Skip to main content
Bear Digest

Study Reveals Where Caleb Williams Can Best Address His Critics

The annual Pro Football Focus deep dive into passers has come out with numbers providing real insight into where coaches can improve the Chicago Bears passer.
Gene Chamberlain|
Caleb Williams has multiple obvious areas he can improve when it comes to boosting his completion percentage.
Caleb Williams has multiple obvious areas he can improve when it comes to boosting his completion percentage. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

In this story:

Chicago Bears


While describing the progress coaches saw in quarterback Caleb Williams over the offseason at the end of minicamp, Chicago Bears coach Ben Johnson found everything encouraging.

Offseason is the time for positive thinking.

"We're continuing to see his evolution as a quarterback," Johnson said. "The accuracy continues to improve. The ball placement, the understanding of the offense, the orchestration of everything from the huddle to the snaps, the shifts, the cadence and all that, it continues to improve. So that's all we really want to see right now. "

Correcting Williams' inaccuracy is the Holy Grail for Bears coaches in 2026. The offseason allows them to get inside the inaccuracy issues like surgeons and try to come up with corrections internally, so to speak.

Similarly, Pro Football Focus has put out an annual publication examining all quarterbacks very closely and this shows many of the reasons how Williams has been inaccurate. In some cases it even explains why. This is their "2026 NFL QB Annual" which has just come out.

In many ways it supports how NFL analyst and former player Mark Schlereth described Williams on his podcast when he said the Bears QB "is not a great quarterback," and that he's more of a great athlete. In other ways, the study indicates Schlereth is far off base or soon will be.

PFF's Mark Chichester provides a fascinating look at the real problems Williams had last year, but also the pluses. It's such a small sample size in Williams' case because his first year was a total washout in a poor offense and with a poor coaching staff. Last year was the first real attempt to mold him correctly as a pro and it was a solid starting point with obvious points to correct.

Where it's bad and good

Williams had his first real extensive experience last year as a quarterback lining up under center and when he did this he graded out an astounding seventh among 43 quarterbacks who were graded. Consider what could happen when he's had a little more experience at this while working with a coaching staff very well versed in this type of attack like Johnson's is.

An obvious problem area is the red zone, where he graded out 41st of 43 QBs. It's almost hard to believe when he managed plays like the pass to Jahdae Walker against the Packers or the retreating deep ball to Cole Kmet against Rams — remember, that was a red-zone play even though the pass came out near midfield.

Along these same lines was which coverages gave him the most problems. Two of his worst passer grades came against simple cover-2 and cover-3 zones. However, quarters coverage is not an easy thing to beat, either, and he was graded fifth out of 43 quarterbacks at attacking this.

The study of quarterbacks facing the rush graded Williams sixth out of 43 at big-time throws under pressure at crunch time. What exactly crunch time is or even big-time throws are not described in detail and PFF/Chichester leave too much to the reader's imagination here.

The heart of the matter

What's most important with Williams is the incompletion problems he had, other than when he was grounding the ball or throwing it away.

The study found his accuracy issues resulted from receiver error on 15.3% of his throws and from the defensive coverage on 28.5%. However, 35.2% were simply caused by overthrows, underthrows, leading the receiver too far or throwing behind him.

It's here where coaches have been working hardest with Williams in the offseason. It's been technique work and putting the ball in places where receivers can catch it in stride.

Targeting issues for Williams

Where Williams is best throwing the ball would seem something Johnson and his scheme could easily address. The results of the study here showed the often-criticized inaccuracy he has throwing after 10 yards downfield. However, his passing 20 yards downfield in some places on the field was astounding.

Throwing the middle of the field 20 yards downfield, Williams had a 133.0 passer rating with 578 yards and two touchdowns to one interception. That's an area QBs normally dread throwing because it's an invitation to interceptions.

He was much less accurate deep and left but still not terrible considering where the ball was going. He had five TD passes and an 87.5 passer rating, one dragged down by three of his interceptions.

The real problem he had throwing downfield and just about anywhere was throwing to his right. A 38.9 passer rating throwing deep right and a 56.8 rating throwing 10-19 yards to the right were terrible. This can show the need for better receiver play on that side, better designed plays to the right and also Williams' throwing.

Williams was excellent throwing middle of the field in the 10-19 range (104.7 rating) and his worst grade middle of the field was short at a decent 94.6. Still, it was the worst passer rating he had on short throws as he had a 101.9 rating to the right short and 108 throwing short left. Perhaps a few less drops by Olamide Zaccheaus in the short middle would have raised that grade.

Those passer ratings of 56.8 to the right middle and 38.9 right deep are the ones to remember as areas Williams must upgrade. Another is passing behind the line of scrimmage, of all places. This looks to be more of an offensive system issue but getting his feet set properly here and throwing mechanics can help, too.

His 90.6 passer rating throwing left behind the line and 91.2 throwing center of the field to a target behind the line were fairly mediocre and could stand upgrading. Throwing behind the line to his right was abysmal at 79.6. Williams had a passer rating over 50 points higher throwing deep middle than he did throwing behind the line to his right.

There's a lot to improve, and considering where Williams left off he could take it up several notches by getting just a little better in some real problem areas.

If PFF wanted to put out some very revealing numbers, something showing passer accuracy and passer rating outside the pocket would be helpful. No one is putting out that number and Williams would, no doubt, be among the best at this.

Sign Up For the Bears Daily Digest - OnSI’s Free Chicago Bears Newsletter

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Loading recommendations... Please wait while we load personalized content recommendations

Published
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.

Home/News