While veteran center Garrett Bradbury is eager to mentor Caleb Williams and master the Bears' new offense, his primary focus is adjusting to the nuances of Ben Johnson’s scheme.
Before Garrett Bradbury can help out Caleb Williams, he must first help himself. That's exactly what the veteran center intends to do as one of the newer members of the Chicago Bears' organization.
Bradbury spent his first six seasons in the NFL with the Minnesota Vikings and was most recently on a New England Patriots team that made it to the Super Bowl last season.
The process for the 30-year-old offensive lineman to learn head coach Ben Johnson's system is straight forward.
“Just learning," Bradbury said. "Learning all of what it is, all the verbiage, all the terms. Everyone's running the same plays. It's what do you call them? How do you identify things? How do you look at defenses? It's just that verbiage. I've gone through this a few times now, and so it's just getting up to speed on all the little things and nuances.”
Someone who will help with getting up to speed on the little things is veteran left guard Joe Thuney, Bradbury's college teammate at NC State. Bradbury mentioned during his Monday press conference at Halas Hall that he learned a lot from playing with Thuney in college and that "it's going to be awesome" to play alongside him again.
Once Bradbury begins understanding the nuances of this Bears offense, then he can become an asset for Williams. When the Vikings drafted Bradbury No. 18 overall in 2019, Kirk Cousins was the quarterback. By that point, Cousins was in his eighth year in the NFL and Bradbury embraced his quarterback's wealth of knowledge.
Now, Bradbury is in the veteran role and served as that for Patriots quarterback Drake Maye last season.
“It's totally different," Bradbury said. "It's really cool. When I was young, I had Kirk Cousins and he knew everything. It was just cool to learn and learn and learn. As I've gotten older and more experienced, I see the game a little bit differently. I've seen more things and am a lot more comfortable and confident to voice what I'm seeing and things that we could adjust or change. It's just a cool part of the process.”
Something that has helped Bradbury to work with new quarterbacks is getting together for weekly meetings to go over protections.
"I think that's a big thing," Bradbury said. "What will the defense present us? Are we seeing it the same way? Do I need to turn around? And there's just little things like that where I look forward to seeing and hearing how he sees it and then I can piggyback off of that. Then in the run game as well, identifications, what defense are they seeing? Is it what we expected? In game adjustments. It's part of a working relationship with a quarterback. They drive the whole team, the whole offense. So, any way I can assist, any way I can help. I’m looking forward to working through that.”
A lot those questions Bradbury presented can't be answered now, but as he continues to work with Williams, offensive line coach Dan Roushar and Johnson, there will be more clarity.
Once the Bears get deeper into the offseason program and can take what is being taught in the class room and apply it on the practice field, only then will Bradbury and Williams become more comfortable.
For now, though, Bradbury will work on what he can to adjust to his new team, but he already sees how the core group of returning players have established a strong foundation with each other.
“From everything I've heard, it's a close-knit locker room," Bradbury said. "It's a close-knit team. A lot of continuity with the coaching staff as well, which is always key. And so, it's finding my place and my role in this team and, like I said, getting to know everyone starts with that and then learning the system, and then everything falls in place from there.”