Callahan: The Patriots are ready for the NFL’s newest offensive mastermind

FOXBORO — Standing in front of his locker Tuesday afternoon, Patriots captain Kevin Byard took somewhere in the neighborhood of a half-dozen questions about his old quarterback.

Reporters came in waves, some with TV cameras, others only iPhones and a few wondering the same question Byard had just answered in the previous wave before they had arrived. Questions about Caleb Williams’ arm strength, his mobility or moxie. Or just the general danger he poses to defenses.

Standard midweek white noise.

Byard didn’t mind answering again because he’s a gentleman, and because he surely knew this was coming. He is the only Patriot who played in Chicago last season, where the Bears, like the Patriots, made a surprise playoff run behind a new head coach and second-year quarterback. The Pats will kick off against their NFC doppelgänger on Thursday.

But as Byard answered each question about his Williams, his mind often drifted.

“(Williams) is probably one of the toughest quarterbacks to actually sack in the league, especially in the pocket. He’s going to make the first guy miss almost guaranteed every time. So, it’s going to be a huge challenge for us,” Byard said. “And then, obviously, (we’re) facing Ben Johnson, who’s a great play-caller.”

If that drifting is not a tell that the Patriots, and specifically the Patriot who knows Chicago best, see the coach as a threat equal to the quarterback, I’m not sure what is.

After all, Johnson is the latest in a long line of fast-rising offensive coaches to earn monikers like genius, mastermind or play-calling whiz. Google his name, and any number of articles, podcasts or analyses from either last year or his record-setting seasons as the Lions’ offensive coordinator will hail the football Mensa member that is Ben Johnson.

Now, it’s one thing for reporters to fawn over a coach and drool over his Xs and Os. But it’s another thing entirely for Byard, a 33-year-old All-Pro who told me this summer he’s seen or studied virtually every concept run in the NFL, to do it, and then keep doing it like he did Tuesday.

“His scheme is really good,” Byard said. “He’s going to create open receivers and stuff like that. … It’s not just like, ‘Hey, this is the wide receiver No. 1.’ All those guys in Ben Johnson’s offense are (No. 1 receivers). It’s basically dependent on the week.”

Hell, it sounds like Drake Maye might have a Ben Johnson jersey hanging in his closet based on his comments after Tuesday’s practice.

“Any time you have coach (Ben) Johnson, a North Carolina guy and a great offensive mind, they’re going to do some really great things,” Maye said. “Dating back to Detroit, just seeing some of their tempo stuff, some of their play-action and some of their wrinkle plays that are really cool to see and take the league by storm.”

Back to Byard.

Last year, he saw Johnson’s mind at work every day. He sat in his meetings. During practices, he sifted through all of Johnson’s pre-snap shifts and motions, his trickery and defended the one trick Johnson repeated most of all: play-action passing.

Despite all that experience, Byard doesn’t know what his old coach will call Thursday when the wounded Pats limp into town. He can’t say what counters Johnson will have for their blitzes or solutions to their coverage disguises. But Byard is certain of two things.

“I know Ben, being a Thursday night, he’s gonna have some stuff up his sleeve,” he said. “It’s a primetime game. He’s gonna want to show off his expertise.”

That, in and of itself, is an advantage.

Understanding why an opponent wants to play a certain way runs deeper than how, which is standard as every team and coaching staff digs into tendencies. Here, the Patriots know Johnson, who’s surely aware of his reputation as an offensive genius, is driven by ego (granted, not unlike most coaches). That allows them to dig into every trick play Johnson and/or his assistants have run in the last however many years, and at least gloss over them before kickoff.

Just like the “sucker sneak” Johnson called for a touchdown a month ago on Monday Night Football, when the Bears upset the Eagles without Williams before a national audience in an upset that had NFL media falling all over itself to praise their coach’s genius.

The second thing Byard knows is more obvious to anyone who’s watched Chicago lately, or knows the Bears lead the league in rushing yards.

“Ben Johnson wants to run the ball,” he said. “I think as much as people talk about his pass game and Caleb and all this other stuff, his No. 1 philosophy is run the football.”

This is where the Patriots, with all due respect for their grit and toughness, might be in some trouble with their middling run defense (17th by success rate, 18th in DVOA).

Last Sunday, the Jets ran successfully on their most common personnel grouping, a nickel package that features a combination of six defensive linemen and linebackers, plus five defensive backs. It wasn’t until midway through the second quarter that the Pats beefed up their personnel, pivoted from five defensive backs to four, and slowed New York’s ground game.

But that trade-off left them exposed against the deep pass, and early in the third quarter, Jets quarterback Geno Smith hit one of three play-action throws he completed against base personnel for a 48-yard touchdown.

By the way, the Bears rank fourth in the NFL in play-action pass rate, and ranked second last season.

So while the Patriots’ offense might be stuck between a rock and a hard place Thursday due to all their injuries, at least Maye can throw on his Superman cape to save a few drives. But no one has the power to save a distressed run defense should the Bears, who own the league’s fifth-best run-blocking line by ESPN’s run-block win rate, start pushing them around up front.

“It’ll be a huge key,” Vrabel said.