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Caleb Williams Envisions Bigger Numbers and Greater Bears Success

The second year under Ben Johnson has the Bears quarterback thinking more seriously about a higher completion percentage and going even deeper into the playoffs.
Gene Chamberlain|
Caleb Williams talks with reporters about his ambitions for 2026 on Monday at Halas Hall.
Caleb Williams talks with reporters about his ambitions for 2026 on Monday at Halas Hall. | Chicago Bears On SI Photo: Chicago Bears video

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Chicago Bears

Caleb Williams' quest for accuracy has officially begun with team conditioning work at Halas Hall, and OTAs to follow later this spring.

Williams' second year in Ben Johnson's offense could be the springboard to the kind of completion percentage the Bears wanted to see last year. If you'll remember, it was 70% completions for a goal. Williams came up more than a bit short at 58.1%, the lowest completion percentage for a regular starting quarterback who made the playoffs since 2012.

“I would say it all starts with more reps," Williams said. "Then, the next part, it comes with comfort in the offense and I think towards the end of the year, that started to grow for me. I think those two things are really big in that standpoint.

"And then, the details, that last point is the details. Whether it's the receiver's depth in his steps and where his landmark is to break or stop or settle, and then from there, it's me knowing all of those also. It's being able to deliver a catchable ball, whether it's velocity or where I place the ball, ball placement and things like that to be able to allow them to catch it but also have more from it."

After the 2025 playoffs ended with the 20-17 overtime loss to the Rams after a key interception by Williams on a pass to DJ Moore, Johnson said he thought there might have been 90 pass plays called during the year that easily could have been completions. Either mistimed throws, poor routes, drops, or numerous other factors led to the low catch total that made for Williams' poor completion percentage.

Playing the percentages

The success the Bears had occurred because he found the mark more often than not in the fourth quarter of games.

"You have the drops, you have the incomplete pass that I miss, and then you have to start throwing more and more and more and more," William sad. "You get behind sticks and all these different things.

"And so, being able to be efficient for what we have, and when we have, and what we call, it raises the numbers from there. And so, that's what this part is. That's what this next phase and the phase after that is. And so, we'll keep harping on those things, myself included. Ball placement, the guys I know are going to be harping on landmarks and locations and catching the ball, and I have to put the ball in the right spot for them to do it.”

Even with Moore traded to Buffalo and a different center for the third straight year of his pro career, Williams sees the completion percentage improvement as possible because of Johnson's offense and his own tightening relationship with his coach. The two regularly talk to each other throughout the offseason by phone, not so much by text. Johnson prefers the spoken word. At least now, with the start of conditioning work, they can put the phones away.

"I would say for me, personally, it's a big year in the sense I get to grow more, I get to step into the role that I've spoken about for the past two years," Williams said. "Being up here. That's important for me. I'm really excited.

"I've been itching to get back since, honestly, since the game and try not to text Ben too much or anything like that. But I'm excited to be back. I'm excited to be around the guys. I've been waiting on this day to get back and see the new faces and obviously some of the guys that have been here. And so, that's first. And then I think for us, I think every year is a big year. You go into it and you have one goal, and you obviously set that goal at the beginning of it, which we've done, and we know what the goal is."

The goal isn't simply the 70% mark. It's winning and winning big, eventually going past where they were last year in the divisional playoffs.

“It was good for me to be able to see, to be able to feel, to be able to go out there and win games," Williams said. "But that wasn't my goal, that's not my goal. That's not where I want to be.

"I want to be the best. I want to win. I want to be, as we call it, a world champion, a Super Bowl champion. I want to be the best Bears quarterback, best quarterback."

Johnson said when the season ended that they had to start all over, but Williams is bent on using that success of 2025 as a platform to launch 2026.

Only a steppingstone

"Yes, that was a good steppingstone for me, but that wasn't the last steppingstone," he said. "Being able to grow off of last year and be able to progress in ways that I want to.

"That last year wasn't really anything. It was a good year and we’ve got many more good years coming up.”

It would be hard to envision a season more heart-stopping or thrilling than it was for last year’s Cardiac Bears, but the satisfaction can be even greater if they come away with three more postseason victories than they had in 2025.

It's all possible mainly because of Johnson.

"Coaching matters," is how Williams put it.

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.

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