Find out why Caleb Williams' quarterback coach believes the Chicago Bears' starting QB will see his completion % jump in the 2026 NFL season.
One of the goals that Caleb Williams didn't achieve in his first season with Ben Johnson was completing 70 % of his passes.
The Chicago Bears' quarterback and coach highlighted that as a benchmark going into the 2025 NFL season. Williams completed 58.1 % of his passes in Year 1 of Johnson's offense, ranking 40th among quarterbacks who had at least 136 dropbacks.
Williams' completion % dropped from his rookie season (62.5). Although the Bears' quarterback must look at himself for that mark, Chicago also had the fifth-most drops last season (29). Throwaways (passes intentionally thrown out of play) also contribute to that stat, and Williams led the league with 42, according to Pro Football Focus.
“If we want to be elite, we want to be that 70 percent marker,” Johnson said on Hoge & Jahns at the NFL Owners Meetings. “We fell short of that. And we don’t shy away from that. I think when you look at it, for us to get to 65 percent completion even, cut that in half, we need to find 40 more completions over the course of the season.”
Completing more passes is a priority for the Bears' passing attack. With Williams entering Year 2 in Johnson's offense, quarterbacks coach J.T. Barrett is already starting to see the differences for the 24-year-old quarterback during the early portions of the offseason training program.
“Now the information is not foreign to him," Barrett told reporters at Halas Hall on Thursday. "He has better understanding of why we do things and what’s the reason. For him, you’ll just be able to see a growth of operation and execution of the offense, just from the efficiency standpoint and getting us in the right plays and being able to communicate. All of that is going to improve being that he has more ownership of it.”
With better command of the offense, does Barrett believe that will improve Williams' completion %?
"No doubt," he said. "There are countless reasons why. Some of that is just better familiarity with everything around routes and also the guys he’s throwing to, having the guys returning, knowing Colston [Loveland], Luther [Burden III], Cole [Kmet], all those guys being a big part, Rome [Odunze], of course. That is going to be something as well, where he has another year throwing with these guys with these route concepts and understanding what we’re trying to do. ..."
The Bears' 2025 season ended in the Divisional Round last season, short of the ultimate team goal of winning a Super Bowl. For Chicago to get to the mountain top of the NFL, Williams will have to reach that elite category in completion %, and the early signs are showing that he is on the right path to hit that in 2026.
