To notice the difference in Caleb Williams from last year, simply listen to the Chicago Bears’ second-year quarterback speak. Rather than what is to come, Williams’ focus is on the now. Even still, it is not so much in the way that he speaks. Instead, there has been a shift in Williams’ discourse around his own play.
His efforts to reduce the number of sacks he takes have garnered plenty of attention.
So has his lingering inconsistency between and sometimes during games. However, Williams has shown tremendous growth in his ability to take what head coach Ben Johnson and the coaching staff are giving him and implement it on the field.
Caleb Williams Turning Bears’ Vision Into Reality in Year 2 Turnaround
Communication is Key for Caleb Williams, Bears QB Coach J.T. Barrett
Johnson said that he has entrusted the bulk of coaching Williams up to QB coach J.T. Barrett, who spoke glowingly about Williams in discussing how his age – Barrett is 30, seven years younger than Bears backup QB Case Keenum – impacts their relationship.
Like Johnson, Barrett suggests he is direct with Williams, good or bad.
“I think that definitely helps. And then, playing the position, I think, helps, as far as, at the end of the day, I’m not telling you anything I wouldn’t have told myself. So, it’s not like an attack on you. It’s like, ‘Nah. If I was playing. I would say the exact same thing to me.’ So, I think that – definitely early on – I think that helped as far as just the conversation. Because I think initially, it was one of those things where, maybe a little uncomfortable with just some of the conversations and being corrected and things like that,” Barrett told Clocker Sports on Thursday.
“It’s like, ‘No, man. This is not being a a******, or I’m not being hard on you just because.’ It’s like, ‘No, I would have told myself what I’m telling you, so. I know I am nowhere near as good as you, my boy.’ So, with that, just keeping that in mind. So, he’s been great with that.”
Williams has completed 59.7% of his passes for 2,329 yards, 13 touchdowns, and 4 interceptions.
Through his first 10 games, Williams had completed 61.8% of his throws for a 2,016-9-5 line.
The Bears were also 4-6 at the time and would soon fire their head coach, Matt Eberflus, and hire one of the individuals that he lost to in his final game at the helm, Johnson. They are 7-3 now, looking for their Win No. 8 in Week 12.
It would be their winningest season since 2020, when they reached the NFC Wild Card Playoffs (and lost).
Along the way, Barrett has tried to give Williams pieces of the game he wished he had received.
“No doubt,” Barrett, a national championship-winning undrafted free agent out of Ohio State in 2018, told Clocker Sports. “Being able to just have little mind taps and little nuggets in order to be able to speed up my [Williams] process, or understand a bit better of what I’m looking for or what I’m anticipating. Just being able to have seen that from his lens and that perspective definitely helps that.”
Barrett said he may not be as “tied in” to the shift in Williams’ dialogue, which can focus on the details of playing the position as Johnson and Co. desire now, rather than what they are asking of him. However, Barrett said they are certainly thinking about the now inside the building.
“That’s definitely what we’re talking about. What the head coach has been saying, where we’ve got a great opportunity right now,” Barrett told Clocker Sports. “We’ve got to be where our feet are, and making sure that we’re doing everything we can in our room. We put ourselves in a position to be successful. But it’s right now, trying to learn, each and every weekend, improving each and every game.”
Williams’ feet have also garnered the QB plenty of attention this season, as he has proven his elusiveness, time and again.
He holds the ball longer than most and takes some otherwise avoidable hits as a result.
“He is tough. There’s times where we’ve taken some shots. And the fact that he gets back up and to be able to call a play and go at it again, it’s – a lot of credit to him,” Barrett told Clocker Sports when asked to gauge.
“It’s not all the time do you see that. And the same thing with just being able to take his and shrug guys off. I think he does a good job of that as well. So, he loves the game, and he wants to be out there with the boys. So with that, he’s going to try to do everything in his power to make sure he stays out there.”
Case Keenum Praises Caleb Williams’ Work Behind the Scenes
Notably, the next closest confidant Williams may have on the Bears, at least as far as doing his job, may be Keenum. A former undrafted free agent who has been in nearly every situation as an NFL passer, Keenum lauded Williams’ growth in taking information and implementing it.
“It’s been tremendous. It’s been a lot of fun to watch. I think you can see it, just in production-wise on the field. But what you don’t see is just the hours, and hours, and hours of – it’s film study, game plan, study, keeping his body right? All the things that go into being a franchise QB that nobody knows,” Keenum told Clocker Sports on Friday.
“To see him develop, doing all the little things right, has been really fun to watch.”
Keenum was close to retirement when the Bears called. While some may question why he stuck around to be the emergency QB3 behind Tyson Bagent, Keenum knew the deal all along.
“I know that was half my job, part of being able to help in that room in whatever way I could. And I think that’s what’s great about our room, is we see it as a team effort. We’re all watching film together, we’re all talking together, we’re all talking about plays together. And what you see on the field on Sundays is – obviously, what this guy [Williams] can do – is great. But it’s a team effort.”
Keenum also joked that, “especially all those little places he gets out of, all those Houdinis, that’s all me. Just so you know. Yeah. I was the one that taught him how to get around all those guys.”
Make no mistake, Keenum’s input is invaluable.
“I think that’s the thing with Case. He’s been great in a lot of areas. It’s hard to really put a finger on one thing. But it’s, I would say, maybe, the things that don’t get a lot of notice. Where it’s a behind-the-scenes, ‘This is what this looks like,’ or ‘Hey, this is where this conversation is with this receiver or tight end,’ or things like that,” Barrett told Clocker Sports.
“Those little bitty nuances that come with the job, I would say Case is actually really good at, ‘Oh, this is actually what this looks like,’ and how exactly you need to go about it. And so, that’s all been great.”
Coaches Get Honest About Caleb Williams
Zooming out from Barrett’s proximity to Williams, there is passing game coordinator Press Taylor. While both have far less time to spend focusing solely on Williams like Barrett does, everything they do is linked to making his job easier on game days.
They have been pleased with where Williams is, even amid significant room for improvement.
Of Williams’ progress translating information into action, Taylor told Clocker Sports that it was the “natural process for anybody in a new system.”
“And then, just a young quarterback that came from a very different system being asked to play now in a traditional NFL system,” Taylor told Clocker Sports Thursday. “Having to handle playing under center with your back to the defense, identifying mic protections, identifying the mic in a run game, that’s all stuff that’s new to him. So, I think it’s natural to see growth from him.”
“It’s been cool to see, just from Week 1 to now, he seems like a completely different player in our eyes, in just his command of the offense.”
“I remember in either offseason or training camp, everybody was looking at us funny for throwing a bunch at him. And we knew this was kind of the vision of where we wanted to go. We were going to give him a lot of information that he was going to have to process, and he was going to learn how to process it quicker and get better at it. He’s done that every week,” Doyle told Clocker Sports on Thursday.
“That’s something that we’re still working through, but I think that he would tell you, right now, he’s come a long way from the first day of the offseason until now. And we still got a long way to go, and that’s the message.”
Johnson sees it, too.
That is especially true after Williams got the operation down under the first-year head coach and his staff.
“Once he really understood what this was going to look like – from a installation standpoint, to a walkthrough, to a practice, to a next-day clean-it-up – I think he’s really grown in that regard. And it’s not just him,” Johnson said, praising the entire group.
“We’ve applied a lot of pressure throughout the spring and throughout training camp, really, with this in mind. To where, when they get out there on game day, that everything, hopefully, slows down a little bit and they don’t have a coach yelling in their ear anymore. They can just go out there and play free. And so, I think we’re reaping the rewards from that right now.”