The summer has been a slow going process for the Chicago Bears' offense throughout organized team activities and the start of mandatory minicamp.
Which is to be expected for a unit learning a new, detailed, scheme being put into place by head coach Ben Johnson. And as a result, team drills have largely been one-sided with the defense showing out. Wednesday was a different story to end practice.
"I would say the defense has gotten the better of the offense more often than not," Johnson told reporters on Wednesday. "It was good to see the offense stack a few plays together."
To round out the session, Johnson had the offense and defense run a mock late-game situation on the field. The offense had to go 90+ yards down the field with no timeouts and less than a minute on the clock.
On the final play of the day, quarterback Caleb Williams hit rookie running back Kyle Monangai for a touchdown on a drive that also included a nice catch and run by Olamide Zaccheaus, according to Zack Pearson.
"What we thought about [Williams] was, when the lights are bright, he was going to show up," Johnson explained. "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."
The #Bears first team offense successfully completed a 94-yard two-minute drill today vs. the defense. Drive ended on a touchdown pass from Caleb Williams to Kyle Monangai.
— Zack Pearson (@Zack_Pearson) June 4, 2025
Williams also made a nice throw on the run to Olamide Zaccheaus for about 36 yards.
Jonathan Owens did…
Slowly but surely, the unit is stacking everything together and learning each day, but Wednesday's final situation showed something special to the new staff.
Williams has that clutch X-factor and the ability to turn it on when needed. We saw that multiple times last season when he was able to lead Chicago into scoring positions late in various games and pull off some strong comeback efforts.
Even Johnson got to see some of that first-hand while coaching on the opposite sidelines when Williams faced off against the Lions.
Williams had that killer instinct and it's more so about mastering all the little things as well, and that's what Johnson has been focusing on with him.
Even during the practice today, Johnson brought Williams over to the side after he was "late" to a read and coached him up on what he was missing on that play.
"He's doing a great job. He's very coachable," Johnson added. "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."
The partnership between Johnson and Williams is going to be built over time and day-by-day. There's going to be bumps and with those bumps come learning moments.
"You gotta be able to tell them when it's good and not good enough in front of their peers," Johnson said. "We spend a lot of time together one-on-one as well... You don't develop that trust unless you spent a lot of time together."
Wednesday's session was a positive note for Johnson, Williams, and the entire offense to end on. Step backs in the coming days/weeks should be expected, but everything right now is pointing in the ideal direction for this unit.
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