LAKE FOREST, Ill. -- Caleb Williams has been riding this high for months.
An eventful offseason that saw his persona grow off the field is now over. The Bears quarterback earned the cover of Madden and became the first two-time winner of GQ's Most Stylist NFL Player. His growth in training camp was measured in several ways, from his completion percentage to recognizing the checkdown, and it left his head coach feeling certain in Williams' ascent.
"He's doing all the things that good quarterbacks do," Ben Johnson said. "So he's going the right way. I know we talk about him every session we get. Guys, he's had a really good camp and I'm really looking forward to seeing how it comes together for him 17-plus games this year."
When the Bears open the 2026 season at Carolina on Sunday (1 p.m. ET, Fox), Williams and Panthers quarterback Bryce Young will meet for the first time as starters. The 2023 trade that sent the No. 1 pick from Chicago to Carolina allowed the Panthers to draft Young and for the Bears to net five players in return over three seasons, including Williams, who was the first pick in the 2024 draft.
Both teams have already seen a return on those investments. Williams and Young led their teams to division titles in 2025 and saw their seasons end to the same opponent: the Los Angeles Rams.
For all the euphoric moments Williams experienced in his second season, the one that happened 239 days before Year 3 begins in earnest still haunts him.
After forcing overtime against Los Angeles in the divisional round, Williams' pass intended for former Bears wide receiver DJ Moore was picked off and put the Rams in position to win the game with a field goal.
"It burns," Williams said. "It's frustrating. Still. It still bothers me today, every single time the play pops up, or the Cole Kmet play pops up, it feels like it was for nothing in that sense.
"And then you change your lens and you figure out it was meant to be."
Eight months have passed between that game and Week 1, giving Williams and his coaches time to work through how to perform better in 2026. Here's a look at three items on Williams' offseason checklist and where he's focused on improving most.
Ball placement and accuracy
Williams had the lowest completion percentage (58.1%) among qualified quarterbacks last season. That didn't stop the Bears from surging from last in total offense in 2024 to sixth in 2025 while Williams also set the franchise's single-season passing record (3,942 yards). But Johnson still wants to see the quarterback complete 70% of his throws.
Last season, only one quarterback reached that threshold: New England's Drake Maye (72%). Three others who were within a percent -- San Francisco's Mac Jones (69.6%) and Brock Purdy (69.4%) and Buffalo's Josh Allen (69.3%) -- were on teams that won playoff games.
Dating to spring workouts, every pass thrown by Williams and other Bears quarterbacks was charted and gone over in the meeting room with every circumstance accounted for: dropped passes, timing of throws, where passes are placed to allow run after the catch opportunities, what the scramble drill looked like.
That gave Williams a road map for improvement. By the middle of August, Johnson declared that Williams' accuracy was "trending upwards."
"He's taken a lot of pride in where he's putting the ball throughout practice," Johnson said. "You see it early on in our warmup periods to routes on air, and it's translating over to the team periods as well. And yet, he still hasn't lost that stinger of being aggressive and trying to push the limits a little bit."
The Bears generated the second-most explosive plays (127) during the 2025 regular season. Doing his part to create those gains in the passing game has made Williams stress perfection with his ball placement.
"I think it does translate when you get on the field and there's a defense on the other side and you've had so many reps with these certain routes and these certain receivers that you get out there and execute," Williams said. "I think it does show up. Kind of the appreciation of it, talking about having the special guys that I have, really talented when running routes but also really talented when the ball's in the air. Being able to focus on those things and routes on air, giving them a good ball and then when we get out there on the field, it becomes explosive plays after that."
Taking more chances
Williams has thrown 47 touchdowns and just 13 interceptions over his NFL career. He prides himself on putting the ball in places that gives his receivers the best chance at completing the catch, often erring on the side of caution.
"That's typically how I did it for the past two years and now this year, it's a little bit more putting the ball in danger, more trust in them," Williams said. "Obviously still trying to deliver the ball, put the ball in the perfect spot for them in those moments, but it's putting the ball in a little bit more traffic, seeing the coverage, recognizing, delivering a good ball. It's trust from the plays; it's trust from the players and where they'll be and just knowing where they'll be and trusting that they'll be there."
Williams routinely tested that throughout camp, working with receivers on scramble-drill rules to ensure they knew where to break when he extended plays. It turned unstructured secondary breaks into high-percentage completions, which were regularly seen at the end of practices in the two-minute drill.
"Just as far as slinging it, he's doing his thing," cornerback Jaylon Johnson said. "You can see the accuracy. You can see the confidence throwing the ball in tight windows is something that's stood out to me. I just feel like top to bottom, they're a confident group."
Coverage recognition
Another reason behind Williams' low number of interceptions is his familiarity, not only with the offensive scheme but how to diagnose defensive coverages more efficiently.
Processing faster is the result of thousands of reps. Bears quarterbacks coach J.T. Barrett calls it "accelerating my vision," which allows for Williams to move off reads faster to deliver the ball on time.
"At times you have five guys going out in a concept and so portions of the concepts are specific for certain coverages or certain looks," Williams said, "not necessarily going 1-2-3-4-5, it's, OK, we can we can skip this route because of this coverage or this post high or this split field."
Ben Johnson challenged Williams to improve his coverage recognition over training camp. As plays got more detailed during Chicago's lengthy install, Williams' responsibility for what happens post-snap was emphasized more than last season.
That in turn has made Williams a better student, where his preparation in the meeting room has carried out onto the practice field.
"I write the same, like [if] it's a common concept that everybody runs in the NFL, and I write it down consistently," Williams said. "I write down what we like versus what we don't like it versus every time that the play is put in and installed. And so it's just I'm getting constant mental reps of when I see a coverage or when I see this, it's, OK, we don't like it versus this, now let's get onto the backside of the concept or another route that we that we do like in that concept."
