As the Bears get ready for their final preseason game, the attention in Chicago has landed on the usual training camp headaches, with injuries part of the picture. Caleb Williams, though, has stayed clear of that noise, and the bigger story is how much sharper he looks heading into his second year under Ben Johnson.
That growth has shown up in one specific area: the tight spaces where games get decided. Johnson said Williams is operating with more confidence and better timing than he did a year ago, especially when the windows shrink.
"I think that's been probably the best thing so far this camp, just the anticipation, the timing, the understanding of where we want to put the football. He is not afraid to fit it into tight windows.
He trusts his pass catchers. A year ago, a lot of the things were foreign to him, and now you can tell he has some banked reps and he's able to anticipate where he wants to go with the football."
That matters because moving the ball is only part of the job. The Bears need Williams to finish drives, and the red zone is where that pressure gets real. A quarterback who stays composed down there gives an offense a much better chance to turn yards into touchdowns instead of settling for empty trips.
For Chicago, that kind of efficiency carries extra weight. The Bears’ defense ranked near the bottom of the league in 2025, and even with steps taken to avoid that again in 2026, there’s still concern about whether it can hold up. That makes every scoring chance even more valuable.
If Williams keeps building on this camp progress, the Bears’ offense could look a lot different where it counts most.
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Bears Still Have Key Week 1 Jobs Up For Grabs
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