Bears quarterback Caleb Williams’ summer was all flashbulbs and viral videos, a pre-celebration of where the world believed he was headed.
Then he delivered on the hype with boring, fundamental play from the pocket.
That was what the Bears had been waiting for since they drafted him No. 1 overall in 2024. The off-the-charts talent has been there since college, but he lagged in the basics — until Sunday.
As the Bears’ offense torched the Panthers 59-37 to open the season, setting a franchise record for total yardage at 552, Williams seemed like a different quarterback compared to his first two seasons, and the clearest change was his decisiveness.
On every drop-back, he looked like he had a plan. He read and exploited defensive coverages. He knew all the answers to the test and moved through it quickly.
He smiled and said, “Second year in the offense,” when asked about that Wednesday after practice. And maybe it’s just that simple.
“I’m not necessarily thinking about the play,” Williams said. “The play is on my mind and I know where the guys are going to be, but it’s more [seeing] the coverage and… if they don’t give us the right coverage, find a checkdown, get the ball out of my hands.
“I’m not holding the ball too long. There’s going to be plays where I’m going to do that and go make a play, but just trying to minimize those.”
With that approach against the Panthers, he didn’t make many throws that were actually amazing. He didn’t need to. It was all about sound choices and cashing in on low-risk, high-reward opportunities — exactly what coach Ben Johnson has been teaching him for two years.
Williams’ 22-yard touchdown pass to tight end Cole Kmet stands as his most jaw-dropping throw — rolling right, turning left, launching the ball to the perfect spot for Kmet’s over-the-shoulder diving catch — and he made another impressive one to wide receiver Kalif Raymond for 28 yards later in the quarter while scrambling left.
But mostly, he took advantage of open receivers underneath and threw passes that led his teammates toward space. He completed 14 of 15 throws within 10 yards of the line of scrimmage. It was somewhat in the style of Drew Brees, especially late in his career with the Saints.
That’s no coincidence.
Brees, a recently inducted Hall of Famer who set the record for single-season completion percentage at 74.4 in 2018, was on Fox’s broadcast crew for the game and talked with Williams in a production meeting leading up to it.
Brees told Williams the difference between completing 60% of his passes and 70% was finding three more completions per game, and Johnson grinned as he said, “That might’ve stuck with our guy a little bit, which was cool to see,” before highlighting how proficiently Williams went through his reads and made timely checkdowns.
“He’s a legend… so when he says things like that, it moves you, especially when you watched him growing up,” Williams said of Brees.
He interpreted Brees’ advice as, “Know where the checkdowns are, but also [have] confidence in your guys,” then demonstrated both principles against the Panthers while completing 21 of 29 passes for 269 yards and two touchdowns with no turnovers for a 124.1 passer rating.
“When it’s not there, just find the guy in front of you,” Williams said.
That’s what he’d been missing.
From the beginning, even amid the haphazard coaching he got as a rookie under Matt Eberflus and Shane Waldron, the Bears saw that he could do the exceptional but needed help with the essential. It was part of what drew them to Johnson.
The basis of an elite passing game is a lot of relatively easy yardage on passes underneath, then a few deep shots stacked on top of it. That’s the precise template Williams used Sunday.
“He continues to play with more anticipation and he understands what we’re trying to get done,” Johnson said. “He played with a lot of confidence, and when you do that, you’re seeing the field really well — he’s always done that — and the game slows down to a degree and he’s able to get to the right guy a little bit faster than in the past. Hopefully that growth continues.”
That’s the key. The Panthers game was a moment, and Williams has had those before. He lit up the Jaguars in London early in his rookie season, then he and the team plunged. He was up and down last season even after appearing to turn a corner. The way he played Sunday must go from novel to normal for him.