Ben Johnson: Caleb Williams's accuracy is trending upward
NBC Sports · Josh Alper · 2026-08-20T14:17:27+00:00 · nguồn gốc
After Ben Johnson became the Bears’ head coach in 2025, there was a lot of focus on how his presence would impact quarterback Caleb Williams and much of that discussion focused on Williams’s accuracy as a passer.
Johnson said that one of his goals was to see Williams complete 70 percent of his passes, which did not happen last year even as the Bears vaulted from out of the playoffs to division champions. This offseason has featured less conversation about specific numbers, but there’s still been an eye on Williams completing passes at a higher rate than the 58.1 percent mark he hit last year.
At a Thursday press conference, Johnson was asked for his view on where Williams is in that process.
“It’s trending upward and that’s really what we want to see is it continue to get better,” Williams said. “I just told him this morning, I thought the last two days, even though it was an abbreviated practice yesterday, they were really good. Red zone was a big emphasis for us last year, we got a few good reps of that yesterday. I think he’s shown significant strides there. He’s taking a lot of pride on where he’s putting the ball throughout practice. You see it early on, in our warmup periods, to routes on air and it’s translating over to the team periods as well, and yet he still hasn’t lost that stinger of being aggressive and trying to push the limits a little bit. I think that’s healthy, particularly in practice, just seeing how tight of windows we can fit these things into. There’s a good delicate balance. . . . He’s making significant strides each and every day.”
The Bears were one of the most exciting teams in the league last year because of their penchant for falling behind and then rallying behind Williams in the final minutes. Williams expressed a desire to keep things on a more even keel this offseason and continued growth on the accuracy front would be a good way to ensure the team performs at a higher level for all 60 minutes.