As Caleb Williams prepares to make his first NFL postseason start Saturday night against the Packers, Bears coach Ben Johnson has supreme confidence in the second-year quarterback.
"He's played in a lot of big games over the course of his life," Johnson said. "I think he's primed and he's ready to go. He was built for these moments. He plays his best when we need him to, and so there's really not a whole lot that needs to be said. He just needs to be him."
Williams played a significant role in the Bears winning the NFC North with an 11-6 record and earning the No. 2 seed in the playoffs. He set a franchise record by throwing for 3,942 yards with 27 touchdowns, seven interceptions and a 90.1 passer rating. In addition, he became the first Bears quarterback to start every game in back-to-back seasons since the NFL expanded from 14 to 16 games in 1978.
The No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 draft enters the wild card showdown versus Green Bay having thrown two TD passes in each of the last five games, totaling 10 TDs with two interceptions.
"He's a completely different quarterback than when we first took this job," Johnson said. "I think back to the springtime, during camp at times and some of the struggles that we were having as an offense in those moments. We've certainly moved past that. I'm encouraged for where he's at right now.
"I know he's really looking forward to this opportunity to go out there. He's played some good football here, particularly in the back half of the season for us, and we're going to need that. We're going to need him at his best. We're going to need all of our players at their best. I'm hopeful we're going to get that."
Williams agrees that he's made major strides.
"I feel that I've grown tremendously so far this year and it's exciting to see," he said. "That [passing yards] record was more or less the growth that I've had. That's where I've been at, that's where my mindset's been at, and then at this moment, it's at an all-time high for myself of confidence.
"I'm going to go into the game that way. I'm going to bring energy this week for the guys and bring the urgency because that's what we need."
Williams has excelled in big games at every level. As a sophomore quarterback at Gonzaga High School in Washington, D.C. in 2018, he accounted for all seven of his team's touchdowns in a 46-43 conference championship win over DeMatha, capped by a 53-yard TD on a Hail Mary as time expired.
As an Oklahoma freshman in 2021, he replaced Spencer Rattler trailing Texas 35-17 in the second quarter and rallied the Sooners to a 55-48 win in the Red River Rivalry, passing for 212 yards and two TDs and rushing for 88 yards and one TD.
In the most important Bears game he's played to date, Williams helped turn a 16-6 deficit into a thrilling 22-16 win over the Packers Dec. 20 at Soldier Field by engineering three straight scoring drives in the final 2:00 of regulation and overtime, capped by a walk-off 46-yard TD pass to DJ Moore.
"I think I am built for these moments, mentality-wise, how I've worked," Williams said. "I've been in a bunch of big games before and a bunch of big rival games. In those moments, I think I can provide a spark for the team. I think I can do whatever my team needs me to do, whether that's stand in the pocket, whether that's run, whether that's scramble, whether that's whatever, hand the ball off 30 times and be energetic about it. Whatever it takes is where I'm at, where I'm going to be at for these next couple of weeks hopefully."
The win over Green Bay was the sixth that Williams and the Bears have recorded this season after trailing in the final 2:00 of regulation, the most by any team in one year since at least the 1970 NFL/AFL merger.
"We're never out [of a game]; our guys know that," Johnson said. "We certainly don't want to have to lean into that each and every week. We'd like to start off a little bit faster and make it more of a complete game for 60 minutes.
"But teams understand when they play us now that they have to earn it. They have to really close us out of it if they want the victory because we can score points in bunches. We can do it in a short amount of time, and we've proven that."
Tight end Cole Kmet believes that Williams has always possessed a clutch gene.
"I think that's something he's just been born with," Kmet said. "He's got great poise out there, and he remains the same. He understands, especially this year, when he has to go make a play when it's needed, and we've seen that come up time and time again."
