The Chicago Bears have often invited headlines under Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams putting the historic franchise back on the map. The latest example of this was Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Liam Coen taking what appears an unintentional shot at the Bears and Williams talking about his own team via NFL Insider Ari Meirov and offering, "I look at the NFL website, and see if there's anything on the Jaguars. I think I'll see 40 pictures of Caleb Williams. And nothing on us! It's beautiful."
What Coen is doing here is obvious, with the head coach attempting to embrace the underdog to prove just how overlooked the Jaguars are. What isn't appreciated is the fact that he threw Williams under the bus while doing so. Already, the quarterback has been a flashpoint of debate and isn't doing anything to invite this level of focus other than show up and do his job. This led to Johnson answering the questions with a fitting response via Ari Meirov.
"“Well, we’re the No. 1 regression candidate, so I think we’ve got plenty of motivation ourselves. We’ve talked about Caleb in the past. He’s used to handling a lot of attention, so I’m not worried about that.”"Ben Johnson
There simply is no way around the fact that Coen is calling out Williams in a negative fashion while Johnson had an incredibly fitting response. Not only did the head coach answer concerns, but he flipped the narrative pointing out that the Bears have been pointed to as an obvious team to face regression in the season ahead. This is factual as pundits haven't hesitated to choose the Packers or Lions to take the NFC North.
Bears Head Coach Ben Johnson Has Fitting Response for Liam Coen
Johnson follows this up by pointing out the scrutiny that Williams has been under since a young age. This goes back all the way to the Oklahoma Sooners and becoming a freshman standout, taking a starting job that thrust the quarterback into surprise relevance. This would be followed by a stint with USC Trojans where Williams would have his mentality questioned and consistently get broken down as a prospect with each and every week.
Chicago's head coach understands Williams is no stranger to this level of attention and fittingly had a response that proved that the Bears can embrace an underdog mentality while defending his quarterback. To put it simply, it is impossible not to love Ben Johnson and what the head coach brings.
There is zero doubt that he will ride for his players and won't hesitate to put things into perspective. This is exactly what Chicago's head coach chose to do after a poor choice of words from a head coach whose team is coming off a wildcard round loss and a long history of underwhelming.
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