Chicago Bears training camp opens on Wednesday, and no player will face more scrutiny than quarterback Caleb Williams. After posting a 58.1 completion percentage last season, the third-year quarterback enters 2026 with a clear objective: improve his accuracy within Ben Johnson’s offense.

The Bears have made that goal a centerpiece of this offseason, and it will be the defining storyline as Williams takes the practice field this week, but fans need to have clear expectations of what to actually expect and how to react to what’s being reported from each day of practice.

Aaron Rodgers’ comments provide clear expectations that Bears fans need to hear ahead of camp

The natural instinct for fans attending practices, and reporters tracking every throw, will be to criticize every completion and incompletion. That approach misses the point of what training camp is supposed to accomplish for a developing quarterback.

Aaron Rodgers discussed this concept on the Keep Hammering Collective podcast roughly two years ago, explaining that quarterbacks in practice shouldn’t be laser-focused on completing every pass. His comments started recirculating again social media thanks to Josh Chambers and at the perfect time ahead of training camp for all 32 teams.

“That’s where you grow,” Rodgers explained. “You have to put yourself in the most adverse situation. When coaches and or players are more concerned about what it looks like than how it feels, it’s really hard to grow. You’re just hoping for perfect passes and practices. Instead, it should be, ‘Oh, you missed that one? Perfect. That’s exactly what you want. Now you have a feeling.’”

Granted, Rodgers’ comments apply to established quarterbacks who are in a secure position to experiment in practice with what they can do and what they can’t do without the pressure of needing to be perfect to make the roster. But, for a player like Williams in Chicago, he’s afforded that kind of luxury to test some of those limits during practice.

“Oh shoot, I was a little too far onto my front foot. My hitch was a little too much. I need more weight on my back foot. I need to put more air on this ball when it’s 25 yards outside the numbers,” Rodgers added . “Working with young quarterbacks, I tell them, that’s the best rep possible. Remember that one, so when it comes up next time, you can make the right throw.”

It’s something fans/reporters need to remember ahead of camp in two days. It might not always look perfect out there with Williams, and sometimes that’s the point.

Ben Johnson’s film study with Caleb Williams and how that will continue throughout camp

Head coach Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams will be the first to say that Williams’ accuracy and completion percentage are major areas that need improvement going into the 2026 season. But, it’s something that extends to the other QBs and pass catchers too.

“Our first objective is just drawing more attention to it,” Johnson said. “Those guys are really critical of themselves in drill settings (and during) routes on air with where the ball placement is. We want to give these pass catchers — we have so many talented ones — opportunities to run after the catch. So we’re being very critical with them on where we’re putting that football. And that’s something we’ll grade every day.”

After getting graded, Williams noted he meets with Johnson daily – anywhere from 90-150 minutes at a time – to go over the tape and see where he missed the mark and how he can improve.

“We grab a couple waters – whether we need to eat there or eat before – we sit down, and we go through it,” Williams said on the Up & Adams Show with Kay Adams. “We figure out was it catchable or was it not, is there anything I can do better to help the receivers – obviously there’s times when guys just drop the ball – but more often than not, it’s looking inward and starting with myself.”

The commitment from both Johnson and Williams to dissect the tape daily speaks volumes about how seriously they are treating this area of growth. It’s not a vague offseason talking point. The staff has the data, the film, and a plan to address this daily.

“He’s been very receptive to all of the coaching points,” Johnson explained. “There’s things that he looks to apply the next time we go to practice, and he does a really good job of taking it. He’s not what I would call a rep guy. I think you can tell him something one time and when he sees it on tape, he carries it on over to, whether it’s practice or the game.”

Training camp will make things even more difficult, on purpose, so be prepared

Training camp last year wasn’t a pretty sight on the offensive side of the ball. There were countless pre-snap and alignment issues before the snap and then misconnections and accuracy issues after the snaps. Everyone should have a lot more confidence in the system this time around, but you should still expect to see some miscues on any given day.

That’s especially the case with defensive coordinator Dennis Allen planning to make the quarterback’s life difficult in practice. Allen’s defense will throw mixed coverages, roll safeties around post-snap in disguised looks, bring edge pressure, and blitz defensive backs to create try and get the quarterbacks flustered.

That’s by design. Getting Williams flustered in a controlled practice environment is far more valuable than letting him operate against predictable looks. And again, it presents value data for the coaches to look back on the next day with the players.

Morale of the story is: Fans and reporters should resist the urge to overreact to what they see this week. Williams is going to miss throws. Some days the numbers will look rough. The context behind those reps matters far more than any raw total a fan or reporter might have after practice.

If Williams is challenging himself, expanding his range, and learning from every misfire, the process is working exactly as Johnson intends. Time will tell whether the work translates to meaningful improvement during the regular season, but the Bears have built a clear plan to get their quarterback where he needs to be and we need to trust the entirety of that process when camp begins.