Despite record passing totals, the Chicago star must trade excessive throwaways for precision. Reducing league-high waste will be vital for a deep postseason run in 2026.
Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams did a lot of things right last season, but even he knows that he has a lot to improve on.
He'll tell you that himself.
He threw for more yards and touchdowns than in his rookie season but had a similar number of interceptions. Williams finished with 3,942 passing yards, 27 touchdowns and seven interceptions.
His playoff stats left much to be desired.
He had 618 passing yards, four touchdowns and five interceptions. He threw two interceptions against the Green Bay Packers in the Wild Card and three in the overtime loss to the Los Angeles Rams in the following round.
You would like him to play better football in the playoffs, but it was his first postseason appearance. His play in the playoffs will improve with experience and isn't indicative of how his season went overall.
Overall, he had a great year. The offensive line was a big part of that, as Williams went from being the most-sacked quarterback as a rookie to only being sacked 24 times last season.
One thing he struggled with was throwing the ball away too often. Williams led the NFL with 44 throwaways and had the second-worst completion percentage in the league at 58.1%.
Only one player had a worse completion percentage than Williams did last season, and that was Minnesota Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy, who completed 57.6% of his passes in 2025.
Williams addressed the number of throwaways he had last season on a recent episode of "Pardon My Take," stating that he did it so often because he knows how much Ben Johnson likes to go for it on fourth downs.
"I throw the ball away the most to try and keep us in advantageous positions because I know coach will go for it on 4th down," Williams said. "So, I'm not fearful of only having three downs. I also know our ability and how explosive we are. So, you know, I'm not fearful of, like I said, throwing it, you know, throwing out of bounds, dirting it."
While it's great that Williams has a lot of faith in Johnson, this kind of mindset needs to change. This is especially true after what Bears quarterback coach J.T. Barrett said earlier in the offseason.
Barrett was quoted in the Spring, saying, "We don't have to work as hard for our money."
Barrett was essentially saying that because of how good Williams is, he doesn't have to make Superman-level plays every time, highlighting the importance of playing more winning football.
Johnson's commitment to scoring is commendable and definitely comes from his time with the Detroit Lions. Dan Campbell is one of the most aggressive head coaches in the NFL, but that can hurt the team at times.
Williams is bought into Johnson's philosophy, but throwing the ball away on third down isn't very productive, even if his head coach is more inclined to go for it on fourth down more often than not.
We've seen how detrimental it can be when someone like Justin Fields puts up good stats but doesn't make winning plays. For Williams and the Bears, this will be an important step.
