The Chicago Bears made some positive strides under Ben Johnson in 2025, but there are still plenty of areas the Bears' head coach wants his unit to improve in 2026.
Ben Johnson has described Caleb Williams as an eraser because of the quarterback's ability to make offensive play calls right, even when the defense has an advantage.
It's one of Williams' best traits, and it's something that the Bears' head coach knows gives defenses trouble.
"That's the beauty of Caleb Williams," Johnson told reporters at the 2026 NFL owners meetings. "It's a little bit unpredictable. And so as structured as we want to be at times, I think he does a great job of just his natural reaction being a very difficult thing to defend."
Although Williams' unpredictability is an asset for the Bears' offense, there are instances when Johnson wants to see more of that structured play in the quarterback's game.
But for that to happen the rest of the offense, including the coaching staff, have to also step up this season. Johnson made sure his stance on his offense was well known during Monday's media availability at the owners meetings in Phoenix.
"And so I already alluded to it before, I'm actually not very happy with us as an offensive staff, our ability to get the primary receiver open," Johnson said. "I don't think it happened at a high enough clip, and so we have to do a better job in our game-planning process. And I put a lot of that on myself of making sure that we are doing that. And then that's where Caleb comes in handy is he can bail us out when we are wrong, which we're going to be wrong each and every game. I'm going to miss-time some calls or they're going to throw something at us that we weren't prepared for. And that's on him and his athletic ability to bail us out."
Johnson isn't shying away of tapping into Williams' ability to improvise. He's actually counting on it, which opens up the possibilities in this Bears offense.
But to actually maximize those extending plays, the coaching staff must continue working with the pass catchers to understand the rules during those scramble plays. It's something the team is focused on addressing this season.
"And so that's what I'm looking forward to, is we're going to be able to have those conversations in the quarterback room of when can we hang in there and get this ball out to the primary or the No. 2 receiver, and when do we need to extend," Johnson said. "And, naturally, I think we got to get better when we extend plays, capitalizing on those as well. Our scramble tape was not very good, and I think that's something that Caleb can really sink in to. Just with his accuracy, with our ability to catch the ball, with our ability to separate down the field, I think we can make a huge jump there as well."
Johnson mentioned Williams' accuracy improving on those scramble plays and also simply catching the ball. Williams finished the 2025 regular season with a 58.1 completion percentage -- which ranked towards the bottom of the league.
When Williams was under pressure, he ended with a 56.3 adjusted completion percentage, which ranked last among quarterbacks with at least 144 dropbacks, according to Pro Football Focus.
The Bears also had 29 dropped passes, fifth most in the NFL.
Johnson's offense made some positive strides throughout last year, but the team has plenty to work for the offense to make another jump this upcoming season.