INDIANAPOLIS – Bears coach Ben Johnson watched Caleb Williams make huge strides during their first year together and expects the quarterback to continue to ascend in 2026.
"We saw enormous growth over the course of the season," Johnson said at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis. "I keep going back to what 7-on-7 looked like at the end of the year versus what it looked like to start the year. A drill as simple as that yet you see him look so much more comfortable going through some of those same plays."
Williams flourished while working with Johnson in 2025, quarterbacking the Bears to the NFC North title and a playoff win over the Packers while setting a single season franchise passing record with 3,942 yards. The No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 draft thrived in the clutch, leading the Bears to seven wins in games they trailed in the final 2:00, the most by an NFL team since at least 1970.
"A lot of it was like riding a bike for the first time with some of these concepts," Johnson said. "You hadn't seen it, and you get thrown a different coverage each and every time and now you can accelerate your vision a little bit and that's what he's learning to do. That's why I'm really confident in the direction he is going. I'm excited for him. I think he is going to be able to look at some of these concepts from self-scout and look at what he could have done a little bit better."
Johnson was impressed with how Williams processed information and how he was able to seamlessly transfer what he learned into game situations.
"What is most encouraging to me is something happened at the end of the year where I showed him one thing on tape and didn't even think it would come up in the next game and yet it did and then he threw the ball to the exact spot that I would have wanted him to throw the ball to," Johnson said.
"The result of the play wasn't what we wanted for other reasons and yet something as simple as that, like, 'holy cow.' If this guy can take one little nugget that we talked about the week prior and we really weren't emphasizing and yet be able to apply that in real time in a game, man, he's really going to ascend quickly, and so I'm looking forward to it. I really do think this next offseason we'll see significant strides."
One area that Johnson is confident that Williams will improve is his accuracy. While he ranked fifth in the NFL with a 27-to-7 touchdown-to-interception ratio and reduced the number of sacks he took from 68 in 2024 to 24, Williams completed just 58.1% of his passes.
"I think there is no question there will be some throws last year that he needs to complete or give a more catchable ball at a higher rate, and he'll be the first one to tell you that," Johnson said. "We as a coaching staff take a lot of pride in trying to get the primary guy open, and if we are able to do that, he's going to come through and he's going to make that throw. And then if we can't do that for him from a coaching perspective or a play-calling perspective, then he makes us right. That's where his magical talent can be the ultimate eraser for us and fixer. So, it's the balance between the two.
"Mechanically he was learning some different things with his footwork. It actually looked more comfortable than I would have thought Year 1, and yet I really think a full offseason of really drawing that down home is going to help him become more accurate moving forward."
