Caleb Williams vows Bears’ passing game ‘close’ despite inconsistency

Since Ben Johnson took over as the Bears’ head coach, he has been transparent with the media.

The Monday after the Chicago Bears’ 24-15 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles on Black Friday, Johnson shared his honest opinion of the Bears’ passing attack through this point of the season in his Zoom press conference.

“We’re winning in spite of our passing game, not because of it,” Johnson said. “None of us are pleased with that right now.”

Caleb Williams completed 17-of-36 passes for 154 yards and threw a touchdown and an interception. But the Bears generated 281 total rushing yards, and Chicago leaned into the run game to help the team improve to 9-3 on the season.

The day after Johnson spoke openly about the team’s passing game, the Bears’ head coach felt like he needed to clarify his words.

“I think when I made that comment yesterday, it is easily construed as I’m not happy with the quarterback,” Johnson said. “That’s not the case whatsoever. He continues to get better each and every week and I couldn’t be more pleased with how he played last week and I know what the stats say. Throw those out the window. He’s doing a really good job managing the ball game and that’s step number one for the quarterback. He’s going to continue to get better.

The process is really good right now with how he approaches the week. The way he’s taken the coaching, the way he’s applying the coaching, I’m very pleased with that, and I think we’re going to continue to see him ascend whether the stats tell the story or not.”

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In the Bears’ current five-game winning streak, the second-year quarterback has averaged a 53.2 completion percentage and has completed 58.1% of his passes this season, well below the 70% standard that Johnson and Williams set in June.

According to ESPN, only five quarterbacks have a worse completion percentage among those who “have at least 14 attempts per team’s games played.” Those quarterbacks include Russell Wilson (58.0%), Jameis Winston (56.9%), Joe Burrow (54.9%), J.J. McCarthy (54.1%) and Shedeur Sanders (50.8%).

But the Bears have still found ways to win games.

Completion percentage is just one stat, which doesn’t tell the full story. Williams even said on Tuesday, “Take the stats out, go watch some ball and you’ll be able to really see.”

There is truth to that, but there are also stats that reflect positively on Williams and the passing game. His 12.8% of pressures turned into sacks is the sixth lowest in the NFL among quarterbacks with at least 258 dropbacks this season, according to Pro Football Focus. Williams has only been sacked 19 times, ranking him 20th in the league. The Bears’ quarterback gives his offense opportunities even when the defense applies pressure.

At Lincoln Financial Field against the Eagles in a hostile road environment, the Bears committed just one presnap penalty, a false start by Joe Thuney. That’s a credit to Williams and the entire unit being in rhythm. Presnap penalties were a major issue at the beginning of the season.

And Williams believes this passing game is on the verge of breaking through.

“Yeah, it’s so close,” Williams said. “I mean, if you look at last game, there was, obviously, I had the two that where I should have hit, you know, thrown to the right side, Rome [Odunze] and DJ [Moore], and then right time and right everything, miss. And then we have the other couple players where the guys slip, but it’s right time and right spot, it’s just a guy slips. Then we had a couple where it was just miscommunication on him breaking in or out and things like that.

So we were in the right spot, right time and it’s just not on the same page. So that’s really what it’s come down to. So us going back and watching film and looking at it and all that. We’re so close and we’ll be hitting here soon.”

Again, there’s truth to Williams’ words, but he needs to prove to himself, his teammates, his coaches and the Bears fanbase that he can consistently hit open targets that have been schemed up in Johnson’s play designs. That will be the true indicator that this Bears passing offense is taking off in the right direction.

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