Matt LaFleur says what all Bears fans would love to hear about Caleb Williams and his development from the last time he faced him
The Chicago Bears QB is making strides in Year 2.
The last time the Chicago Bears faced the Green Bay Packers, Caleb Williams walked off the field victorious after throwing just eight incompletions while leading the offense down for a game-winning field goal as time expired.
However, it was a game with little meaning in Week 18 of the 2024 season. The Bears had long been eliminated from playoff contention and the Packers were already locked into their seed and just playing to keep guys active before the postseason.
This time around, implications are very much alive and things couldn’t be more different. The Bears, at 9-3, hold not only the division lead, but the NFC’s No. 1 seed going into Sunday’s game with a new head coach at the helm in Ben Johnson.
Johnson’s number one goal, beyond establishing a winning culture which the locker room has quickly embraced, has been manning the development of his 24-year-old franchise quarterback. Thirteen weeks in, the two are still a work in progress when it comes to unlocking the passing game, but Williams’ development as a quarterback has been clear as day from what we saw last season.
“He’s a true dual-threat kind of guy in regards to his ability to move the sticks with his legs and make those off-schedule plays,” Packers head coach Matt LaFleur told reporters on Monday. “There’s not a throw on the field he can’t make. We’ve seen a ton of growth, as much as any quarterback in this league from year one to year two.”
Bears took a very different approach toward developing the quarterback position
When the Bears drafted Williams with the first overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, they were a desperate organization in need of a guy to lead the team and threw him immediately into deep water with one of the worst coaching staffs in professional sports, much is the case with most No. 1 picks.
It was pretty, but Williams still showed enough promise to entice Johnson, the hottest name on the coaching market, to chose Chicago as his desired landing spot to work with a guy like Williams.
In Chicago, Johnson reworked Williams’ mechanics and fundamentals to marry him with his run-first offensive scheme. It wasn’t an easy process and something the Bears are still working to iron out but each week the Bears are seeing impressive steps with Williams’ development.
“His eyes have improved, his feet have improved. They’ve gotten better every week,” Bears offensive coordinator Declan Doyle said last week. “You go back at the tape every week, and there are plays where you’re like, ‘Man, this is what it looks like. This is what we want all the time.’ And then there are still plays where you’re like, ‘OK, this isn’t what we want. This is how we want it.’ And he’s very receptive to that.
“That’s been awesome. It’s been great to work with him. He’s a guy who’s very hungry for growth, he’s very hungry to hear feedback, and he wants to improve. That’s really the first step in a lot of steps.”
In reality, Sunday’s game against the Packers will be Williams’ 30th career game in the NFL and his 13th game with this new offense, no one should expect to see things be perfect right now. At the same time, everyone around the league can see the high-level potential waiting to emerge in Williams’ game on a consistent basis and that’s the exciting part.
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