Bears Make Caleb Williams' Biggest Flaw a Daily Priority at OTAs

Ben Johnson is tracking Caleb Williams' accuracy daily at OTAs, a sign the Bears are making completion percentage and yards after catch a major 2026 focus.

Accuracy is everything for the Bears and Caleb Williams in the passing attack this season, after he completed only 58.1% last year. | Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images

LAKE FOREST, ILL. — It was a scene straight out of the end of last season, sans pad.

Caleb Williams took the snap, sensed pressure from behind from defensive end Austin Booker, rolled out of the pocket right and with penalty flags on the ground he spotted an open receiver deep downfield on an off-script play.

Rome Odunze hauled it in for the touchdown pass. The Bears' offense looked sharp considering it was only Day 2 of OTAs, and it could partly be the emphasis by Ben Johnson on accuracy

"It was a great play," receiver Luther Burden said. "Him and Rome have a great connection. We've been working on our scramble drill a lot this year. The coaches harping on it. It was great to see it happen in practice. So, let's continue to do that."

They always could do that type of thing last year. What they couldn't always do was connect on time within the offense. They're working at this to avoid last year's 58.1% completions.

A wheel route D'Andre Swift hauled in was a better example of this, as were rocketed bullets to tight ends Colston Loveland and Cole Kmet over the middle.

When they didn't have trouble with false starts at Thursday's OTA practice — and there were a few of those even though they said they'd be past this to start practices — the receivers generally seemed to get more separation on routes than offseason last year.

Last season Caleb Williams' target was an unrealistic 70% completions. Johnson is focusing on crisp passing and accuracy again. It wasn't perfect. Kalif Raymond dropped a pass. Wearing No. 14 now in Chicago, maybe it was the jersey number. Olamide Zaccheaus wore the number last year and had drop problems throughout the season.

Bears running back D'Andre Swift goes through drills with Bears running backs coach Eric Studesville watching closely. | Chicago Bears On SI Photo: Gene Chamberlain

Accurate passes normally won't get dropped, though.

"We’ll continue to emphasize it," Johnson said. "That shows up. Completion percentage is something that we're going to emphasize, and so what did they get when they came into the offensive meeting today? They got the chart of what was our completion percentage yesterday (Monday), who had drops, what did our scramble drill look like, when those naturally occurred."

Williams was ninth in the NFL with yards after catch last year at 1,835. Johnson had Jared Goff at sixth in YAC during his first year as Detroit offensive coordinator, then second.

It starts with the accuracy on throws, not just being caught but being placed where they need to be for the receiver to run.

"And so that's really our first objective is just drawing more attention to it," Johnson said. "Those guys are really critical of themselves in drill settings, routes on air, where the ball placement is. We want to give these pass catchers —  we have so many talented ones — opportunities to run after the catch, and so we're being very critical on where we're putting that football with them, and that's something that we grade every day.”

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