Why Kurt Warner says Caleb Williams’ low completion percentage isn't all bad

At this point, it’s getting hard not to notice the trend with young Bears quarterback Caleb Williams: in a sport where passing the football is premium, he’s not doing it very efficiently on paper.

Following Sunday’s 19-of-35 outing throwing the ball, Williams has now has a completion percentage of just 57.1% on the season. Furthermore, he’s failed to complete 60% or more of his passes in nine of his last 10 games.

To be fair, the Bears have won eight of those 10 games, with the highest-percentage game (65.8%) ironically being the Bears lost to the Ravens. So that clearly hasn’t detrimentally harmed the Bears. It’s just not what you want to see from your quarterback, especially one you hoped to see taking a step toward being one of the league’s best.

But Hall-of-Fame quarterback Kurt Warner has a different take: Williams’ low completion percentage actually does illustrate some of that optimism, if you look hard enough.

“Obviously he misses some throws and misses some guys. I think he also. does a great job of throwing the ball away,” Warner told 670 The Score on Monday after the game. “There’s a lot of quarterbacks who take a bunch of sacks when they should just throw the football away. And I think Caleb, especially on those naked bootlegs—you either win, or there’s nothing there. Although he made some great plays on the move, sometimes the incompletion is simply because the play doesn’t work and he’s gotta throw it away. He does a good job with that.”

.@kurt13warner notes that part of the reason that Caleb Williams' completion percentage isn't as high as he and Ben Johnson would like is because Williams compiles a couple incompletions each game throwing the ball away after evading sacks, which would've been far worse. pic.twitter.com/saUlXkmN3g
— 670 The Score (@670TheScore) December 8, 2025

While Warner also acknowledges some other elements of the Bears’ passing game need some work, like timing and Williams needing to throw with more touch at times, he makes a strong point here. In fact, it’s one you could see in action against Green Bay especially.

With Williams frequently rolling out of the pocket and getting on the move, there’s always a chance that a throw simply isn’t there because the play is cooked. In the past (and still a little bit now), Williams might hold the ball and run around looking for a receiver until he took a disastrous hit or got sacked. This year, he’s either dirting the football down the field out of harms way or chucking it into the 10th row, avoiding sacks, fumbles, and interceptions.

So yes, sometimes the unglamorous play—admitting when you’ve been defeated for a play—is the best one. That’s a huge reason Williams has kept his sacks and picks down this year, and why his splash plays have more weight than the misses. Plus, some incompletions within the field of play aren’t all on him, such as when rookie receiver Luther Burden Jr. throttled down his route rather than continuing into space on one of their missed connections.

Look, completing more passes is always better than completing fewer of them. But even more than that: you will always, always take fewer turnovers or massive losses of yardage over more such plays. Williams’ ability to improve so dramatically on that as a second-year quarterback is impressive, even if the overall numbers need work.

So don’t worry, Bears fans: Williams is doing what he needs to, even if his completion percentage looks rough. The rest will come in time.

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