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Prestigious Ranking Certifies Rise of Caleb Williams-Ben Johnson Duo

It's rankings seasons for NFL quarterbacks and the Bears QB has risen quite a bit from last year's in the eyes of analytical expert Pro Football Focus.
Gene Chamberlain|
Caleb Williams has impressed even many of his most vocal critics.
Caleb Williams has impressed even many of his most vocal critics. | USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Connect

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Chicago Bears

When coach Ben Johnson came to the Bears from Detroit, the questions came out how he could handle a very young quarterback like Caleb Williams.

After all, Johnson's only experience handling an offense or NFL quarterbacks had been with veteran Jared Goff in Detroit offense. Johnson's patience to mold a young quarterback was in question.

If last season's leap from rookie struggles under coach Matt Eberflus to the "Iceman," wasn't enough to validate the Johnson-Williams duo, a new one says the same. Pro Football Focus has released its annual top 32 starting quarterback rankings ahead of the 2026 season. Williams has risen greatly from the 2025 ranking the analytics site gave him.

In fact, Williams has improved enough that he is now ranked above the quarterback Johnson had in Detroit in 2024. PFF grades Williams 13th among all NFL starting quarterbacks heading into 2026, and Goff is 14th.

"The cover athlete for Madden NFL '27 is still a bit of a gunslinger, as his negatively graded throw rate ranked 38th at the position," Max Chadwick and Dalton Wasserman wrote in their QB rankings. "Even so, Williams is trending in the right direction and appears well on his way to living up to the immense expectations that came with being the No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft."

The leap isn't as high as the one Williams received from NBC analyst Chris Simms in his annual rankings, but does represent a huge leap forward. Simms had Williams ranked sixth in the NFL.

Williams has ridden the roller coaster in PFF's rankings. He broke in ranked 19th overall before his rookie season, the highest point the website had ever given a rookie QB since starting up in 2006. However, the 2024 fiasco under coordinator Shane Waldron and Eberflus led to Williams being ranked 24th after his rookie year. He actually descended five spots.

Williams still behind contemporaries

Despite moving up to 13th, Williams still doesn't rank No. 1 in his own division and doesn't even rank No. 1 from his draft class. In fact, he wasn't even second in his draft class.

Green Bay's Jordan Love was ranked the sixth-best QB. Despite Williams' success last year and Jayden Daniel's failures, the Bears QB is still ranked one spot below Daniels in the PFF rankings. PFF blamed Daniels' drop out of the top 10 on his injury issues.

"A healthy Daniels still gives the Commanders a great chance to win every week, but he needs to be available for all 17 games," Wasserman and Chadwick wrote.

Drake Maye, from the same draft class, also was ahead of him at No. 9. He was rated ahead of Bo Nix, whose 19th ranking drew outrage from Broncos nation.

The PFF top 10 was Josh Allen No. 1, then No. 2 Joe Burrow, No. 3 Lamar Jackson, No. 4 Patrick Mahomes, No. 5 Matthew Stafford, No. 6 Love, No. 7 Justin Herbert, No. 8 Dak Prescott, No. 9Maye and No. 10 Brock Purdy.

Of all the quarterback rankings to come out, PFF's probably rates No. 1 because of the heavy analytical emphasis of the site. Williams has ridden the up escalator here, and the Bears can only hope it's now a trend after he has been paired with Johnson.

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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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