Last season was so magical that Bears tight end Cole Kmet has to make sure those congratulating him for catching quarterback Caleb Williams’ ridiculous touchdown pass in the playoffs against the Rams recall the game ended in defeat.
‘‘I have to remind people we lost the freakin’ game,’’ Kmet said Monday.
Williams remembers the unreal feeling of driving home that night with no early wakeup call to greet him in the morning. And he remembers — at coach Ben Johnson’s urging — having to tear himself away from the sport to reset.
Williams returned to Halas Hall for the start of the Bears’ offseason program Monday knowing the stakes for the season.
The Bears’ most important draft pick this week is the first overall selection from 2024. Williams remains the focal point on which their hopes are based. A team that parted with more free-agent talent than it added this offseason is counting on Williams’ improvement to override the loss of salary-cap casualties and to help aid the transition of young players on their roster.
This season is critical for Williams, too. The Bears can offer him a contract extension the minute it ends. If he takes the next step in his development, the only question will be how much he’ll cost. If not, then the Bears will have to ask themselves some version of the same question that perplexed them with Jay Cutler, Mitch Trubisky and Justin Fields.
‘‘It’s a big year in the sense that I get to grow more,’’ Williams said Monday after meeting with Johnson. ‘‘I get to step into the role that I spoke about for the past two years being up here. That’s important for me.’’
Williams said it was important for him to know what it took to win 11 games and what it felt like to experience the electricity of Soldier Field during the playoffs. But that only means something if it’s the beginning of something greater.
‘‘That’s not my goal,’’ he said. ‘‘That’s not where I want to be. I want to be the best. I want to go win. I want to be, as we call it, a world champion, a Super Bowl champion. I want to be the best Bear quarterback, the best quarterback. My goals — yes, that was a good stepping stone for me. But that wasn’t the last stepping stone.
‘‘Being able to grow off of last year and be able to progress in ways that I want to? That last year really wasn’t anything. It was a good year. We’ve got many more good years coming up.’’
The Bears already have identified where they need Williams to improve — areas as broad as completion percentage and as specific as where his eyes look when he scrambles and decides to throw.
There’s so much this offseason he doesn’t have to learn, however. Just lining his teammates up in the huddle and delivering Johnson’s play-call took him months to master last season. His recognition at the line of scrimmage — of what to expect from the defense but also from his teammates — took even longer.
‘‘Those are the things that he got really, really good at throughout the course of the season,’’ Kmet said. ‘‘And it really helps everybody.’’
Williams is starting this spring in as stable a position as he has been in as a pro. His lead running back, top two wide receivers and top two tight ends already have played with him for at least one season. He’s establishing himself as a leader, reaching out to new acquisitions to introduce himself and coordinating throwing sessions with his wide receivers at USC, his alma mater.
‘‘You’ll feel uncomfortable out there on the football field with the coaching and the scheme and all of that,’’ he said. ‘‘But when you’re with the boys, you’ve got brothers protecting your back.’’
For the first time in the NFL, Williams doesn’t have a new play-caller. For the first time, he doesn’t have a new quarterbacks coach. For the first time, he doesn’t have a new scheme to learn.
What he has is Johnson, who set the tone with Williams two days after the loss to the Rams. He told him that he was going to push him harder and that, in many ways, he was going to be more difficult to play for.
‘‘My answer is, ‘Yes, sir. Let’s do it,’ ’’ Williams said. ‘‘He is going to push me. I am going to push myself and I’m going to push my teammates. And he’s going to push my teammates and things like that. We’re going to find ways to get better. We’re going to find ways to reach where we want to reach. That starts with the detail. That starts with the every day. That starts with the week-to-week of finding ways to get better.’’
That first week started Monday.