Same old song for Bears offense, but with a different meaning under Ben Johnson

When Mitch Trubisky had a spate of interceptions early in training camp in July of 2018 — his second season in the NFL, but his first in Matt Nagy's offense — Nagy was unperturbed. In fact, he made a point not to harp on the mistakes.

"What I'm trying to do as a coach is let him know, 'Hey, we're in this together,'" Nagy said. "'You understand the bad you did, and this it's our job ultimately in the end at game time to make it all good.'"

When Caleb Williams had a similar errant streak early in training camp this year — his second season in the NFL but first in Ben Johnson's offense — Johnson was similarly unperturbed. He just had a better way of putting it.

"These are things you learn from and unfortunately, sometimes you have to do it a couple of times to get burned by that hot stove before you realize, 'Hey, I don't want to touch that anymore.'"

The quarterback and the offense struggling — and not being worried about it — has been a rite of Bears training camp over the years.

In 2018, it was the installation of a new offense under Nagy, Trubiskly re-learning fundamentals under a new coach and being force-fed the scheme — with Trubisky learning to process the motion, the pass protection, the snap count and his receivers routs among other things. But with the assurance that he would learn from his mistakes — only without the hot stove analogy — and the perfunctory endorsement from the backup quarterback.

"He's one of the smarter young quarterbacks I've ever been around," Chase Daniel said at the time. "You tell him something one time, he gets it and understands it and goes out and does it on the field. That's pretty cool to see. It's not the norm. I've been around a lot of guys who have to hear it multiple times, so as far as Mitch's mental capacity, it's all there."

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In 2019, when Trubisky and the offense were struggling again in Trubisky's third NFL camp and second under Nagy, the rationalization was that the Bears' defense under Chuck Pagano — which was ranked No. 1 in the NFL in 2018 under Vic Fangio — was making the offense look worse than it was.

"They're really smart, and they know it's coming sometimes," Trubisky said. "They're tough. they create a great challenge for us every day, but you've got to believe that's making us stronger and better."

Offensive coordinator Mark Helfrich took it a step further.

"I don't think a defense has existed like this," Helfrich said. "I've played against some really, really good defenses, but they're just so talented. They've got dudes everywhere — guys that care about it as much as they do. Khalil Mack works as hard as anybody out here, and that's fun to see. It's fun to be a part of on Sundays. It's not so much fun on Tuesday. But it'll help us in the long run."

It didn't turn out that way. The defense, while not nearly as dominant as it was under Fangio, still was fourth in the NFL in points allowed. But Trubisky and the offense took a step back, with Trubisky's passer rating dropping from 95.4 in 2018 to 83.0 in 2019, and the offense plummeting from ninth in scoring (26.3 points per game) to 29th (17.5).

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In 2022, with Justin Fields in his second season in the NFL but the first in Luke Getsy's offense under new head coach Matt Eberflus, it was back to the installation of a new offense as the culprit. Fields was learning new footwork. The offensive line was a mess, with Riley Reiff/Braxton Jones at left tackle, Sam Mustipher and rookie Doug Kramer at center (with starter Lucas Patrick out with a broken thumb); Michael Schofield, Mustipher and rookie JaTyre Carter at right guard and Larry Borom and Reiff at right tackle.

It was better than it looked, they told us. "When we watch the film, we can see how close we are," Getsy said. "But close isn't good enough."

"We know our offense," Fields said. "We know the plays. We know what's supposed to be going on. It's hard to have an opinion on something when you don't really know what's going on on the inside — when you're just looking at it from the outside view."

And don't worry about Fields. "He's doing a good job. He's right on schedule," Eberflus said. "We feel great about where he is. footwork is clean. Operation's getting better every day and we're just taking it one step at a time."

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And it was a similar story in 2023, with Fields in his third season in the NFL and second in Getsy's offense — but still noticeably poor in early training camp practices.

"We don't play touch football, so I'm OK," Getsy said, referring to restrictions on contact even in padded practices. "I'm not going to overreact."

The message was familiar: It was early. The offense wasn't game-planning for the defense. They're installing plays. Receivers are learning multiple positions. And even then, Getsy and Fields were seeing progress that was imperceptible to the naked eye.

"I just think they're getting better every day," Getsy said. "The mistake in't the same mistake twice. These are all things we need to experience and learn from, and sometimes you've got to fail at something first before you can get really good at it."

And an oldie-but-goodie: the defense under Eberflus and defensive coordinator Alan Williams was making the offense look bad. The "iron-sharpens-iron" tack.

"They're doing a really good job of switching it up and scheming to our offense," Fields said. "That's why I think our offense is getting great work doing that. Alan and the defense have definitely taken it up a step. It's not going to do anything but make our offense better."

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So here we are in 2024 and another Bears quarterback and another Bears offense is choppy at best early in training camp. And the response sounds familiar:

"We're not frustrated at all. We're right where we need to be," Ben Johnson said Saturday.

"The beautiful thing is our guys, they're learning. We're not making the same mistake twice. That goes for the guy that's getting the rep and the guys not getting the rep. They're learning from everything. We're not frustrated whatsoever."

Dennis Allen's defense is making it tougher: "He's looking to make a name for the defense. He's bringing it. He's bringing it left and right.," Johnson said before Tuesday's practice. "We're having a difficult time in protection right now. I think that's probably what stands out to me from the first five practices. We need to do a better job of giving our quarterbacks a clean pocket."

On Williams' acclimation to the offense: "I probably just see growth. He is so much more comfortable right now, even [Monday], the walk-through, in terms of moving around. We go from gun to under [center] to the tight ends are moving, the receivers are moving. We're adding more every day.

"His process is really clean right now. I'm talking about how he's preparing. I'm really pleased with it. He's doing the work behind the scenes that no one else is seeing and we're starting to see the dividends being paid from it."

The difference, until further notice, is Johnson. He has a top-tier analyst's way of explaining things that is almost mesmerizing to a fandom thirsting for a productive offense (and a winning team) — not just what he says, but how he says it. (That he's following Eberflus at the lectern at Halas Hall only exaggerates the effect.)

But it bears repeating that it's his substance that supports his style. Johnson has done this before. He not only has believability, but credibility. Unlike his immediate predecessors, he's earned the benefit of the doubt. But the clock accelerates from here, and eventually the progress will have to be much more tangible than it currently is. It's the same old story: It's early. But it gets late quickly around here.