Ben Johnson reveals roots and extent of his strict attention to detail

As it turns out, the kind of football Chicago has been treated to for the past four seasons or longer probably is where the roots are.

"I don't know, I've probably seen more bad football than I've seen good football over my time in this league," he said, to media laughter. "It's trying not to make the same mistakes as the people I've been around, maybe in the past, that I perceived as mistakes.

"I don't think you can let things slide. I think offensive football is about precision. It's a constant communication of what that should look like. When they hit the mark, we love them up, and when we fall short, then we have to let them know so that we get it better."

It's simple and fairly direct, just like his criticism of players during practices.

Kmet felt the sting at one point in OTAs when he was told he was lining up incorrectly in no uncertain terms.

'It was probably an alignment thing or something–I was probably a yard off," Kmet said. "All of it goes with one another, these alignments and where your keys are, all those things. They all matter. I think that's just an example of Ben not letting up on those things. Making sure everybody's on the details.

"It's funny on that play, like with the alignment, I'm kind of cheating myself out of getting the ball the way I was aligned."

While Johnson might come across a bit overbearing when he's hollering at practice at times, he shows players another side, as well.

"Afterwards he was kind of joking (with) me saying, 'I was trying to get you the football,' " Kmet said. "It all comes from a good place.

"I think when guys can recognize that and understand that he is not just yelling at it because he doesn't like it. He wants things right; he wants to win and he knows that's what you have to do. I think guys have been really receptive of that so far."

Players on a team coming off four straight losing seasons and no winning seasons since 2018 can't really pout about hard coaching, especially when they complained the previous season that they weren't being coached hard enough. In a way, they created their own monster.

Perhaps the most important player in terms of this type of coaching is Williams, since he's the one in closest and most constant contact with Johnson and is handling the ball virtually every play.

In Johnson's opinion, Williams is taking this coaching the right way, too, even while not everything is perfect.

"Awesome. He's doing a great job," Johnson said. "He's very coachable. It's like anything, it's a new play so we're just communicating what the expectations are and we want to see it show up on the tape."

During a full-squad scrimmage without pads at Wednesday's practice, Williams was having problem with a play call in the huddle. He seemed a bit panicked as the play clock ran down but officials working practice walked off a 5-yard delay-of-game penalty.

No screaming that time, they just got back in the huddle and ran the next play.

Later, Williams responded by leading a 94-yard two-minute drill for a TD on a short toss to Kyle Monangai.

"That's a very tough situation," Johnson had only praise. "I think it was 90-plus yards in under a minute with no timeouts, so it was cool to see them stack some plays."

Johnson was realistic because there is no tackling involved and sacks must be whistled by the officials who work practice.

"Caleb, what we thought about him was when the lights are bright, that he was going to show up, and it felt like the game slowed down a little bit for him, and he was able to just go out and find an open guy and get a completion," Johnson said. "That was good to see.

"There might have been some (uncalled) sacks mixed in there, so it was a little bit more slanted to the offense, but in terms of the drill and the situations that came up I thought it was really good learning for everybody."

Even the officials at practices better be on their details if they're going to escape Johnson's sharp criticism.