Caleb Williams takes great pride in the way he plays football. The Chicago Bears quarterback turned himself into a star by adopting two key traits: improvisation and ball security. Few at any level are better than Williams at slithering out of trouble and making a big play off-script. It’s one of the reasons defenses hate playing against him. What makes it even worse is that he doesn’t throw interceptions either. Across two seasons, Williams has only had 13 picks. Protecting the football is something very important to him.
However, not many people talk about the other side of that way of thinking. Sure, not throwing interceptions is good. It limits the number of chances an opponent can swing the momentum of a game. At the same time, it also means a quarterback might be passing on too many opportunities for game-changing completions. This is something head coach Ben Johnson noticed from last season and has urged Williams to address. Don’t be afraid to take a few more chances. Let your playmakers make plays. The quarterback summed it up like this.
“It’s a little bit more putting the ball in danger, more trust in them,” Williams said.
Caleb Williams is good enough to do it.
It’s not like the quarterback is unfamiliar with being aggressive. To date, he has five games in his career with 40 or more passing attempts. He has 1,584 yards, 8 touchdowns, and 2 interceptions in those games with a 62.2 completion percentage. Those are more than adequate numbers. Williams’ aversion to interceptions isn’t uncommon. All quarterbacks hate throwing them. The problem is that intentionally going out of your way to throw them can be detrimental at the NFL level. It limits the number of big-play opportunities.
This is a lesson the great Peyton Manning learned early in his career as well. He told the story of his early years in Indianapolis when future legend Bruce Arians was coaching him. The two were reviewing film, and Arians asked why Manning didn’t throw on a particular play. The quarterback, a bit puzzled, said nobody was open. Arians looked at him, pointed at the screen, and stated in his classic wry tone, “That’s open in the NFL.” After that, Manning became far more cognisant of attacking tight windows when the situation allowed.
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There is a stat for this.
NFL Next Gen Stats track something called Aggressiveness Percentage. It measures the number of passes a quarterback completes when a defender is within 1 yard of the receiver at the time of completion or incompletion. Caleb Williams was second-to-last in 2025 at 11.3%, trailed only by Denver’s Bo Nix. By contrast, eventual league MVP Matthew Stafford was second in the league at 19.3%. Patriots quarterback Drake Maye was third at 17.9%. Since the stat started being tracked in 2018, the eventual Super Bowl champion quarterback averaged around 13.29%. Sam Darnold was 13.2% for Seattle.
That should be the bar Williams must shoot for. Based on the math, 74 of his passes were into tight windows last season. To be league average, he would’ve needed around 87. That may seem like a small bump up, but even a handful of such passes being completed can mean the difference between wins and losses. The point stands that Williams must start trusting his teammates to make plays for him. That is why the Bears drafted them.
