The Bears never have had a quarterback throw for 4,000 yards in a season.
Caleb Williams needs 270 yards Sunday against the Lions to become the first.
‘‘I think I was brought here for those types of things and those types of moments,’’ Williams said before the Bears’ walkthrough Wednesday. ‘‘The things that haven’t been done here, to try and be able to accomplish [them].’’
Williams has thrown for 3,730 yards this season, which also means he needs 109 yards Sunday to set the Bears’ single-season record. Erik Kramer threw for 3,838 yards in 1995.
‘‘If it were to happen, that’d be great,’’ head coach Ben Johnson said of the 4,000-yard mark. ‘‘But he would agree with me when I say that our No. 1 objective is to win this ballgame. Whatever that takes, that’s our goal. We’ll see where it’s at at the end of the year. That’s a tertiary goal.’’
Johnson later called 4,000 yards an ‘‘arbitrary number’’ and wondered out loud what it meant. He was reminded that no Bears quarterback had reached 4,000 and that every other current NFL franchise has had at least one who did.
Quarterbacks have posted 236 seasons with 4,000 or more passing yards since the 1970 AFL/NFL merger. None of those seasons has been with the Bears.
‘‘There are probably some who don’t have a 5,000-yard passer, right?’’ Johnson said. ‘‘So it’s just a number.’’
He was assured it’s a big number around these parts.
‘‘Apparently, it is,’’ he said.
Johnson knows the symbolism at play, however. When Williams and his father were examining the Bears with a critical eye before the 2024 draft, one of the questions they asked the franchise was why they had never had a 4,000-yard passer. The answer, Williams said, was some combination of the weather at Soldier Field and the team’s long devotion to the running game.
‘‘I think they ended up choosing right,’’ Williams said. ‘‘I have a strong-enough arm to cut through the wind, and I’ve been blessed with that.’’
And with durability. In the era of 17-game seasons, reaching 4,000 yards requires a modest output — 236 yards a game — repeated each week. Miss even two games, however, and a quarterback has to average 267 yards to reach it.
Four quarterbacks have gotten to 4,000 yards already this season, and another six have a chance to get there this weekend. They all have one thing in common: They’ve played in all 16 games so fat.
There were years where Williams chasing 4,000 yards would be the most important aspect of the Bears’ season finale — or maybe even the final month of the season. In the 2014 finale, the 5-11 Bears targeted Matt Forte 12 times — including five times in the fourth quarter — to enable him to break the single-season receptions record for a running back.
It’s refreshing that the Bears’ last regular-season game has much more at stake than a statistical threshold. Win, and the Bears clinch a No. 2 seed in the playoffs and reach 12 victories for only the second time since their 2006 NFC championship season.
‘‘The self-goals and all of that always get swept under when you go for the team goals, and that’s winning ballgames,’’ Williams said. ‘‘So that’s first and foremost on my mind. That’s first and foremost for this team because the most important thing is winning ballgames and heading into the playoffs with some momentum and some good energy.’’
What makes Williams’ season that much more remarkable is that there aren’t many empty yards in his total. Entering this season, the top five seasons by a Bears quarterback in terms of passing yards happened on teams that didn’t make the playoffs. Kramer didn’t get to the postseason in 1995, nor did Jay Cutler in 2014, 2009 or 2015. Williams’ 3,541 passing yards last season which ranked fifth, came on the only Bears team to fire a head coach during the season.
Williams never has been shy about his goals. Before he played an NFL snap, he said he wanted to win eight Super Bowls and pass Tom Brady, who has seven. Being the best Bears quarterback of all time is on his list, too.
‘‘A goal of mine is to be the top of them all,’’ he said. ‘‘I want to be the best quarterback not only for Chicago but in the league. And that starts with consistency. That starts with me preparing the right way.
‘‘It’s important to me. I don’t get up to be mediocre. I don’t get up to not come to work and be at my best and go on the football field and do what I do. I want to keep growing. I want to keep growing for myself. I want to keep growing for my legacy. But I also want to keep growing for this team.’’
And maybe break a franchise record along the way.
‘‘In 100 or however many years, it has never been done,’’ Williams said of 4,000 yards passing. ‘‘So it symbolizes something.’’
