LAKE FOREST, Ill. — Ben Johnson was still a few hours from delivering his first full training camp address to Chicago Bears players Tuesday at Halas Hall. So a few minutes before 1 p.m., he wasn’t about to clumsily drop any spoilers about the edge he’d be urging his team to adopt.“That,” Johnson said with a wide grin, “is for team meetings. We’ll keep that there.”Still, from the look in his eye, it seemed obvious Johnson was eager to deliver that first blast of messaging to a Bears team positioned to pursue grand achievements this season. And three minutes into his first camp Q&A with the media, it was also clear Johnson was in his usual driven headspace, standing at a lectern inside the PNC Center with energy and passion as the curtain rose on what promises to be a fascinating few months.Why Ben Johnson is making it extremely hard on NFL defensesRobert MaysJohnson is promising another ultraintense training camp, in his words Tuesday, “a demanding ordeal” that will frequently push players to their mental and physical limits.“Anything worth doing is going to be challenging,” Johnson explained. “These guys all know that, and I think they embrace it as well.”Johnson reiterated that last season is ancient history, with the coach emphasizing — as he first did in January — how little the feel-good accomplishments of 2025 mean in this next phase of the team’s journey.“You talk about sustaining success? Well, shoot. We are starting all over again,” Johnson said. “That’s been the consistent message.”And that message has been accompanied by familiar reminders for players to understand what the coaches are looking for as they push to mold a team in the head coach’s vision, a unit that is consistently physical, poised and sound.A push to grow closer is also part of the Bears’ agenda for the next six weeks. To that end, a pair of three-night trips to Cincinnati and Nashville, Tenn., for joint practices and preseason game action will offer bonding opportunities.“We are in a race right now,” Johnson said, “to develop the same chemistry we had a year ago. I think that was one of the things that was our secret sauce: guys playing for each other. We had a really close-knit group.”Much of Johnson’s second season in Chicago, of course, will still revolve around how much he can squeeze out of quarterback Caleb Williams, whose developmental leap from the beginning of training camp in 2025 to the end of the team’s playoff run in January was impressive. Still, Williams has many more checkpoints to pass through on his way to becoming one of the league’s best quarterbacks. And Johnson’s goal is to guide him as far as possible this season.On that front, the connection between the two can be characterized as strong and growing stronger, which wasn’t always the case last summer when Williams himself acknowledged that, on many days, he was worried about how Johnson felt about him while also acknowledging he felt like he was “drowning, trying to breathe, stay alive and wait for a boat to come around.”Now Williams stands in a much more comfortable posture at the helm of the Bears’ offense with Johnson guiding him and pushing him to become a better decision-maker, a more precise passer and a more efficient quarterback overall.Throughout the spring, Johnson watched Williams polish his footwork, working on alignment to the target to enhance his accuracy. Training camp will present new challenges — and growth opportunities — in a different forum.“When you get into the bullets flying and to where we’ve got full-speed reps here with O versus D, I think that’s where the ability (for him) to see, ‘Where should I go with the football?’ the process (becomes) a little bit faster,” Johnson said. “I’m hopeful we see another step in terms of the processing speed because we do have these banked reps at this point.”Since Johnson arrived, Williams has made it clear he wants to be consistently pushed by his head coach. And hard. That Johnson, with his rare blend of honesty and drive, so naturally found the right buttons to push with Williams has been encouraging.When general manager Ryan Poles was asked Tuesday why he believes the Johnson-Williams relationship has clicked, he kept it as simple as he could. “They both want to be great and win Super Bowls,” Poles said. “And that’s all that matters.”The goal now is to bring an entire organization along for the ride. Which is why Poles, like his head coach, pushed back on the assertion that the Bears might be adjusting this year from being the hunter to becoming the hunted.“It’s important,” Poles said, “to have that mindset that you’re always hunting.”That won’t be an issue for Johnson, who seemed genuinely enthused by the realization that 42 players on his current 90-man roster weren’t here last season.“As a coaching staff, we will apply pressure and stress on these guys,” Johnson said. “I think that’s where the best version of yourself comes forward.”The first camp practice begins early this morning. And with that, the race will be on. Johnson, though, seems confident his squad will be in the proper attacking mindset with a full understanding of what’s ahead.“This is where it gets fun,” he said. “This is our chance to forge our identity.”