A new NFL season is officially upon us, and that means that it’s time for our opportunity to get some intel about the Minnesota Vikings’ opponent for this week from one of our fellow SB Nation football sites.
We’re getting our annual trip to Chicago out of the way early this year, and because of that, we’re sitting down with the folks from Windy City Gridiron to exchange a few questions. Bill Zimmerman was kind enough to answer the questions I had for him this week, and that Q&A is below. When Bill posts my answers to his questions over at WCG, I will link them here for you.
1) This matchup between the Vikings and the Bears will feature the third different Chicago head coach in the last three games. Ben Johnson was the hot name among coaching prospects this past offseason, and the Bears managed to lure him to Chicago to take over. How have things changed during the Ben Johnson era thus far?
Well, the fan base is riding high right now. Ben Johnson may not have been a unanimous first choice among fans before the higher (Mike Vrabel), but I feel like 75 to 80% of the fan base wanted Johnson. The one concern after the hire was, “Is Ben Johnson a leader of men?” Many people thought Johnson just wanted to be in front of a whiteboard, drawing up plays, and he wasn’t going to lead a locker room. That has been completely disproven. Ben Johnson demands a lot of his players. He’s driven. Sometimes he comes across like a psycho (in a good way). This guy breathes football. There is accountability around this team, and the vibes are great in Chicago right now, as I think fans think the Bears may have finally gotten the coaching hire right.
2) Part of the reason that Johnson was brought in was to work with Caleb Williams, who by all accounts was absolutely mismanaged by Matt Eberflus and company in his rookie year. Even though the sample size is limited, have you seen any significant changes in Williams to this point?
I don’t think we’ve seen enough from Caleb Williams at this point to know if there’s been a significant change. We have seen some inconsistent play during practices and in training camp, but that’s to be expected during installs while he learns a new offense. We’ve still seen and heard about some fantastic plays and some great work by the offense, but it’s been inconsistent.
I don’t think anyone is concerned about it because we understand the situation, but if anyone is saying that any issues that plagued Caleb in 2024 are 100% gone, that’s just not something we can say at this point. We all know what the biggest issue is: Williams needs to get the ball out faster, and while it may not be perfect, I do think we will see him do that more consistently this season.
3) With the Vikings potentially having some issues at receiver, they might catch a break with the status of cornerback Jaylon Johnson, who is battling injuries. Do you expect him to line up on Monday night and, if he can’t, how will that affect the Bears’ secondary?
If Jaylon Johnson is out, that will certainly hurt the Bears’ secondary. He’s clearly the best CB on the team. Kyler Gordon is an outstanding slot corner, but Tyrique Stevenson is coming off a very inconsistent year as the other outside corner. The Bears’ top backup outside corner, Terell Smith, is out for the year with an unfortunate preseason injury.
The good news is that Jaylon has told reporters he is planning on playing on Monday. He’s been limited in practice to this point, but he hasn’t been a DNP, so things are looking pretty good that he will be out there on Monday night.
4) Like the Vikings, the Bears upgraded on the interior of their offensive line this offseason, bringing in Drew Dalman at center and Joe Thuney and Jonah Jackson at the guard spots. But Ben Johnson waited until just a few days ago to declare his starter at left tackle, leaving the incumbent, Braxton Jones, in that spot. Do you see the tackle spots as a potential issue for the Bears against the likes of Jonathan Greenard and Andrew Van Ginkel?
There is certainly concern around Braxton Jones right now. As for the overall offensive line, there is plenty of optimism. You can easily make the argument that heading into week one in 2024, Jones was the team’s best offensive lineman. Now, heading into week one in 2025, he’s their worst starting offensive lineman. That’s a great overhaul in one offseason.
But Jones broke his ankle late in the season last year and missed the entire offseason program and had a ramp-up the first couple of weeks of training camp. When Jones is in shorts, you can see how skinny his legs are, and in preseason games, he looked rusty and struggled.
I think Jones could struggle against Minnesota, but I also think that Johnson and OL Coach Dan Roushar will keep that in mind, and if they have to bring some help to his side, they will.
5) The Vikings come into this one as a 1.5-point favorite, looking to win their sixth consecutive game at Soldier Field. How do you see this one playing out?
The point spread in this one is so close, it’s basically a pick’em. There are plenty of reasons to pick the Vikings. They have a returning coaching staff that’s proven, players that know the systems, and a talented roster.
But there’s one piece that I can’t get past. JJ McCarthy, starting his first-ever NFL game on the road against a defensive coordinator like Dennis Allen that gives rookie quarterbacks fits (I know he’s not a rookie, but he kind of is), I think McCarthy doesn’t have a great opening game performance against the Bears’ defense. Plus, we know Ben Johnson has given Brian Flores fits over the last couple of years.
I think this will be anybody’s game in the fourth quarter, but I think the more experienced quarterback gets the job done, and the Bears win a close one and kick off the Ben Johnson era 1-0.
Bonus question: After we exchanged our questions, an article from Ty Dunne came out that, for lack of a more polite way to put it, nuked Bears’ GM Ryan Poles and Caleb Williams, among others. What are your thoughts about what he said?
The Ty Dunne article was eye-opening and jarring, that’s for sure. It does seem like most of his sources are former employees who may have an axe to grind, but as someone who knows Ty a little bit, I can say that he wouldn’t fabricate stories; those things happened. We may not have the whole context of what was going on, but they certainly happened.
I think what the article shows is that Caleb Williams was immature and needed to be coached hard, and the Bears organization decided to give him a soft landing rather than what he needed. It doesn’t mean he’s doomed to fail, especially because if he does that with Ben Johnson, Caleb won’t be here in a couple of years.
The Bears organization has been mismanaged for years, so seeing the issues about how the front office handled things shouldn’t surprise anyone. I do think it’s interesting that Bears players openly told the media after Matt Eberflus was fired that they wanted more accountability in the locker room. DJ Moore said it publicly. Now that this article comes out, and we see that the Bears didn’t seem to be holding Caleb Williams accountable, you can certainly connect the dots from point A to point B.
Bottom line is Ben Johnson needs to clean all this up. We already knew he needed to come to Halas Hall with a mop; turns out it was more of a mess than the fans realized.
Thanks to Bill for taking the time to answer our questions ahead of Monday night’s game at Soldier Field!
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