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Preamble:

“We are what we habitually do; therefore, excellence is a habit” – Aristotle

A father took his young protege son to get taught by a master. “He’s great now. I can imagine how much better he’ll be after the master’s tutelage”
The protege played for the master.
“You undeniably play well, but alas, I cannot help you”
The father, shocked, inquired, “Why?”
“His technique is beyond repair”

“Cutler was ruined before he even entered the NFL. Running for his life on a weekly basis at Vandy ingrained terrible habits he never unlearned.
He was throwing from his back foot ‘til his very last NFL game” – a quote I always remembered back when the Jay debate was raging

It’s OTAs, and the circle-jerkathon is in full force. We already got the spunky 7th rounder from Rutgers. Now all we need for the annual Bears’ summer is some lil known try-hard to win the Joe Anderson Trophy

So it’s important to keep everything in perspective without rose-tinted glasses. Get past all the Ben Johnson honeymoon bouquets, FA stars and draft ‘studs’…

This season will MOSTLY depend on the most vital position in all of sports:

Quarterback

It’s hard to quantify where great coaching ends and great QBing begins. Belichick/Brady make a fascinating study. However, I do believe that a superb coach, like a good parent, master or teacher can make a difference IF the learner is caught early.

As Frederick Douglass once expressed, “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.”

The #1 question for the foreseeable Bears’ future:

Is Caleb broken beyond repair already or can Ben Johnson still build him up?

Greg Cosell, Senior Producer at NFL Films, wonders this very question

Few points from the vid

– Pocket awareness

“NFL goes back years and years, and often guys who get sacked a lot in college – who tend to retreat backwards – don’t do well”

“Shadeur Sanders retreats a lot too. It might be innate. A longtime coach said that’s going to be really hard to fix”

[Notice how all, Cutler, Caleb and Shadeur, played behind porous college olines? Does this create irreversible “happy feet” esp if they are thrown into a similar setup in the NFL which only reinforces it?]

‘Often QBs create their own sacks. Feel pressure that isn’t there. I don’t know if you can teach a QB to hang in the pocket and hit a receiver with defenders barreling down’

– Assessing Ds [the Kurt Warner angle]

‘In the NFL it can’t be pure progression [where the D almost doesn’t matter]. In the NFL knowing how the D lines up is a BIG factor, and it’s hard to diagnose a D if there’s only 4 seconds on the clock’

Those are two YUGE areas Caleb MUST solve, and quick. The third I would add is consistency
Caleb Williams creates many ‘wow’ plays. But so did Jay Cutler
Then the next play he throws it right into the gut of a DT or 4 INTs to DeAngelo Hall
Rex Grossman won NFC Offensive Player of September, and look how that ended…

Can’t win a SB like that
Caleb must show up for the first 3 QTRs

On the bright side, Cossell asserts BJ will at least help Caleb unlike the previous regime:

‘Ben Johnson does a great job of creating separation to make it easier for QBs
[think prime GB with Rodgers when Jordy Nelson and gang ran free on crossing routes]

But in the end your kid has to swim; your kid has to ride down the hill without training wheels; your kid has to drive on his own with his buddies acting like maniacs…

As Caleb must himself ascend to that near mythic and ever elusive ‘generational QB’ and not flatline into another Bad Rex or Smoking Jay