Bears coach Ben Johnson was so hard on quarterback Caleb Williams last season that at one point Williams worried that his coach didn’t like him.
Nothing has changed in the way Johnson talks to him. Williams just understands it better.
“We have a real common goal, and it’s to find a way to make the Chicago Bears champions,” he said Wednesday after the team’s first practice of training camp, a light session that lasted about an hour and a half. “Everything he says to me, I’ll do it at 200% and won’t look back… If he yells and curses at me or anything like that, I know it’s for the greater good of the team.”
Johnson’s mandate that Williams completes 70% of his passes, both in practices and games, is part of that. After finishing last in the NFL at 58.1% last season, he needs to gain a lot of ground.
Williams struggled with throwing accuracy as a rookie, too, at just 62.5% and seemed perplexed by the dropoff from how he played at USC. With Johnson, there’s a much clearer picture of why he’s had trouble and what needs to be corrected.
Amid that process, the Bears want Williams to keep the qualities that make him a unique talent: his speed, his elusiveness in the pocket to extend plays and the unorthodox throws that delivered big results last season.
“Just hit the easy ones when they’re there,” Williams said. “Be in rhythm with myself. Be confident in my guys. Be confident within the play. Deliver a good ball. Deliver a catchable ball. And then from there, when things happen, I put on the cape and do my thing, but it’s not something that needs to be on or showing until the moment shows up.”