Key points of anxiety over Ben Johnson's Bears offense and weaponry

What looks like a point where Johnson does something different and ventures into the unknown is in the short passing game and with how it was critical to what Detroit did.

The Lions were an effective short passing team and especially to the middle of the field, partly because Johnson schemed receivers open there but also because quarterback Jared Goff is a taller pocket passer and he had an All-Pro slot in Amon-Ra St. Brown.

Also, tight end  Sam LaPorta could get open there and his running backs were able to take advantage of that area. But St. Brown was the key and the ball found the slot, as Johnson has described it.

If the Bears are throwing there the last three years, it might be with Williams or Fields running boot action and throwing back a bit across the grain or with a receiver slating in from the slot.

That's more dangerous than dart throwing from within the pocket.

The Lions used the short passes explosively. They led the NFL in yards after catch. The Bears last year were much better than in the recent years but still only 18th. Detroit did this all with the second fewest average air yards intended at 3,471 and 6.3 yards intended per attempt.

Over the three years Johnson called plays in Detroit they threw 392 passes 15 yards or shorter and had 149 last year.

In the same amount of games over the same period, the Bears threw only 208 short passes, using two different mobile quarterbacks who were shorter than Goff.

They didn't move Goff around as much because he could see down the middle of the field at 6-foot-4. Justin Fields and Caleb Williams are shorter, Fields only by an inch and Williams by 3 inches.

They're also better moving and throwing, so they wouldn't be as suited as Goff to standing in the pocket as much and firing short middle.

• How the Bears will get this type of play out of Williams is the big mystery. They added the targets for a more explosive passing game in the middle of the field with Loveland and Burden. They already had some pieces like this with DJ Moore and Cole Kmet.

• Will the backs be able to contribute at proper receiving level is one question they face in achieving this.

• Can Williams find a way to exploit the middle if he's moving or can he stay put and see over the scrum to find the interior targets is another.

• How does Johnson adjust to a moving QB and not the comfortable pocket passer whose release point is usually the same or nearby every play?

• What can Johnson do with a potential runner at QB. He didn't use zone read with the Lions but the Bears were practicing these types of plays and handoffs or fakes prior to each OTA session.

So far, we have seen essentially nothing of these plans because OTAs are merely calling plays and looking at players' skillsets, not scheming or suiting the attack to burn a particular defense or take advantage of a mismatch. Plus, no one has hit yet.

It will take games to know some of the answers here.

"This is not simply a dropping of a previous playbook down on the table and starting there," was Johnson's widely retreated comment. "Nope, we're ripping this thing down to the studs, and we're going to build it out with him (Williams) first and foremost, and then with the pieces around him next.

"I really look forward to challenging him and pushing him, as I said before, to continue to grow and develop.”

What it's all going to look like and whether it can actually be done will become more evident starting in just over two weeks.