Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams had a decent rookie season in 2024, all things considered. Despite horrendous coaching and bad offensive line play, he still finished with over 3500 passing yards with 20 touchdowns and six interceptions. Unfortunately, there was a lot of bad buried beneath that stat line. Many focused on his ugly sack rate, getting dropped 68 times, thanks in large part to his bad tendency to hold the ball. That is, without mentioning his poor footwork and over-reliance on scrambling. Yet the biggest and most puzzling issue was something else.
His deep ball.
Williams came into the NFL with one of the strongest arms seen since Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen. His accuracy in college had always indicated he could strike down the field with success. Such was not the case in 2024. He missed guys way too often, failing to capitalize on opportunities. Many worried this was a trend he might not be able to reverse. Looking back at his 2025 season, Williams not only stopped the bleeding but also significantly improved throwing down the field.
| Caleb Williams deep throw stats | 2024 season | 2025 season |
| Attempts | 75 | 73 |
| Completion percentage | 26.7% | 42.5% |
| Touchdowns | 6 | 11 |
| Interceptions | 5 | 3 |
| Drops | 1 | 5 |
| Passer rating | 59.6 | 112.0 |
Caleb Williams deserves credit for this.
Part of it was the situation around him. Head coach Ben Johnson did a terrific job cleaning up the offense, installing a system that took pressure off the quarterback. More running the ball. More play action. However, the quarterback dedicated himself to improving his mechanics, learning the necessary fundamentals for deep accuracy. As the video above shows, he used a throwing net meant to constantly test himself with long throws. Once he developed a feel for it, he often carried that over to practice with his receivers.
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It also helped that the Bears added weapons capable of making the vertical game more accessible. That wasn’t really the case with Rome Odunze and D.J. Moore in 2024. Once Luther Burden came on board, things began to change. His speed forced defenses to soften their coverages, opening up those windows. Colston Loveland did much the same at tight end, presenting more of a downfield threat than Cole Kmet ever could. Still, much of the credit goes to Williams for hitting his targets more often.
Mind you, it should’ve been even better. Seven passes of 20 yards or more from him last season were dropped.
One must not underestimate the importance of this.
Think about this stat. In 2025, six of the seven quarterbacks who completed at least 40% of their deep passes made the playoffs. The year before, it was eight of the 13. In 2023, it was seven of 12. There is a strong correlation between a quarterback who can hit the long ball with decent regularity and winning football games. Four of the last five Super Bowl winners checked that box. It is a big deal that Caleb Williams has put himself in the discussion. It makes Chicago much more dangerous.
What’s scary is that the Bears are even more equipped to take advantage this season. While they lost Moore to a trade, they added Kalif Raymond and Zavion Thomas at wide receiver. Both are legitimate speed threats who will stretch the field more than ever. If the offensive line continues to hold up well, Williams could hit more deep shots than last year, which is terrifying to think about. Defenses will have no choice but to play deep coverage, and that only benefits Johnson’s ground attack.
