Ben Johnson Finally Reveals Why Caleb Williams’ Completion Percentage Matters So Much

Last year, when he took over, Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson laid out his plans for quarterback Caleb Williams. Among the things at the top of the agenda was improving his completion percentage. This was somewhat of a surprise. Plenty of experts have tried downplaying completion percentage as a stat of any significance when evaluating quarterbacks. Yet Johnson stated that he felt it was critical to help improve overall offensive efficiency. The goal was for Williams to reach 70%.

Well, it didn’t happen. The Bears quarterback finished around 58% for the season, which was down from his rookie year. Now, not all of this was Williams’ fault. Several of his passes were throwaways to avoid turnovers, and several others were dropped by his receivers. That said, there were inaccurate moments and times he passed up easier throws, trying to make big plays. Johnson seems intent on smoothing all of that out. He made that clear at OTAs on Thursday. It also included additional details on why it’s so important.

Caleb Williams’ completion percentage ties directly to team YAC.

“Well, I think you get what you emphasize, that’s what I’ve learned in this industry, and ball security, takeaways is something we emphasize. We’ll continue to emphasize it. That shows up. Completion percentage is something that we’re going to emphasize, and so what did they get when they came into the offensive meeting today? They got the chart of what was our completion percentage yesterday, who had drops, what did our scramble drill look like, when those naturally occurred. And so 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. 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.”

It’s finally starting to make sense.

Johnson never seemed to make a stink about completion percentage when he was in Detroit. That was because he had Jared Goff at quarterback, who routinely ranks among the NFL’s highest completion percentages each year. The more passes you complete, the greater your opportunities for your offensive weapons to turn a short play into a big one. This is reflected in the YAC rankings last season.

There it is. Johnson’s directive seems pretty clear from that. Drake Maye was the only quarterback to cross the 70% threshold in completed passes. It’s probably no coincidence that his team also led the league in yards after the catch. By the look of things, you need to get at least into the 67% range to be assured a high number. Williams has a ways to go before he reaches that tier. Johnson seems intent on grilling him on it every day until they get there.

Can Williams reach that range?

This is a difficult question to answer. Quarterbacks who tend to have higher completion percentages are your classic types. They sit in the pocket and distribute like a point guard. That isn’t Caleb Williams’ game. He is a highly mobile athlete who is an artist outside the pocket. Such improvisation makes completing passes a little more challenging, partly because routes are harder to predict and partly because the quarterback often searches for the big play in those situations. When you look at the most prominent mobile QBs of the past two decades, you’ll find that their career average completion percentage never gets above 64%.

Only two of those names (Rodgers and Watson) ever reached 70% in a season. That means Williams either must take fewer risks when outside the pocket or stop scrambling as much and become more of a pocket-oriented passer. That presents a conundrum for Johnson, since Williams’ improvisational ability was a big reason the Bears won so many games last year. Finding a middle ground must be the goal moving forward.