What's next for Caleb Williams & Ben Johnson?
Will Hewlett, the private QB coach who may know Williams' game best, calls this Chicago Bears combination "a perfect storm."
Hope is a cocktail that typically leaves all in the Windy City with nothing but a murderous hangover. Somehow, the Chicago Bears manage to butcher the quarterback position, everyone’s fired and the new hires must start from scratch. But 2 ½ months in, these 2025 Bears just may be enjoying the best offseason in the NFL.
This is going to be different… right? Maybe?
First, ownership managed to reel in the top coaching candidate. Offensive maestro Ben Johnson is now paired with 2024 No. 1 overall pick Caleb Williams. Imaginations for all parties involved are understandably running wild after Johnson’s schematic brilliance in Detroit. Weaponry’s no problem. D.J. Moore, Rome Odunze, D’Andre Swift, Cole Kmet and the newly acquired Olamide Zaccheaus supply the 23-year-old a full menu of options. And now the quarterback who was sacked 68 times as a rookie has rock-solid interior protection. Chicago acted fast this month, trading for guard Jonah Jackson, then Joe Thuney, before then signing center Drew Dalman.
We’ll be keeping a very close eye on the Bears over the coming months right here at Go Long.
There are many layers to this team and this quarterback.
Central to all potential success will be this HC-QB partnership. No relationship matters more in the sport. So to learn more, I chatted at length with the quarterback coach who’s spent several years around Williams: Will Hewlett of CORTX. He started training Williams when the Bears QB was in seventh grade. The relationship stayed strong through the Oklahoma/USC college days and — when it was time to train for the NFL? — Williams handpicked Hewlett as his guy.
Hewlett himself played at a D-I school, a small D-III and then dabbled in Arena Football before his playing days gave way to car sales, mortgage sales and construction. He never envisioned himself coaching. But when a secretary at his car dealership asked him to work with her son, Hewlett was much obliged. “And,” he says, “it sparked something.” Hewlett realized he never peaked as a quarterback because he didn’t have access to “scientifically backed information.” There were gurus galore in the biz, but no hard science available when it came to throwing the ball.
Hungry for intel, he hurled himself into baseball… and golf… and even some European methodology, gradually hacking his way into the world of biomechanics.
To the point now where he’s trained several pros, including San Francisco 49ers starter Brock Purdy.
We’ve chronicled how bad its been at the quarterback position in Chicago. Are brighter days on the horizon? We’ll see. This will take a very hard turn one direction or the other.
Let’s start our examination with Will Hewlett.
Topics discussed in the Q&A below…
On a personal level, how did the rookie handle loss… to loss… to loss in 2024?
We saw Williams crying in his mother’s arms at USC. The fashion. The painted fingernails. Hewlett breaks down the player he knows.
Inside the tricky balance of playing within structure, yet still using creative magic. Hewlett believes Williams over-corrected initially.
Which specific throws from last season did Hewlett love most?
Williams’ ceiling and the Iverson-like aspect to his game.
Most of all: What makes Ben Johnson, in his opinion, the right coach for Williams? Hewlett calls this “a perfect storm.”
You’ve known Caleb for a long time. You probably know him better than anybody in the sport. Where do you even start?
Hewlett: So there’s a guy by the name of Chris Baucia who runs a quarterback training company out of the Maryland area. And Chris and I have been close for many, many years in this industry. You gravitate to people in the industry that do what you do and build relationships and there’s a lot of egos. In some capacity, it’s competitive where it’s ‘I’m not talking to that guy’ or ‘I don’t like that guy.’ But we’ve always been close and Chris would reach a point with certain clients where he felt like his skillset would be assisted better with my involvement, with my specialties. To this day, he refers young clients that he feels like, “Okay, this is a good fit for Will,” and they’ll continue to work with me. Caleb was one of those guys. I was in Northern California at the time and little seventh grade Caleb comes out and we get some work in. It kind of grew from there.
All these guys, you can never really predict what level they’ll get to and how they’ll get there, but there’s always some very common identifying factors that you see amongst guys that have success at the next level. It’s kind of a desire to do the little things great and they’re not afraid of hard work. That was one thing that always stood out about Caleb. No matter the level, that guy loves working on his craft. And so it's been pretty cool to see that evolution and continue to be a part of it too.
This is a huge opportunity. I’ve spent some time around Ben Johnson and the Lions. What’s going through your head when you see this marriage come together?
Hewlett: It’s the perfect storm. There’s great situations in the NFL and there’s some that aren’t so great. But if you take a look at my Christmas List when all this stuff was starting to happen, that would’ve been my No. 1 choice based on my understanding of Ben and what type of guy he is and what type of coach. I don’t know that there’s a better scenario that could have panned out for Caleb. Because the pieces are there. And I’ve got nothing against the old staff. “Flus” was great to me and I know Shane Waldron and it just wasn’t the right fit. Having an offensive-minded head coach and the mix of personalities, I think, now is going to be exactly what Caleb needs. Ben’s going to have a ton of fun with it.
Knowing what you do about Caleb and knowing Ben’s offense, why is it a “perfect storm?”