It’s week 6 of the NFL season, and the 3-2 Washington Commanders will be facing the 2-2 Chicago Bears at home in Northwest Stadium in Landover, MD this Monday at 8:15 pm EDT. After losing their first two games of the season against the Vikings and Lions, the Bears have found a bit of a groove winning their next two games against the Cowboys and Raiders before going into a week 5 bye.
On offense, the Bears are coached by offensive HC Ben Johnson, former OC of the Lions. Johnson’s background is primarily
in the West Coast Offense, having worked under Adam Gase, Darrell Bevell, and Joe Philbin (a Mike McCarthy disciple), all of whom run variations of a West Coast Offense. At the same time, Johnson has added many of his own creative twists and seemingly borrowed a lot of the Shanahan outside-zone run concepts to develop a truly unique and multi-faceted offense that is difficult to predict. The Bears completely re-made the interior of their offensive line this past offseason, trading for All Pro LG Joe Thuney and Pro Bowl RG Jonah Jackson, as well as signing C Drew Dalman in FA. Bears WR and 2024 1st-round pick Rome Odunze is on pace for a 1,200 yard season based on his first four games, a major rebound from his disappointing rookie season.
On defense, the Bears are coached by DC Dennis Allen, former DC and HC of the Saints. Allen typically runs an aggressive 4-3 base defense utilizing heavy man coverage and a high rate of big nickel (starting 3 safeties, creating more of a 4-2-5 package on most downs). It’s actually a defense somewhat similar to what Washington’s coaches seem to want to run. Chicago has been without two of their top DBs due to injury: top CB Jaylon Johnson and nickelback Kyler Gordon, though Gordon will be making his return this week. Despite these problems, Chicago has managed the 5th-best pass defense in terms of yards allowed. However, Chicago has proven much leakier in run defense, with the 9th-worst run defense in terms of yards allowed. It should be noted that Kyler Gordon’s return could prove a major bolster to Chicago’s run defense given that he is a capable run-stopping nickel.
I asked Bill Zimmerman of Windy City Gridiron five questions to better understand the state of the Bears and what to look for in this game.
1) What do you think of Caleb Williams in his 2nd year of NFL play, and what has the new coaching staff done for him? On a scale of 1-10, how certain are you that he’s a franchise guy?
The growth of Caleb Williams this year has been really positive. He certainly didn’t light the world on fire as a rookie, but he had two head coaches and three offensive coordinators, not exactly the most stable environment for success. Even with all that, Williams still kept his turnovers way down and still threw for 3,500 yards and 20 touchdowns. His advanced stats weren’t good, but that’s where Ben Johnson comes in.
Williams has shown steady growth throughout the season. He was fantastic against Dallas and led a game-winning drive against Las Vegas. He and Johnson are definitely getting on the same page, and Johnson has gotten him operating much better in structure and, most importantly, Caleb is holding onto the ball a lot less; he’s getting it out quicker, and the offense is running at a much better rate.
To answer your question about being the franchise guy. I am at a 10 out of 10 that Williams can be a top-half QB in the league, but I wouldn’t consider that a franchise guy. To be a franchise guy, I think you need to consistently be a top 10 QB in the league. I do think Williams gets there, but I can’t give that a 10 out of 10. I would put that confidence at a 7 or an 8, and that’s because I truly believe Ben Johnson is the right guy for the job, and he will get Caleb Williams where he needs to be and maximize his potential.
2) What do you think of Ben Johnson as a head coach so far, and what are his strengths and weaknesses?
Bears fans are elated with Ben Johnson so far. His passing scheme has been fantastic, and we’ve seen legitimate growth from Caleb Williams. The run scheme hasn’t looked as sharp, but the run blocking doesn’t look terrible; this may just be a D’Andre Swift problem. The Bears’ running back room is not stellar, as their RB2 is 7th-round rookie Kyle Monangai. The other pleasant surprise is that plenty of people in January said that Ben Johnson wasn’t a leader of men; he was just a math nerd who was a great offensive coordinator. They couldn’t be more wrong. Johnson has rallied the locker room, is changing the culture, and is a borderline psycho (which I say as a compliment). He is an intense guy and has great attention to detail.
At this point, his biggest weakness is inexperience. He’s made a couple of mistakes, but he’s been accountable about them in his press conferences. He’s going to make more mistakes as he gets comfortable on the sidelines on Sunday, but so far, the reviews have been great.
3) The Bears are coming off an early week 5 bye, which is typically when coaches review tape and make changes in scheme or player usage. What changes do you think the Bears need to implement after their bye?
The big thing the Bears are going to do is make a massive change at left tackle. Braxton Jones has been the team’s starting left tackle the past three seasons, but he broke his ankle in December and hasn’t looked himself recovering from the injury and in this new blocking scheme. The Bears hoped that second-round pick Ozzy Trapilo would be able to move from right tackle to left tackle, but he seems far more comfortable on the right side, and the Bears are no longer working him on the left side. 2024 3rd round pick Kiran Amegadjie, who is a natural left tackle, has been a debacle and isn’t in consideration to start. That leaves 2nd year UDFA Theo Benedet. Benedet has been a wonderful surprise as a UDFA, but it certainly doesn’t give you a ton of confidence. Benedet looked really good in the preseason against second and third stringers, but hasn’t been quite as strong against the 1s during the regular season. His length isn’t great, and if the Commanders are going to have success on defense, they will probably attack Benedet.
4) Who is one Bears player on offense and one player on defense that Washington fans probably don’t know much about, but should?
On defense, the guy is DT Gervon Dexter. He was a second-round pick a couple of years ago and has steadily improved since his rookie season. He still is inconsistent in stopping the run, but he has had a lot of success this year rushing the passer. He’s arguably been their best pass rusher, including Montez Sweat, and Dexter does it from the inside. He might make things uncomfortable for Jayden Daniels a couple of times on Monday.
On offense, most of the Bears’ players are pretty well known. The most under-the-radar guy that is involved in the offense is former Commander Olamide Zaccheaus. He’s been getting a pretty big chunk of the offensive snaps, and Williams is comfortable looking for him under the defense. Also, something to look for, Zaccheaus took some snaps at running back during Wednesday’s Bears’ practice.
5) How should Washington go about gameplanning this matchup on both sides of the ball?
For the Commanders’ offense, it should be interesting because the secondary has improved over the last couple of weeks, and Kyler Gordon is making his season debut this year. Their coverage should be better, but their pass rush has been pretty much nonexistent so far. The Bears also haven’t been doing a great job of stopping the run, either. If I were Kingsbury, I would establish the run, which they should be able to do, and then use play action to open up the passing game, and Daniels should have plenty of time to throw.
On defense, the Bears have not been running the ball well, but the passing offense has been steadily improving. When Caleb Williams has time, his statistics are through the roof, but when he’s under pressure, his success drops significantly. I think the Commanders need to make sure they can get pressure on Williams. If they can do it with four, they will have success. If they need to blitz, it will be interesting to see if Williams and Ben Johnson can hurt the Commanders from the vacating spots.
A companion article to this with my answers to Bill’s questions will be linked as soon as it’s available.
Thanks again to Bill Zimmerman for taking time out of his day to answer our questions about the Bears.
