MOBILE, Ala. — “The draft starts in Mobile” is the Senior Bowl tagline, and as the Chicago Bears enter the pre-draft process, their situation is less pressure-packed than their counterparts atop the draft.
The Bears got the head coach they wanted. They have their quarterback. There are no hot-seat conversations, and they don’t need to spend time and resources on an underwhelming quarterback class. Teams like the Giants, Browns and Titans might not have as relaxing a winter and spring.
The chatter in Mobile often turns to the quarterback. Two years ago, as it related to Chicago, it was Justin Fields. Last year, it was Caleb Williams. This year, it’s the Ben Johnson-Caleb Williams pairing and a team that needs to bolster its offensive line.
Positive reviews for Johnson
“You’re not going to hear a bad thing about him,” one league source said about the Bears’ new head coach.
Over the past two weeks of surveying coaches, scouts and agents about Johnson, that sentiment has been pretty accurate, and that continued during Senior Bowl week in Mobile. “Super smart,” said one scout. The league source said, “You know the offense will be there,” with Johnson.
Another scout echoed the idea that negatives would be hard to come by when asking about Johnson, but he did wonder who on staff will have “presence.” Johnson certainly seemed to answer that question with his first couple of days at Halas Hall.
Any conversation about the direction of the Bears at the college all-star game often pivoted to the team’s needs along the offensive line, especially considering what Johnson had in Detroit.
“There isn’t one dominant offensive lineman in this draft,” a personnel evaluator said.
Free agency could help with that. Another league source expected the Bears to be very much in the mix for Chiefs guard Trey Smith, who would be one of the top players available should the Chiefs let him hit the open market. Smith earned a Pro Bowl nod this year, has missed just one start in his career and should have a fan in GM Ryan Poles, who was with the Chiefs when they drafted Smith in 2021.
New offensive coordinator ‘well beyond his years’
When Denver Broncos quality control coach Favian Upshaw was a grad assistant at Tulane, an assistant from the Saints came to provide some lessons about game planning throughout the week.
Upshaw assumed the coach was in his 30s and had been in the NFL for a bit. Then he found out that Sean Payton’s young assistant, Declan Doyle, wasn’t even 25.
“He seemed experienced and well beyond his years already,” Upshaw said.
For the past two seasons, Upshaw and Doyle have been on the Broncos staff together under Payton — Doyle coaching the tight ends, and Upshaw helping oversee the running backs. Having been a QC coach a few years ago, Doyle gives the Denver quality control coaches the materials he used to make sure he was doing what was needed to support Payton’s offense.
“He’s been preparing as if he’s an offensive coordinator from the very beginning,” said Upshaw, who coached the National team running backs at the Senior Bowl. “He builds his own play call sheet. He watches all the film. He puts his own runs and stuff in.”
In Denver, Doyle gave a presentation about shifts and motions to read a defense.
“I was like, how do you already know to do that?” Upshaw said. “Being a young coach, you’re trying to learn. He was showing that aspect.”
Former Saints offensive lineman Jahri Evans was a coaching intern in 2022 when Doyle was an offensive assistant.
“He’s a real smart guy,” Evans said. “He has to be the youngest OC in history? Bananas. I’m excited for him. He would show me some stuff on the computer that I was learning, he was teaching me a few things. Excited to see what he could cook up with that young quarterback.”
Johnson worked for Dan Campbell, who coached for Payton, and it’s hard to go wrong poaching Payton’s assistants.
“You know offense, I’ll tell you that,” Upshaw said about what it means to work for Payton. “You know how to get guys open. That’s what Sean does.”
‘An absolute mastermind’
After eight seasons coaching in the college ranks, Adam Gristick got his first shot at an NFL job, working as a defensive assistant for Dennis Allen in New Orleans.
“You’re going to get a tough and physical defense. That’s how we play,” Gristick said. “Rather than just overloading the guys with scheme, he’s going to let those guys play fast. It’s a players’ defense, 100 percent. The players are going to love it. You guys should be really excited about what’s happening in Chicago right now.”
Evans played for the Saints during Allen’s stints as an assistant and then joined Allen’s staff as he began his head-coaching career.
Despite Allen’s firing after Week 9 this season, Evans considered it one of Allen’s better seasons as a coach.
“We just had a lot of injuries,” he said. “Chicago’s getting a great defensive coordinator.”
Facing that defense as a player in practice, Evans has an idea of what it’s supposed to look like.
“You’re going to face a gap-and-a-half defense,” he said. “They’re going to bring some pressure. They’re going to give you some oddball looks and they’re going to play some man. If you’ve got those man corners, they’re gonna play some man.”
Sitting in the film room with Allen and helping him put together game plans, Gristick quickly realized something.
“He’s an absolute mastermind,” he said. “He’s a genius when it comes to defensive philosophy.”
Gristick coached linebackers at the Senior Bowl and had a suggestion for Bears linebackers Tremaine Edmunds and T.J. Edwards as they prepare for their new scheme.
“All you need to do is turn on the No. 56 film in New Orleans and watch Demario Davis and the productivity that guy’s had over the course of the years he’s been there,” Gristick said. “He’s a five-time All-Pro in New Orleans. If they watch that 56 film, those linebackers should be pretty fired up about that defense.”
The lasting Caleb effect
USC cornerback Jaylin Smith was tasked a few years ago with hosting a future transfer from Oklahoma — a quarterback named Caleb Williams.
His first impression?
“He’s super down to earth,” Smith said. “You’d never expect that from a guy like Caleb. The world’s on his shoulders, but he’s super down to earth, asks how you’re doing and about your well-being. You look for those friendships.”
Smith said that Williams “inspired” him by the way the quarterback carried himself.
“His aura, just everything about him,” Smith said. “He took all his challenges head-on and he persevered through it all. … He teaches you how to carry yourself.”
USC center Jonah Monheim took some exception to the pre-draft narratives about Williams last spring.
“You know that’s something quarterbacks go through, especially a guy that’s as talented and as touted as him,” Monheim said. “It bothers you some, especially when you hear things you know are false — things that attack his character.
“At the end of the day, he’s a tough guy. He can take those things. He’s in that position for a good reason — because he’s a very good football player.”
Having faced Williams in practice plenty of times, Smith admired the quarterback’s ability to beat the defense in various ways.
“You never know what he’s gonna do,” he said. “He could throw a 60-yard bomb or he could take it himself 40 yards and score a touchdown. The magic he has with the ball in his hands — I felt like with him as my quarterback, I always had trust.”
Would Smith like to reunite with his former teammate in Chicago?
“Hey, Caleb, holler at them, make a call for me,” Smith said with a laugh.
