Ben Johnson points to one specific area he hopes Caleb Williams can tighten up as the team returns from the bye week
Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams has made steady improvements as a leader, passer and operating the offense through the first four games under the tutelage of head coach Ben Johnson.While speaking to the media on Tuesday, Johnson specifically highlighted Williams’ footwork, vision, and progression through his reads as the top areas he’s seen improvement from […]
Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams has made steady improvements as a leader, passer and operating the offense through the first four games under the tutelage of head coach Ben Johnson.
While speaking to the media on Tuesday, Johnson specifically highlighted Williams’ footwork, vision, and progression through his reads as the top areas he’s seen improvement from his young quarterback.
“You see him getting a little bit better and better every single week,” Johnson explained. “There’s reps every week we try to build off of and there’s also reps that we learn from as well… I think that’s really been the best thing for him is, he doesn’t make the same mistake twice very often. That’s a good thing because as well accumulate all these reps, they’re getting banked in this library for him so he can draw back from that experience the next time he gets a similar type play.”
With that being said, Johnson did notice some concerning flaws in Williams’ game that showed up a few times on tape during the first four weeks and there’s one thing he wants to see Williams work toward improving coming out of the bye week to help the offense stay more on schedule.
Caleb Williams needs to get better at hitting his checkdowns
“He knows where (the checkdowns) are, I don’t think we’re hitting them accurately enough as a whole when you look at the four games,” Johnson said. “We’ve been talking about being completion-driven and so he’s very conscious of that. The checkdowns are a good way to do that.”
“We have some plays where, yeah, we’re looking for a chunk and if it’s not crystal clear, he knows all of us are happy if he just dumps that thing down. But, we gotta give accurate balls underneath so that our pass catchers have a little run-after-catch opportunity when it’s the underneath five-yard variety. He knows where they are but, we need to be just a little bit cleaner in our delivery to them.”
Anyone who’s watched the Bears offense this season likely noticed a few of the plays Johnson is talking about. Williams went through his progressions well, made his way back to his checkdown target, and just delivered a bad ball that gave his safe option no chance to make a play.
It’s hard to find the stats for true checkdown plays, but what you can do is look at Williams’ accuracy on passes underneath five-yards like Johnson was discussing. On those passes, Williams has completed 47 of his 67 passes with 44 being on-target and 57 being catchable. His 70.1 completion percentage on those passes ranks 31st among quarterbacks with 25+ pass attempts.
When you filter it down to third and fourth down plays, Williams has a 66.7 completion percentage which ranks 20th among QBs with 5+ throws in that situation. So, it’s easy to see the problem based on those numbers and based on the tape.
Checkdowns should be easy completions for a quarterback, saying the quarterback can work his way through the reads and find them. Williams has no issue doing that part of it, but he’s got to deliver cleaner passes on those throws moving forward.
It’s a small thing to gripe about, but it matters a ton in the grand scheme of things. Hitting those passes can help convert first downs and can avoid letting the offense back on a given drive. The little details matter in this offense and that’s one Williams can start doing a better job at.
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