Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson offered a measured response Friday to comments from Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Liam Coen regarding the intense media spotlight on Bears quarterback Caleb Williams.
Coen had spoken the day before during an appearance on 1010 XL, lightheartedly noting how straightforward it can be to fire up his own roster by highlighting the disparity in coverage.
He pointed to Williams dominating attention on the NFL’s website while the Jaguars receive comparatively little notice, framing the imbalance as a ready-made motivational tool for his players.
When asked about those remarks, Johnson made clear he feels no anxiety over the volume of attention directed at his young quarterback.
“Well, we’re the No. 1 regression candidate, so I think we’ve got plenty of motivation ourselves,” Johnson told reporters. “We’ve talked about Caleb in the past. He’s used to handling a lot of attention, so I’m not worried about that.”
That attention is hardly surprising given the leap Williams took during the 2025 season.
Selected first overall by Chicago in the 2024 draft, he experienced the expected turbulence of a rookie campaign before finding greater consistency once Johnson arrived as head coach following his successful tenure as the Detroit Lions’ offensive coordinator.
Under the new staff, Williams completed 58.1 percent of his passes for 3,942 yards, 27 touchdowns and seven interceptions while adding 388 rushing yards and three scores on the ground. Those contributions helped the Bears finish 11-6, claim their first NFC North title since 2018 and secure a playoff berth for the first time since 2020.
Chicago then defeated the rival Green Bay Packers 31-27 in a Wild Card Round thriller, marking the franchise’s first postseason victory since the 2010 season, before falling in overtime to the Los Angeles Rams in the Divisional Round.
Williams’s rapid progress kept him at the center of league-wide conversation throughout the year and culminated in his selection as the cover athlete for Madden NFL 27. Against that backdrop, Coen’s observation that the Jaguars operate with far less fanfare appears accurate.
Jacksonville finished 13-4 and captured the AFC South last season, yet the team has largely avoided the constant spotlight that follows a high-profile quarterback like Williams. Coen’s comments suggested that relative anonymity may suit the Jaguars just fine, allowing them to prepare without the same external pressure that accompanies a rising star in a major market.
Johnson’s reply underscored a straightforward philosophy: the Bears will rely on their own circumstances and Williams’s proven capacity to handle attention rather than concern themselves with how other coaches frame the media landscape.
As training camps continue and the 2026 season approaches, both clubs will look to turn last year’s momentum into sustained success, each operating under its own set of expectations and external narratives.
