation to eventually find its way into the Illinois Senate. House of Representatives. And so there's a possibility that could happen by the end of this week, but I was also told as recent this morning that that is not a promise either. And so just just hold your horses and hold your breath. All right. So wait, when you say that, are you saying that are you saying that they aren't necessarily? Because there is a hearing that is that is that was is

scheduled for Thursday before the House Revenue and Finance Committee. Are you saying that that is not necessarily happening? Are you just saying that they? I am saying that is not necessarily happening. that is potentially happening. And it's my understanding that there are all these bills, right, like that at this stage of the legislative session that come up. And so what they would need is the sponsor of this particular bill to call it to the floor. And then if they feel like they are motivated and everything's ready to go, and then all of a sudden you get a chance to have the hearing on this.

And then that gives it the momentum to potentially pass on to the next phase. But there is a possibility that because there's a lot of other business going on in state government that doesn't get brought to the point. And if it doesn't, now we're like, oh, gosh. Yeah, if it doesn't this week, it better happen. That's the whole thing is they're so behind, you know, Indiana, the state senate, as we talked about, passed the bill to create the Northwest Indiana Stadium Authority. That bill is still pending before the House, but they're going to act with a certain

urgency because they recess at the end of this month. So they've got to get it done. Illinois legislators return for the spring session on Tuesday, as you said. And hopefully, hopefully they'll discuss on third. And we should pay attention to for our list. J.B. Pritzker will be giving his state of the state address on Wednesday. And one would have to imagine that it will at least be mentioned, if not the focus of a certain part of that speech. And so it would be very fascinating to see kind of how this week unfolds and evolves.

I was also, you know, I think it's important to be emphatic with this, that this is Hammond, Indiana, and Arlington Heights, Illinois. That's it. Nothing in Iowa, nothing in Portage. Get that out of your mind. Notting in Naperville. Get that out of my mind. Nothing in Grody's backyard. There are two sites in play here.

And I think people need to understand that even as headlines and crazy stories from other parts of the region, sort of find their way into your news feed. This is Hammond, Indiana versus Arlington Heights, Illinois, and the Bears have eyes nowhere else. Nowhere else. I was told the same thing about with all due respect to Portage and the plan, I'm sure it was lovely. Yes, this is a, and it should also be pointed out. We talked about this in our previous episode. If you want more in depth on the stadium, it's right there for you on Take the North. But the, not only is it just Hammond versus Arlington Heights, the Hammond thing is real.

Like more real than I ever even knew. My gut still says Arlington Heights, but the Hammond is not to be taken lightly in any way, shape, or form. I just don't think the bears want to wait forever for the Illinois State legislature to play ball with them. And they have that right to do so. And so, again, this is an important time period. We should have a lot more clarity within a matter of three weeks. Two Good & Co coffee creamers are made with farm fresh cream, real milk, and contain three grams of sugar per serving. That's 40% less than the five grams per serving in leading traditional coffee creamers for a rich, delicious experience.

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