The Chicago Bears are rolling. Winners of five straight, they sit atop the NFC playoff picture with a 9-3 record after a dominant Thanksgiving showing. But despite the momentum, head coach Ben Johnson isn’t sugarcoating what he sees as a glaring issue in his offense - and it starts with his rookie quarterback.
Caleb Williams, the No. 1 overall pick and the face of the Bears’ future, has yet to hit the completion mark Johnson set for him when he took the job this past offseason. The goal?
A 70 percent completion rate. The reality?
Williams is completing just 58.1 percent of his passes - dead last among the 33 quarterbacks who qualify league-wide.
That’s not the kind of stat you expect from a quarterback leading a playoff contender. And Johnson knows it.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, Johnson didn’t hide from the numbers. He acknowledged that last week’s game in Philadelphia was played in tough conditions - cold, windy, very November - but made it clear that weather alone doesn’t explain the issue.
“This is an area we’re certainly talking about,” Johnson said. “We gotta fundamentally be correct. The primary receiver, when he’s open, we’ve got to make sure we hit him.”
But Johnson didn’t place the blame solely on his quarterback. He pointed to the entire passing operation - from route-running to timing - as needing a tune-up.
“All of our pass catchers, we just harped on it today - we need to be more disciplined in our route detail,” he said. “It’s not where it needs to be.
Our depth’s not proper all the time. Our steps [aren’t].
Everybody has a role to play to get this pass game cleaned up.”
That last part is telling: “We’re winning in spite of our passing game, not because of it.” And that’s the kind of self-awareness you want from a team with postseason aspirations. The Bears know they’re not a finished product, even with a top-tier record.
The good news? The issues haven’t derailed the offense.
Chicago still ranks eighth in the league in points scored. Williams, for all the accuracy struggles, has taken care of the football - just five interceptions on 396 attempts.
That’s a better-than-average interception rate, and it’s helped keep the offense efficient, even if not always explosive through the air.
Still, if the Bears are going to make a serious run in January, they’ll need more from their passing game. Williams doesn’t have to be perfect - no rookie is - but he has to be better. And Johnson is betting that with cleaner routes, sharper timing, and more consistent execution, that bump in completion percentage will come.
Because if it does? This Bears team might not just be a playoff team. They might be a real problem in the NFC.