After navigating early-season hurdles and Ben Johnson’s demanding offense, Caleb Williams reveals the specific midseason turning point when the Bears' offense finally started to click.
Caleb Williams experienced his fair share of growing pains during the early portions of learning Ben Johnson's offense.
The Chicago Bears' coach consistently had his starting quarterback re-rack plays to get the details precise during the early portions of organized team activities. If that didn't happen, Johnson didn't hesitate to pull his starters off the field to see if the backups could line up properly.
These miscues are expected when learning an entirely new offense.
On the latest episode of the "New Heights" podcast with Jason and Travis Kelce, Williams joined to discuss a variety of topics, including what it was like learning Johnson's diverse scheme.
"Yeah, I mean, you obviously get to a comfort level throughout camp, and then you get into a game and it's like f---, this is a little different," Williams said. "You got obviously different bodies flying around, different checks, different alerts, different, you know, hand signals and all these different things that apply for just that week and so being in this offense and a bunch of motions, a bunch of shifts, we shift and motion, I mean every play ... you have to. It's a positive for us."
Given all the information and requirements to understands the offense it "probably took that Vikings or after the second game to kind of get in the same page with Ben and then from there, you know, the confidence of myself started growing. And then I think that's where it started taking off and people started seeing some of the things that, you know, I can do, and we can do."
The Bears played the Vikings for the second time in Week 11 on Nov. 16. After defeating Minnesota, 19-17, the Bears had a 7-3 record.
The following week, the Bears played the Pittsburgh Steelers at home. Williams finished that game with 239 passing yards and three passing touchdowns. He also carried the ball four times for 21 yards.
Outside of the Bears' 24-15 win over the Philadelphia Eagles, Williams threw for at least two touchdown passes in the final seven games of the season, including the playoffs.
It took 10 games for Williams to get on the same page with Johnson last season, but the offense still had success, finishing as the No. 9 scoring unit in the NFL.
By all accounts thus far through organized team activities, the Bears' offense is far ahead from where the unit was at this time last year.
“I said this the other day, like the first week out, just breaking the huddle, it was clean, crisp cadence, everything," Bears right guard Jonah Jackson said last Wednesday. "Guys are comfortable with what we're doing, and the scheme and understanding of things is there. The flow of practice has been much easier.”
With a season's worth of reps in Johnson's offense banked in Williams' memory, there should be expectations for the Bears' offense to start off faster than it did a year ago. If Williams can direct his unit to play more effectively this upcoming season, Johnson's offense is going to become far more difficult to defend in 2026.
