This is what the leap from fun quarterback to franchise quarterback looks like.
Caleb Williams has reenergized the Bears’ offense and been checking key boxes along the way. He has done it by blending his high-end talent with the foundation coach Ben Johnson laid out for him.
His fundamentals lagged in his first two seasons even as he made stunning plays, but he’s now taking steps toward being a finished product. Williams showed great timing, throwing accuracy, pocket patience and decision-making while rolling up big numbers in the 30-24 win over the Patriots on Thursday — and that performance wasn’t an outlier.
Imagine the reaction a year ago if he’d completed 22 of 33 passes for 308 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions for a 116.7 passer rating. Now it’s becoming relatively normal.
He has completed 71% of his passes this season, second in the NFL. He’s piling up easy yardage on safe, short throws. He’s leading his receivers into space. It’s the merging of electricity and efficiency that Johnson demanded.
“He has gone through the progressions a little bit quicker,” Johnson said Friday. “He's got that clock going in his head, understanding where the breakdowns are happening in protection.”
Williams has always had good pocket awareness, but not always great judgment. He needed a tough grader like Johnson to help him sharpen that, and that’s why after a 2025 season in which he made some of the most incredible plays in the league, he sat Williams down in the offseason to scrutinize over 100 incomplete passes.
Johnson’s relentlessness is one of the best parts of his approach to the job, and is a major factor in why Williams has a chance to be a championship-caliber quarterback. Johnson’s reaction to Thursday was that Williams did a ton right, but also could fix quite a bit.
“It's a great stat line, and yet I can't wait to sit down with him and go through this [snap-by-snap] because … there's still a lot more out there for us,” he said.
That’s a chore for another time.
Williams deserves credit for the work he’s done to become a more polished passer. He made plays against the Patriots that were not only vital in that game, but promising for his future.
All four passes to speedster Luther Burden were right where they needed to be as Burden went for 130 yards and a touchdown in the first half.
On Williams’ 58- and 26-yard completions, each pass was a “runner’s ball,” as he’s been calling it under Johnson, meaning Burden could catch them in stride with room to run. The Patriots didn’t allow the Bears those opportunities on the other two passes, but Williams was on target to Burden for 37 and 24 yards.
He made three crucial passes in the fourth quarter in which pressure was closing in on him and he showed great discipline by staying in the pocket and delivering the ball downfield:
- Patriots linebacker Christian Elliss got a hand on his left shoulder when he dropped back on third-and-11 from his own 13-yard line, but rather than run, Williams shook him off, held his ground and fired to Rome Odunze for 21 yards.
- Later that drive, facing fourth-and-two near midfield, Williams hung in the pocket as pressure pushed toward him from three directions and found tight end Colston Loveland for nine yards.
- His most important pass was on the Bears’ final drive as they tried to ice the game. On third-and-nine at his own 10-yard line, Williams dropped all the back to the end zone to buy time, then stepped forward a yard and sent a dart to Odunze for 21 yards.
None of those three passes produced enduring highlights, but they were solid, professional plays that led to victory. The Bears have been desperate for years to find that in a quarterback.
