Ben Johnson set the bar for what he expects from his quarterback early and hasn’t moved it. Caleb Williams isn’t asking him to.
Johnson first floated the 70 percent completion rate target last season as the Chicago Bears’ first-year head coach, while Williams entered his second season as a starting quarterback in the NFL. But then Johnson doubled down on it at the NFL League Meetings earlier this month, framing it less as a criticism and more as a roadmap.
As for Williams, who finished his second season with a 58.1 percent completion rate that was marginally lower than what he produced during his rookie year, he isn’t shying away from the conversation.
Speaking Monday at Halas Hall, he laid out a three-part framework for how he plans to close that gap, and it was the kind of answer that reflects a quarterback who has clearly spent time thinking about it.
“I would say it all starts with more reps,” Williams said (via CHGO). “Then, the next part, it comes with comfort in the offense. And I think towards the end of the year, that started to grow for me. I think those two things are really big in that standpoint.
“And then, the details — that last point is the details. Whether it’s the receiver’s depth in his steps and where his landmark is to break or stop or settle, and then from there, it’s me knowing all of those also. It’s being able to deliver a catchable ball, whether it’s velocity or where I place the ball, ball placement, and things like that, to be able to allow them to catch it but also have more from it.”
Williams continued, “You have the drops, you have the incomplete pass that I miss, and then you have to start throwing more and more and more and more. You get behind sticks and all these different things. And so, being able to be efficient for what we have, and when we have, and what we call, it raises the numbers from there.”
Reps. Comfort. Details. It’s a straightforward formula, and the evidence that it works was already showing up by the back half of last season, when Williams and the Bears offense found another gear down the stretch and rode it to an NFC North title.
Mandatory Credit: David Banks-Imagn ImagesCaleb Williams Has a Plan to Hit Ben Johnson’s 70 Percent Completion Rate Goal
Ben Johnson reiterating his goal for Caleb Williams is a tone-setter for a Bears offseason training program that has the team locking in early as it strives for a Super Bowl run in 2026.
“If we want to be elite, we want to be that 70 percent marker,” Johnson said. “We fell short of that, and we don’t shy away from that.” He went further, noting that the self-scout revealed somewhere between 80 and 90 throws on tape that the Bears felt could have been completions — not just drops, but genuine missed opportunities.”
Johnson added, “That’s really the challenge for Caleb. If we do that, then we’ll be 65, 70 percent completion, which is closer to where we want to be.”
Mandatory Credit: Mike Dinovo-Imagn ImagesHere’s the thing about the 70 percent conversation that got lost last season: the public narrative around it was largely ridiculous.
Williams was in his second NFL season, learning a new offense under a first-year head coach, and the completion percentage target became a cudgel for a segment of fans convinced he wasn’t developing fast enough. By the time Williams broke the franchise passing yardage record, threw 27 touchdowns, and delivered multiple clutch moments on the way to the division title, the conversation had quietly evaporated. Context matters, and the context was that a young quarterback and a new coaching staff were building something from scratch, and it took time to click.
Now they have a full season of shared language, a deeper understanding of the system on both sides of the ball, and Williams specifically called out the end of last season as the point when comfort levels started to grow noticeably. More reps in year two of Johnson’s offense. More familiarity with receiver landmarks and route depths. More intentionality around ball placement. The goal hasn’t changed. The infrastructure to reach it is considerably more developed than it was a year ago.
The 70 percent target is a stretch — it would put Williams among the most accurate passers in the league. But the direction is right, and Williams is clearly bought in. That’s the important part.
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