ESPN Chicago’s Tom Waddle on the Myriad Ways the Bears’ Offense Can Beat You

Rich opened by apologizing. He had just said the Bears have a top-five offense, something he admitted he had never said in his life, and he worried he might be insulting his next guest, former Bears receiver Tom Waddle.

Waddle took it in stride. He and Jim Harbaugh, he joked, "take exception to those words," since back in their day the Bears were "averaging 275 yards and 17 and a half points per game."

Then he made the case that this version of the Bears is something Chicago has never really had.

An offense that can beat you any way it wants

Rich raised the old idea that cold weather isn't the place for a high-powered passing attack, and that Chicago is "where receivers used to go to die." Waddle said this team breaks that mold because it can do everything.

"When you originally think about a Ben Johnson offense, everyone talks about, look, it's a high-flying pass-first offense. It's not," Waddle said. "It's built around the running game." He noted the Bears were the third-best rushing team in the league last year and, before Thursday night's kickoff, were first in the NFL at 161 rushing yards per game.

When a defense does stymie the run, the Bears have the weapons to go over the top: Luther Burden, Cole Kmet, Colston Loveland and Rome Odunze. Waddle said that group combined for 15 catches, 265 yards and a couple of touchdowns on Thursday night.

"You want to take away the run, okay, we'll air it out. You want to take away the pass, all right, we'll run it down your throat," Waddle said. "These are the halcyon days in Chicago, my friend, when it comes to watching offensive football."

Rich loved the word choice. Waddle's response: "I think it's more about my age, Rich, than it is my intelligence."

Caleb Williams and the intangibles

Waddle said the hiring of Ben Johnson was "the best thing that ever happened to Caleb Williams." Everyone knew Williams had the tangibles. The open questions were about the rest. "Does the emotion that comes from you when you lose, is it a stronger emotion than the joy you get from winning? Can you be the leader? Can you be the face of the franchise?" Waddle said. "I think Caleb answered all of those questions last year."

Rich asked where Williams ranks among the quarterbacks Chicago has seen. Waddle acknowledged the sample is small, two years and seven games, but said "nobody has come to this town at that position that has the skillset that Caleb has." He played with Harbaugh, "the ultimate competitor," and watched Jay Cutler arrive "with an enormous amount of talent." He doesn't go back to the Sid Luckman days. His expectation is that when it's all said and done, Williams will hold the bragging rights.

"This is a Bears town," Waddle said. "If you're the quarterback of this franchise and you play at a high level, you're the mayor of the city, for sure."

How Caleb leveled up

So what did Johnson change? Waddle said Williams was always capable of "the dramatic and the magnificent." The work was in the simple stuff, which he said showed up in a completion percentage last year that he believed was just north of 58 percent.

"Can you do simple better? Can you do the easy things? Can you trust the guys around you?" Waddle said, describing the idea that a 5-yard pass to a teammate can let that player do the heavy lifting. "I think that's where Caleb's grown the most, and I think that's where Ben's had the greatest impact."

The emphasis even extends to ball placement on check-downs, putting the ball where a receiver can turn a short throw into a 15 to 17-yard gain. "He still morphs into Superman three, four, five, six times a game, but he does the little things exceptionally well now," Waddle said. "When you marry the magnificent with the simple, now you got something that scares the heck out of the rest of the league."

Off the field, Waddle said Williams's maturity at the podium has mirrored his maturity on the field. "He puts the team first. He acknowledges his offensive line, his wide receivers. He's not a prima donna," he said. "He's got this city right now in the palm of his hands."

What the defense has meant to a 5-2 start

Rich pointed out that Johnson said before the season he wanted blowouts and shutouts, and cited an Elias stat via ESPN: the Bears have run 154 more offensive plays than their opponents, the largest margin by any team through seven games since at least 1963.

Waddle said the Bears lead the league in time of possession by a wide margin, about 36 minutes a game, with the Vikings second at about 33 and a half. He pointed to the Falcons game a week earlier, when Bijan Robinson had four carries in the first half and the Bears held the ball for over 12 of the first 15 minutes. "The best defense against that offense is to keep them on the sideline," he said.

But he gave defensive coordinator Dennis Allen real credit. Waddle said Allen probably has less to work with than Johnson, and has dialed up looks that have "really confused opposing quarterbacks and opposing offensive coordinators," getting the most out of a front four that needs help from Kyler Gordon and the blitz packages to get home.

"I never thought that they would be a top 10 defense at this point," Waddle said. He would have been happy with middle of the pack. "Their defense so far has over-produced."

Ben Johnson and Coach Ditka

Asked for his favorite Ben Johnson story, Waddle confessed he was running on two hours of sleep. What he offered instead was a comparison. Johnson treats everyone the same, from Williams to the 53rd man on the roster, and "he'll cuss Caleb out in practice if he's not doing what's expected of him."

"He's a lot like Coach Ditka in that manner," Waddle said. "If you show him loyalty and honesty with the way you play the game, you're going to get it back five, tenfold." He added that he would not want to sit in a Johnson film session after a day full of mistakes. "He's not going to embarrass you, but he's going to tell the truth and he's going to hold you accountable."

Remembering Mike Ditka

That led Rich to the passing of Mike Ditka. "Whenever I think about Coach Ditka, the room gets a little dusty for me," Waddle said. "My first thought was one of gratitude. My NFL career would not have existed without Mike Ditka."

Waddle came out of Boston College running a 4.82 40-yard dash. He went undrafted, and it took three days to find a team. The Bears only signed him because his agent had another receiver they wanted. "I was a throw-in," he said. Ditka cut him four times and kept bringing him back.

Rich asked what Ditka says on the fourth cut. Waddle described the walk up to the office and the old leather couch. Ditka praised his camp, then delivered the verdict: "You're too small and too slow. If I put you out there, you're going to get killed and I'm going to go to jail."

The fourth cut came after the 1991 camp, and Waddle, holding a Boston College finance degree, was ready to walk away to Wall Street. Then Ditka told him that because of injuries, he would be in uniform for the opener against the Vikings, just as an emergency player. Another receiver got hurt. Waddle walked into the huddle on a third-and-10, and they converted. Late in the first half, he caught a deep ball and bounced into the end zone. The Bears won 10-6. Rich found the box score live on air.

At the end of the game, Ditka put a hand on his shoulder and said, "I knew you could do it, kid." Waddle bowed his head and launched into a tearful thank-you that lasted about 45 seconds. When he looked up, Ditka was already in the tunnel. "I was talking to myself," Waddle said.

He also recalled hosting The Mike Ditka Show with Silvy for 10 years at Ditka's restaurant, calling it "a great circus," and watching Ditka donate to Misericordia and other charities. "He was a champion for the underdog, Rich," Waddle said. "From my perspective, I will be eternally grateful to that man."