Ben Johnson establishing early at Bears training camp that details matter

Details matter to Chicago Bears coach Ben Johnson. And he doesn’t care if he hurts a starter’s feelings to prove it.

In Wednesday’s first practice of Bears training camp, Johnson pulled Chicago’s offensive starters because of repeated alignment mistakes. And, yes, that included QB Caleb Williams.

“If you’re not doing it right, he’s going to get you out and he’s not going to just see that stuff continue,” tight end Cole Kmet said after practice. “It’s just a lesson to us that you got to be on the details. … All the reps are important. All of it matters.”

Ben Johnson isn’t your father’s Matt Eberflus. He’s a serious — really serious — football coach. And his intensity is having a trickle-down effect on the rest of his coaching staff.

“The word ‘intense’ was used a lot this spring to describe practice and the shared mentality of Ben Johnson and his coaches,” ESPN’s Courtney Cronin wrote. “That carried over to Day 1 of training camp, where the 1st team offense got thrown out of a drill by Johnson during a drill when they couldn’t get lined up properly. We saw that intensity on defense, too, when Dennis Allen had his players doing up-downs.”

Yep. You gotta love it. It’s been … forever … since the Chicago Bears had a coaching staff like this. And that’s probably why it also feels like forever since this franchise competed for a playoff berth.

The longer Ben Johnson has with this team and the more time Caleb Williams and the rest of the offense have on task this summer, the better the results will be.

For now, every player is on notice. Details matter, and their jobs depend on getting those details right.