Not that Bears quarterback Caleb Williams needed a reminder of it, but even after a thrilling playoff win and buoyant offseason pushed his popularity to a new peak, this is still very much Ben Johnson’s team.
Johnson runs the show, and when the Bears begin training camp with their first practice Wednesday, what he says goes. And while he raved about Williams’ talent — “He’s got it all,” he said — as players reported to Halas Hall on Tuesday, he emphasized the necessary step from potential to true stardom.
It’ll require quite a leap from Williams in completion percentage as he works to sharpen the basics and become a better clockwork passer for some of the simpler parts of Johnson’s offense. The big plays are still going to be there, but he needs a solid foundation underneath them.
Among players who threw at least 250 passes last season, Williams finished last in the NFL with a 58.1 completion percentage. That was after Johnson opened training camp a year ago saying the standard was 70%, both in practices and games.
Johnson laughed when asked if he would back off that target. Absolutely not.
“It’s always going to be the goal,” Johnson said. “You’re going to have a darn good offense if your quarterback’s completing 70% of the balls thrown.”
The Bears were ninth in scoring last season at 25.9 points per game and sixth in total offense, but that was due firstly to the third-ranked rushing attack. They were 10th in passing as Williams’ completion percentage floundered and he finished with an unimpressive 90.1 passer rating.
Williams completed 60% or more of his passes six times out of 19 starts, including the playoffs. Meanwhile, fellow 2024 first-round pick Drake Maye of the Patriots led the league at 72% and MVP Matthew Stafford completed 65%.
Pro Football Reference graded Williams at just 69.8% of his passes being on target, which also was last in the NFL. The league average was 74.9%, and the 49ers’ Brock Purdy was first at 82.2%.
No statistic determines everything, and certainly Williams made up for his inconsistency with late-game heroics. But while the stunning highlights show the high end of where his ability could take him, the overall inefficiency reflects a need to become “a master of his craft,” as general manager Ryan Poles put it Tuesday.
Poles said Williams’ tenacity at the end of games and relentless desire to win encouraged him that he’s on the right track. However, as Williams enters Year 3, he needs to grasp that the path to winning eight Super Bowls — the goal he voiced before he even got drafted — starts with doing really well at a lot of things that aren’t particularly thrilling.
To complete 70% of his passes, he’ll have to be quicker and more accurate on short passes that simply keep the offensive moving a few yards at a time.
“Anytime these guys mature, they start to realize what the work looks like and that those little details matter when you show up on game day,” Poles said. “I expect him to continue to grow in that area.”
Johnson doesn’t want Williams to become robotic, but the Bears’ personnel and the offensive scheme are designed with precision. A five-yard pass that’s in the right place at the right time can be highly effective if Colston Loveland, D’Andre Swift or Luther Burden is on the other end of it.
Johnson described an ideal blend of “consistently delivering the ball where it needs to go” and putting on “that Superman cape when the time calls for it.”
He has tried multiple approaches to help Williams fix his throwing accuracy, which seemed to mystify him as a rookie when he had trouble understanding why he completed just 62.5% of his passes after completing 68.6% in his final season at USC.
The simple answer is that everything in the NFL is harder: there’s more pressure in the pocket, openings to hit a receiver close faster and every mistake is magnified because the games are tighter.
Johnson sat down with Williams to analyze all 271 incomplete passes he threw last season to identify what should’ve happened and illuminate areas for improvement. The coach described that process as “fun,” and acknowledged some of it was his fault for a poor play design that didn’t get the primary option open.
But he also revisited some coaching points Williams has heard before, especially the loose footwork that Matt Eberflus’ staff also addressed in 2024.
Johnson tasked Williams with straightening that out, literally, in the offseason. His feet need to be aligned with his target, otherwise he’s making it a lot harder on himself to throw accurately. He thought Williams did “a great job” at that in his training, but full-speed practices are the true test.
Johnson also underscored the importance of Williams recognizing and processing defensive pass coverages faster. That’s partly why he plans, for now, to resist the urge to expand the offense in favor of allowing Williams more time to get a firmer grip on what they’re already running.
