Bears News: Declan Doyle on Ben Johnson's presence, Caleb Williams' hunger for growth

Ariana Pensy - Correspondent - 15 hours ago

CHICAGO—Perhaps the biggest goal of this upcoming season is to properly develop quarterback Caleb Williams, as he did not receive the proper coaching and tutelage from the previous coaches. That is why it came as a little bit of a surprise that head coach Ben Johnson chose to hire Declan Doyle as the offensive coordinator. Doyle had never been a coordinator before and was only 28 years old when Johnson hired him.

However, he has a clear vision for what his role is on the team.

“I view my role as a supplement to everybody else in our building. We’re all working in the same direction. I’m a supplement to Ben from the offensive standpoint. When he steps out or when he can’t do things, I need to step in and be that offensive mind or that person leading that meeting,” Doyle said. “As far as Caleb’s development, same thing. Obviously, the four of us are working together on that, working with (general manager) Ryan (Poles) and his group. My role is to help give them a vision as far as how we would use these players, where they would fit in our scheme and do a really good job. The biggest thing is communication across the board. We all got to be on the same page and so, (have to) step into a lot of different roles and embrace that. But, that’s my role here.”

Williams did a rough rookie season. He was sacked a league-leading 68 times. However, there were some positives. First, his 3,541 passing yards is top-five in franchise history for a single season. Furthermore, he only threw six interceptions, making him the only quarterback in Chicago Bears history to throw for over 2,700 passing yards and throw less than 10 interceptions in a single season. His completion percentage of 62.5 percent was also impressive for a rookie.

Williams is looking to build off those positives, and Doyle said Williams is “hungry” to learn from him and the rest of the coaching staff.

“I think Caleb is hungry for growth. Obviously, the sky’s the limit with his athletic ability, with his talent. But, being around him, just the person himself, I think he really wants to do well,” Doyle said. “I think he wants to be great. I think it’s really important to him and he’s been very open to accepting feedback, accepting coaching, and really starting to build that relationship where we’re going to be able to build this thing and really hit his ceiling.”

Having a head coach like Ben Johnson should certainly help in Williams’ development. Ben is a young, offensive mind who is competitive and has a high standard for everyone.

His energy and passion for improvement is something that Chicago has lacked.

“Ben has a very, very high standard everyday. The unique thing about Ben is, obviously you guys see it at times just in his media stuff, but Ben has an edge to him. He has a chip on his shoulder and he really holds everybody in the building to a very high standard at all times and really, that’s going to start when we get to spend a little more time with our players next week,” Doyle said. “But, overall, he does an excellent job of, ‘Hey, it shouldn’t be comfortable. It shouldn’t feel like we’re walking in here everyday and we’re just going step by step.’ It’s really like, ‘We need to feel some pressure here to be able to learn it as quickly as we can, to be able to adapt. Same thing from a coaching standpoint and same thing from upstairs with the front office. But, he’s doing a great job of really holding that standard for the whole organization.”

Of course, Williams also needs an offensive line to protect him. That is why Johnson, Doyle and the rest of the coaching staff made it a priority to improve the offensive line by acquiring guards Joe Thuney and Jonah Jackson through trades and signing center Drew Dalman in free agency.

With his revamped offensive line, Williams has everything he needs to succeed.

“That was an area that we really wanted to make an improvement. Coming in here, evaluating, the first thing we did was every position coach evaluated his room. I evaluated the whole unit and that was something that we really wanted to be aggressive about in free agency (was the offensive line). That was kind of the vision going in with Ryan and his staff. I think it helps immensely,” Doyle said. “Obviously, you had Joe Thuney and the leadership that he brings to the room. He’s a guy with skins on the wall who’s had success in the league. You bring in Drew and Drew can take pressure off of Caleb in some ways because he can help with some of the communication and then Jonah getting at it as well. We’re really excited about all three of those guys and obviously, we had that opportunity as with (those) free ants and we’re going to have an opportunity here again in the draft.”

The draft starts on Thursday. April 24 (7 p.m. / ABC). Chicago currently holds the No. 10 overall pick in the first round and two picks in the second round, one of which came from their trade with the Carolina Panthers a few years ago.