The Deuce: Helpful, thanks (other than the coward shiv)*

in simplest terms, they want to confuse the defense. "no shit, viv, everyone wants to do that." johnson really means it. he wants lots of things to look the same at the line, then have multiple options from there. in that way, it's very sean mcvay. but the next play, he'll throw a formation, a blocking scheme, a trick play, that you've never prepped for at you and hit you with a big play.

he uses presnap shifting more than any offense i've ever seen to change strong side/ weak side and to get defenses off of their initial reads then also motions a ton at the snap to get his fast players already running at top speed and to create more assignment confusion. and he's really good at finding the weak link in the defense.

first and foremost, this is an offense built on the run. he uses a lot of 3 tackle sets and 2 & 3 TE sets. it uses both zone (mostly outside) and gap/trap concepts. he will use any of his linemen to pull- sometimes 2 of them- sometimes even in opposite directions. i saw one play where he pulled the RT and the 3rd tackle playing TE on the right side towards the left, then had the LG pull the opposite way to create a cutback lane. but then the next play he'll run pure outside zone wide sprint for gibbs that they'll be able to exploit because the LBs and safeties just have to hold that extra beat to know where the ball is going.

and of course, he uses a ton of play action off of all of these looks. goff really isn't a play-in-space guy, but they'd still do half rollouts. lots of levels concepts on those.

for straight pass sets, they'll do a ton of motioning into a trips/bunch concept- again to create confusion- starting with 2 receivers to one side and sprinting a 3rd into that bunch so the secondary players have some assignment uncertainty. lots of deep middle and deep outside shots from these looks. dagger concepts with deep digs and sail concepts with deep outs. lots of verticals and posts. and because the TEs stay in to block so much, you'll also see a lot of block and release routes from them as outlets. they love speed at receiver and RB. get their fast guys in space, hopefully with a step or two on your confused ass, and let them take it to the house.

so, how does this translate to personnel for the bears?

-OL: going to need an overhaul and probably a multi-year one. because there is so much going on with so many different looks, you need smart players who know their assignments who are also athletic enough to do the pulling and moving required. adding kevin zeitler (G) who played in this scheme this year would be a great start. he turns 35 this offseason, so it would be a stopgap measure, but at least you wouldn't have a learning curve for him. you also need a real center. get me drew dalman. will campbell at pick 10 would also be really nice at the other guard spot. further down the draft, i really like tyler booker from bama as a 2nd round option, and luke kandra from cincy as a mid rounder.

-WR: hopefully a coaching change revitalizes DJ into being the player we signed him to be. i can see him doing a lot of what ARSB does over the middle of the field. there isn't really a corollary to jameson williams and his 4.25 40 time on this bears team. rome has good speed but isn't a burner like that. maybe you take a chance on hollywood brown or rondale moore and their respective injuries histories in free agency, but i think you probably address this in the mid rounds of the draft. someone maybe like jalen royals from utah state in the 3rd.

-TE: johnson uses the tight end for blocking much more than the bears did in '24. kmet is largely fine, but you're not bringing back gerald everett and i think marcedes lewis is about washed. you need to add at least 2 TEs. one free agent that really interests me is hunter long from the rams. he's a block-first TE, still on the young side (26), and familiar with mcvay concepts which we'd use some of, and you can get him for likely around the minimum. in the draft, you're probably looking later rounds. i've not looked much at TEs so far, but maybe someone like stayoutofitLukeLachey from TE U (UFI), jalin conyers from TTU, or mitchell evans from ND. just going on body types there.

-RB: going to need some overhaul. there's a reason the johnson-led lions offense didn't mind trading away d'andre swift. you can't just cut him, though. you'd be eating $9M to save 500k. just won't happen- this offseason, at least. but after this year, he's probably gone. so let's say you want to recreate the "sonic and knuckles" gibbs & monty here in chicago. swift is more of the sonic side. not nearly as crazy explosive as gibbs, but you could use him in that role for a year. so where's the knuckles? ashton MFing jeanty. he's the idealized version of what you want for that role. elite tackle breaking and contact balance, always fighting for more yards, but also has some burst. he'd be a star. if a RB at 10 is just too rich for you (you coward), you could take cam skattebo, kaleb johnson, or quinshon judkins in the 2nd or 3rd. if you want the sonic role, i really like judkins' teammate treveyon henderson. he's so explosive in space.

-QB: the biggest burning question of them all- how does this work with caleb? you'll see a lot of easy take "goff is a robot who can read the defenses quickly, caleb can't do that", usually from people already pot-committed on their "caleb is bad" takes. we only saw flashes of caleb being able to do this with lots of data points against it, but i think that has more to do with him not trusting the offense vs. not having the aptitude to do it. two very different things. i think caleb is really smart and can go through progressions well, just give him some time (both off the field and in the pocket). i don't think johnson takes the job if he doesn't see star potential for caleb. he turned goff from a bottom third QB to pro-bowl level and caleb has a lot more he can unlock.

the last time i was this excited for the bears was probably 6 years ago. i genuinely think the future is bright.