Ben Johnson didn’t bite when asked about Liam Coen’s jab at Caleb Williams.
Coen, the Jacksonville Jaguars head coach, stirred things up this week by using Williams and the Chicago Bears as a comparison while explaining why his own team should have no trouble finding motivation. He pointed to the attention Williams gets and the relative lack of buzz around Jacksonville, saying, “I look at the NFL website, and see if there’s anything on the Jaguars.
I think I’ll see 40 pictures of Caleb Williams. And nothing on us!
It’s beautiful,”
That comment made its way to Johnson at training camp, and the Bears head coach kept his response short. Johnson said Williams is “used to handling a lot of attention,” and added, “We’re the number one regression candidate, so I think we’ve got plenty of motivation ourselves. We talked about Caleb in the past-he’s used to handling a lot of attention-so I’m not worried about that.”
The backdrop here is simple: both teams were much better than expected in 2025. Chicago finished 11-6 and won its division behind a strong second year from Williams, while Jacksonville rolled to a 13-4 record and captured its division for the fifth time in franchise history.
Even with that success, the Jaguars still aren’t getting nearly the same kind of attention as a lot of teams with worse records. The Bears, meanwhile, are soaking up just about all the hype, with major sports networks regularly running segments about Williams’ future in Chicago despite the team finishing with the fourth-best record in the NFC and ninth-best record in the NFL last year.
Coen may have been trying to light a fire under his team, but Johnson didn’t seem interested in making it into anything more.
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