Former Canadian Football League Most Outstanding Player Kerry Joseph has been preparing first overall NFL Draft pick Caleb Williams for his first season with the Chicago Bears.
Joseph was hired by Matt Eberflus to be the team’s quarterbacks coach in January. Williams was officially selected No. 1 overall in late April. Joseph and Williams have been working together for months to prepare for his transition to professional football.
“It’s about partnership, it’s about caring, it’s about loving the guys that you’re coaching. The game of football is about building relationships. When I think about coaching, how can I build that caring, loving relationship,” Joseph said.
“I’m there for them and for their success, the success of the team and to be able to pour out everything that I have inside me into them. Whether it be football, whether it be how to help them continue to grow as a man, life experiences.”
Joseph draws on his time with the Saskatchewan Roughriders to help mentor Williams. Specifically the 2007 season when he led the Green and White to a Grey Cup championship. He completed 58 percent of his passes for 4,002 yards with 24 touchdowns and eight interceptions, while rushing for 737 yards and 13 majors on the ground that year.
“Myself, Marcus Crandell, Darian Durant, we are still good friends. Things that we talked about in that quarterback room with the Riders, we still think about those conversations we had in that meeting room with Ken Miller,” Joseph said.
“Those are things I share with the guys that I coach now. Helping them be the best professional athlete they can be to accomplish everything they set out to accomplish.”
The 50-year-old Joseph wants to keep his Heisman Trophy winner healthy by sliding and avoiding unnecessary hits in the NFL. That led to a unique idea which went viral thanks to HBO’s Hard Knocks training camp series: slip ‘n slide.
“It was done to me when I was coming up in college and when you’re out there in practice, you don’t really get a chance to do it. You put the slip ‘n slide down, don’t have to worry about anybody hurting themselves and you learn how to do it,” Joseph said.
“I was a baseball player, so it was a little bit easier for me where you have people like Caleb who didn’t play baseball, sliding is not natural. We get a chance to cool off in the sun but also get some fundamental work on guys sliding and protecting themselves because it’s very important in the NFL game you protect yourself.”
Eberflus was on board with the slip ‘n slide idea. It provided a practical application to the game and fun at the same time. Joseph doesn’t want his quarterbacks to lose perspective about football.
“We’ve been blessed to play and have fun doing it. I try to keep balance with the guys. Coach to make sure that we’re working our butts off. We’re working to be the best that we can be but also we enjoy each other and the moment,” Joseph said.
“The NFL and pro football is hard to win. It’s a hard business, it’s a lot of pressure, it’s still a game that we work our butt off. We prepare mentally and physically to go perform at the highest level.”
Joseph can feel the excitement from Bears fans and buzz in the Windy City about Williams. There are a lot of expectations for No. 18 who makes his NFL debut on Sunday, September 8 at Soldier Field against the Tennessee Titans.
“Everybody else’s expectations are not our own expectations. Everybody has a right to an opinion. Everybody else’s opinion does not have to be our reality. I always tell Caleb: ‘Hey, stay even keel.’ We know what we want to get done. We know what we want to get done as an individual. We know what we want to get done as an organization. You quiet the noise on everybody else’s expectations,” Joseph said.
Many pundits believe Williams could become the first QB in franchise history to throw for 4,000 yards and 30 touchdowns in a single season during his rookie year. That’s a lot of pressure on a first-year player who has created lots of hype flashing his playmaking ability in the preseason.
“I’ll just say this here: very talented athlete, very talented football player. We are going to take it one day at a time. We’re working our butts off to be the very best and try to get one percent better every day. Then we’re gonna see how this thing falls out. That’s how I was as a player,” Joseph said.
“We chase purpose, not results. Pressure is everywhere in the world, but how you handle the pressure, you apply pressure, you don’t let pressure be applied to you. I always remind our guys that.”
