Bears' Ben Johnson expands on how he wants Caleb Williams to improve 'body language'

A recent report detailed how first-year Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson and his staff wanted second-year quarterback Caleb Williams to spend a portion of the offseason improving his "body language" after he sometimes looked like an offensive leader unable to "roll with the punches" as a rookie. 

Johnson expanded on that desire while speaking with reporters on Wednesday. 

"Early in the process, we sat down and watched some tape from a year ago, and we talked it through," Johnson explained about conversations involving Williams, as shared by Josh Alper of Pro Football Talk. "It’s like, 'Do we really want to? Is this what we want to look like or not?' We come to an agreement, 'No, it’s not. OK, we learn from it, we move on to the next thing.' Body language is a huge thing. Demeanor. We don’t want to be a palms-up team where we’re questioning everything. No, no, no — to me, that’s a little bit of a sign of weakness. We don’t want to exhibit that from anybody on the team."

This past December, former NFL player and current analyst Emmanuel Acho suggested some of Williams' teammates would have found it "concerning" and "irritating" that the 23-year-old slumped on the bench after he took some hard hits during a "Monday Night Football" loss to the Minnesota Vikings. That was only one instance of Williams looking like "a defeated guy" during what became a 10-game losing streak. 

In Williams' defense, ESPN stats show he took a league-high 68 sacks last season. Nevertheless, Johnson seemingly wants Williams to show his teammates with his actions that he won't be beaten down by setbacks that occur on Sundays.

"There’s adversity that’s gonna hit every team every season," Johnson added, per Kevin Fishbain and Adam Jahns of The Athletic. "You don’t know when it’s gonna happen. We might lose a few games. We might have some turnovers."

According to Fishbain and Jahns, Williams insisted on Wednesday that he loves being with the Bears after a recent story revealed that he and his family allegedly looked into attempting to prevent Chicago from making him the first overall pick of the 2024 NFL Draft. Such comments likely will be forgotten if Williams' body language this fall gives off the vibe that he'd rather be with a different club.