Ben Johnson's Bears camp will be no place for thin-skinned QBs

"We knew that was going to happen, and we'll look to take advantage of training camp to tighten the screws up and be ready to go Week 1."

The screw tightening promises to definitely include more tough coaching by Johnson for quarterback Caleb Williams. Almost every offseason practice the media was allowed to watch, there was some sort of criticism, how sharp, direct and sometimes loud depended on the mistake.

Johnson knows the importance of the quarterback-coach relationship and will be trying to build it even through the tough coaching.

"I think there needs to be, you use the word accountability, it's like that for every position, but certainly that position," Johnson said. "You have to be able to tell them when it's good and when it's not good enough, in front of their peers. We (he and Williams) spend a lot of time together, one-on-one, as well.

"Some of the best things that I did when I became the coordinator was the quarterback and the play-caller need to see the play exactly the same. You don't develop that trust unless you spend a lot of time together. For whatever reason, if you do it (criticize) in the room with all the other quarterbacks, sometimes you can get a little defensive, whereas when it's one-on-one, the truth can come out and no one's feelings are going to get hurt and each person can speak the truth. I guess those are some of the things that I have learned over the years."

Johnson said he learned this approach with the quarterback when he was in Miami with Ryan Tannehill and than, of course, later in Detroit with Matthew Stafford and Jared Goff.

One of the constant targets for criticism throughout the offseason work was the huddle and Williams getting them out of it following the play call in the proper way so all understand.

"We're getting better," Johnson said. "Is it where it needs to be? No. The longer practice goes, the more the fatigue sets in, and you can see it starting to trickle away.

"That's where, as a coaching staff, we got to stay on our P's and Q's to make sure it is getting done right. I think the guys are responding to it. They're taking pride in it. They want it to be done the right way. We're seeing growth there, as well."

Wide receiver DJ Moore has seen improvement over what Williams did in this regard and some other ways, even if it seems like he's taking repeated criticism.

“A lot of growth," Moore said. "You can tell he is on his A-game every day because I know he probably gets it the most out of everybody because he's the quarterback and he wants to be perfect in himself and then the (coaching) staff wants him to be perfect to lead this offense.”

"It" being the critical eye.

Reserve QB Case Keenum sees the coaching taking hold and the relationship between Williams and Johnson growing.

"He’s settled into this offense and how Ben sees it–trying to get on the same page with him and Press (Taylor, passing game coordinator), Declan (Doyle, OC) and J.T. (Barrett), trying to all come out of that quarterback room seeing the defense the exact same way as the play caller, as Ben, hat we're trying to accomplish and how we're trying to accomplish it," Keenum said. "Along with the footwork, the operation before the snap, defense recognition, all those things combined with leadership, it's quarterbacking. It's an art and it's a science.

"It's all of that combined and there's a hundred ways of getting the ball down the field."

Williams has to learn to get it down the field Johnson's way. It's an on-going process and when they finished the last spring practice Johnson was still criticizing but praising.

An interception thrown to Tyrique Stevenson miffed Johnson, as did another throw Williams waited too long to make.

"A lot of really, really good teaching tape today, really good teaching tape," was how Johnson put it.

The criticism from Johnson isn't all for his quarterback or players. He does his own self-critique as well.

"I'm critical of myself," Johnson said. "The practice was probably, it can be a little bit smoother, in terms of how we function. I need to communicate to everyone a little bit better, whether it's the coaching staff, the equipment staff, and I'm going to get better there.

"I'll do a better job once we get to camp. But, I was really impressed with the entire coaching staff. We have the right mix of guys; experience, youth, energy, ideas. It's coming together, and I hope our players have really understood that it's hard to gain trust in such a short period of time, but, hopefully, they understand that our guys mean business. This coaching staff means business. They know what good football looks like, they know what winning football looks like, and they're committed to bringing that here."

Especially the head coach, and he knows who he needs to tear down and build up to get the Bears offense working correctly.