Ben Johnson says Caleb Williams is already ahead of where he was last year at Bears OTAs – and one play already proves it
Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams had a highlight-worthy play during organized team activities on Thursday that had everyone turning their heads to watch.
The Chicago Bears held its first organized team activity session with the media in attendance on Thursday, giving us the opportunity to hear from head coach Ben Johnson and get a more in-depth evaluation about how the team looked on the field.
And to no surprise, quarterback Caleb Williams was a stand out on the field, making highlight-worthy plays after earning some high praise from his head coach before practice.
This time last year, the Bears struggled simply getting out of the huddle, much less the issues the starting offense had after the snap. Johnson, so far, has seen a much cleaner operation from the entire unit and it starts with the quarterback.
“From an offensive perspective, you certainly see a lot of guys picking up where they left off, and I know our quarterback room is at a different place than it was a year ago,” Johnson told reporters. “Our route runners certainly feel that way, from how we do routes on air to what it looks like in a team setting. O-line, those coaches do a phenomenal job with those guys. Same thing there. You see that guys aren’t thinking as much. They’re now being able to play faster.”
Chicago Bears are challenging Caleb Williams to raise his completion percentage in practice
With Williams, specifically, the Bears are challenging him to raise his completion percentage after completing just 58.1 percent of his passes in 2025. Johnson noted “elite” quarterbacks shoot for 70 percent competition with 65 percent being a great start. And the coaching staff isn’t waiting for the regular season to start tracking everything.
“Completion percentage is something that we’re going to emphasize, and so what did they get when they came into the offensive meeting today?” Johnson said. “They got the chart of what was our completion percentage [Wednesday], who had drops, what did our scramble drill looked like, when those naturally occurred.”
Tracking every pass every single day is going to be a great reminder for the quarterbacks on what they should be focusing on and give the staff concrete evidence of their progression. For Williams, it’s going to ideally lead to major improvement in that area.
“That’s really our first objective is just drawing more attention to it. Those guys are really critical of themselves in drill settings, routes on air, where the ball placement is,” Johnson added. “We want to give these pass catchers—we have so many talented ones—opportunities to run after the catch, and so we’re being very critical on where we’re putting that football with them, and that’s something that we grade every day.”
Emphasis is paying off because Caleb Williams is already back to completing ridiculous passes
While the onus this offseason is on cleaning up the completion rate and playing better within the structure of the offense, the Bears aren’t going to shy away from what makes Williams special, and that’s the rare play-making ability he has outside of structure.
Take this 67-yard (according to backup QB Case Keenum) laser Williams threw on the run to wide receiver Rome Odunze for example. It’s just preposterous stuff.
“It was a great play,” wide receiver Luther Burden III said. “Him and Rome have a great connection. We’ve been working on our scramble drill a lot this year. The coaches harping on it. It was great to see it happen in practice. So, let’s continue to do that.”
It wasn’t the only highlight of the day from Williams. He also connected with running back D’Andre Swift on a wheel route for a big play and had another deep ball completed to rookie wide receiver Zavion Thomas.
It was only Day 1 with the media in attendance, but excitement is quickly on the rise for Williams and this offense going into 2026.