The Chicago Bears caught the NFL by surprise last season. Things started out as expected. The team was 0-2 after two weeks, looking inferior to their division rivals, the Minnesota Vikings and Detroit Lions. However, new head coach Ben Johnson had no plans to surrender the season after two games. He rallied the troops, demanding accountability from everybody, coaches and players alike. The Bears responded with 11 wins in their final 15 games, stealing the NFC North crown and coming an overtime away from the NFC Championship. At the heart of it all was Caleb Williams.
Chicago’s young quarterback emerged from a rough rookie season to produce one of the best campaigns in franchise history. He finished with a single-season record 3,941 passing yards, 27 touchdowns, and seven interceptions. His seven 4th-quarter comebacks also set a Bears record. His ability to create magic out of nowhere captivated the entire NFL. That alone had other teams nervous. Now it appears time to think about it has left them dreading what might be coming in 2026. Jeff Hughes of Sports Mockery revealed why.
“The thing about Caleb right now around the league and around the people I talked to around the team is they don’t think he’s even touched his potential. Like they’re thrilled with what they saw last year. They’re thrilled with the big plays. They’re thrilled with the exciting moments, but they do not think he has touched his potential. And what they mean by that is potential within this offense, which is going to give him a lot of easy throws and, higher completion percentage, a lot more yards.”
Caleb Williams actually did other teams a favor last season.
He managed to put up those numbers despite an NFL-worst 58% completion rate. The Bears quarterback was a borderline Pro Bowler despite being one of the least efficient in the league. No wonder other teams are feeling uneasy about what could happen if that problem gets fixed. Think of it like this. Williams completed 62% of his passes as a rookie in 2024. If that trend had held last season, he would’ve finished with 4,206 yards and 29 touchdowns. If he’d put up the league average 65%? It would’ve been 4,410 yards and 30 touchdowns.
Needless to say, opposing defenses got off pretty easy last year. Caleb Williams bailed them out at times by not hitting the simpler throws. Now, all of it wasn’t on him. Some of those incompletions were throwaways to avoid taking a sack (40), and several others were drops by his wide receivers (29). This was a team-wide issue, not just the quarterback. It is why Johnson was adamant from the moment spring practices began that he and the coaches would be hounding the receivers to improve their concentration.
🔥 Subscribe to the Untold Chicago YouTube channel to hear Chicago legends tell stories you’ve never seen in headlines — real moments, real experiences, straight from the athletes themselves.
The toughest hurdle has already been cleared.
Anybody with deep knowledge of NFL history understands that the first season in a new offense is always the toughest. Learning such complex systems is like trying to absorb college calculus. Comprehension doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time, relentless studying, and making several inevitable mistakes before a student finally start to grasp it. Williams even admitted he was floundering in Johnson’s system for the first two months of last season before things started clicking.
Every indication over the past two months is that the quarterback looks so much more comfortable. He isn’t thinking as much. He knows the plays and what is required of him and his teammates. This enables him to operate much more smoothly in and out of the huddle. Typically, when that happens, you see a considerable jump in productivity. Other teams know this. If stopping Williams was hard enough last season, they don’t want to think about what a more comfortable version of him can do.
