The Caleb/Carl Williams saga — a moot issue, or a red flag?

Ben Johnson is supposed to be a firewall against Bears dysfunction. He's the hot coordinator that everybody else wanted. He has a winning persona — young, smart, confident bordering on brash and comfortable on the big stage. He has a track record of success where the Bears need it most — offensive production and quarterback development. And he arrived at the right time — after many of general manager Ryan Poles' rookie mistakes have already made, with a potential franchise quarterback to work with and a solid, borderline top-10 defense in place. Where others have been consumed by a daunting history of organizational disarray, Johnson has a real chance to rise above the muck and be the best version of himself.

We'll see about that. Johnson's standing as the guy who will change Halas Hall before it changes him will be put the test after Halas Hall dysfunction was again exposed Thursday with a report that Williams' father, Carl Williams, did not want Caleb to play for the Bears — to the extent that he was seeking information on circumventing the draft.

That was just one revelation from the ESPN reporter Seth Wickersham's upcoming book, "American Kings: A Biography of The Quarterback." Wickersham's book also reveals that Caleb Williams preferred to play for the Vikings after connecting with coach Kevin O'Connell. And Caleb also was critical of the Bears' development process during his rookie season under head coach Matt Eberflus and offensive coordinator Shane Waldron, telling his father that he was on his own when it came to reviewing film. "No one tells me what to watch," he reportedly told his father. "I just turn it on."

The Carl/Caleb Williams story is a good one by Bears dysfunction standards — welcome fodder for the media in in need of offseason content, but something the Bears can legitimately claim is a non-issue for them.

Those revelations all appear moot at this point — with Eberflus and Waldron gone and Williams' development now in the hands of the well-respected Johnson, the mastermind of a Lions offense that finished fifth, fifth and first in scoring in his three seasons as offensive coordinator (after finishing 25th in scoring in 2021), with quarterback Jared Goff playing a key role in that improvement.

But the dysfunction at Halas Hall three years into Poles' tenure as GM can't be discounted as a potential hurdle for Johnson, who might not know what he's getting himself into. The irony of the Caleb/Carl Williams revelations is that while they were understandably dubious about the Bears because of that history of losing, Johnson was not at all.

Or certainly not much. The hottest coach in the cycle had every right to do a deep dive on the Bears' leadership, meet them face-to-face, look them in the eye and interview them as much as they were interviewing him — to be sure of what he was getting into. On the contrary, in a virtual interview on Zoom with Poles, president Kevin Warren and Chairman George McCaskey, "The first words out of his mouth were, 'I want this job,'" McCaskey said following Johnson's introductory press conference.

It was a break for the Bears that the hottest candidate in the cycle was sold on the Bears before they even asked him a question. In yet another irony, that was largely — if not mostly — due to the quarterback who initially didn't want to play for them. The Bears needed to hire a coach who didn't just like Caleb Williams, but loved him. And it looks like Johnson fit that bill.

If Johnson and Williams are as good as advertised, this story will be nothing but a footnote, an annoying subject when the Bears play the Vikings. But considering the Bears' history of hope turning to dust, it's fair that an episode like this elicits just a little skepticism about where the Bears' newly paved promising road will lead.

Maybe we shouldn't be so quick to presume that the Waldron failure was entirely Shane Waldon's fault. Maybe the quarterback had some culpability there and might be a bigger challenge than previously expected. After all, Waldron wasn't a rookie in his first gig as an OC. He had some credentials of his own. His quarterback made the Pro Bowl in all three of his seasons as the offensive coordinator with the Seahawks. Journeyman Geno Smith, in fact, became a two-time Pro Bowl quarterback under Waldron and just signed a two-year, $75 million contract extension with the Raiders. It's doubtful Waldron forgot how to coach in one year. A bad fit can have two components.

So while it's likely "there's nothing to see here," Bears fans have every right to keep looking and making sure that's true.

My former Sun-Times colleague Pat Finley on the Carl/Caleb Williams story — "this won't go away."