In Ben Johnson's first season as coach last year, a resurgent offense helped power the Bears to the NFC North championship and a playoff win over the Packers.
The unit scored the third most points in franchise history, ranked sixth in the NFL in total yards and generated the second most explosive plays.
As quarterback Caleb Williams and his teammates enter their second season in Johnson's system, there have already been signs in offseason practices that their familiarity with the scheme will breed even more success.
"Now the information is not foreign to [Williams]," said quarterbacks coach J.T. Barrett. "He has better understanding of why we do things and what's the reason. For him, you'll just be able to see a growth of operation and execution of the offense, just from the efficiency standpoint and getting us in the right plays and being able to communicate. All of that is going to improve being that he has more ownership of it."
Williams had a breakout 2025 season, setting a Bears passing record with 3,942 yards and rallying them to win seven games they trailed in the final 2:00. He had an impressive 27-to-7 touchdown-to-interception ratio, but completed only 58.1% of his passes, an aspect of his game that his coaches anticipate will improve in 2026.
"No doubt," Barrett said. "There are countless reasons why. Some of that is just better familiarity with everything around routes and also the guys he's throwing to, having the guys returning. That is going to be something as well."
Four of Williams' top targets from last year are back in receivers Luther Burden III and Rome Odunze and tight ends Colston Loveland and Cole Kmet. Burden and Loveland both emerged as key contributors over the second half of their rookie seasons in 2025, while Odunze was slowed by an injury after an impressive start.
Asked about Burden and Odunze, receivers/assistant head coach Antwaan Randle El said: "They've grown. They continue to get better, and I'm talking more specifically with the route running, catching the ball clean, coming out and running at the top of the routes.
"What we left towards the end of last season is what we want to gain on. We made some plays, but then we left a little bit out there, so we're taking the positive things from those and making sure we're moving forward and just get better. It's been a really, really good offseason for the whole room so far."
Burden blossomed over the final two months of last season, regularly displaying big-play ability and excellent run-after-catch skills. After averaging 1.9 receptions for 24.4 yards in his first seven games, he averaged 4.3 catches for 60.1 yards in his final eight regular-season contests. His development was delayed after he missed significant time with a hamstring injury he sustained in an OTA practice.
"I would say for Luther the biggest thing was alignment and assignment, which he picked up great toward the end of the year," Randle El said. "We go back to this time last year when Luther was down, he didn't really have the opportunity to get everything down, and this has been great so far, him being healthy. He looks like what we saw coming out of college. Now, there's no hesitation. He knows the offense. He's getting off, he's running. He has more confidence than he's had before. He's catching it, he's finishing down the field, and those things translate over to the game. It's good to see him doing that and continuing to move forward with that."
Expectations are also high for Odunze, the No. 9 overall selection in the 2024 draft.
"This will be his third offseason but the second offseason in this offense," Randle El said. "The hesitation is gone as it relates to, 'Do I need to run this route like this or like that?' When you get past that, things begin to grow even more. We had a little bit of that last year, but you can see this offseason that he's having has been great.
"I expect him to have a great year. We had little things we had to tweak as we talked about player-to-coach and what do you want to work on and things that I saw. The biggest thing about him is that he receives it and is like 'OK, let's go work on it.' And that's been showing up on the film. The progression is there. It's happening. So, I expect him to have a big year for us, too."
Like Burden, Loveland's progress as a rookie last year was hampered by an injury. His breakout campaign came after he had missed all offseason practices while recovering from surgery to repair a shoulder injury he had sustained in 2024 while playing at Michigan. After averaging 1.8 catches and 19.3 yards with no touchdowns in six games played in September and October, Loveland averaged 4.9 receptions and 65.8 yards with six TDs in the Bears' final 12 contests, including the postseason.
The Idaho native ultimately ended the season with 58 receptions for 713 yards and six TDs, becoming the first rookie to lead the Bears in receiving yards since Willie Gault in 1983 and the first rookie tight end to do so since Hall of Famer Mike Ditka in 1961.
"He didn't have much of an offseason and so most of the work that he got was in training camp in game weeks," said tight ends coach Jim Dray, "Once he started to feel more comfortable and the quarterback felt comfortable with him, you could see that his role expanded because he plays the game the right way and he's productive. He definitely came on pretty strong late in the season after a slower start, but … I wouldn't be surprised if he's even better [this] year. That's certainly his hope and our hope."
