Ben Johnson set lofty goals for Caleb Williams, immediately challenging the Chicago Bears QB

Caleb Williams outlines personal goals for Bears season

Caleb Williams breaks down his personal goals as Bears training camp is set to kickoff.

LAKE FOREST, Ill. - There were signs in the offseason that Caleb Williams the football player would be to be thoroughly challenged this season.

It was clear when Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson smiled when talking about a specific moment during a June minicamp practice, where Williams was tasked with tossing to a checkdown.

"No, he was late," Johnson said with a grin. "He needs to get there faster."

The expectations are to be faster, stronger and better this season. On Tuesday, Johnson spoke those challenges into existence with tangible goals.

What we know:

Tuesday was a sign that Johnson is taking over the team. Step 1 for success in Chicago is for Johnson to get the quarterback position correct.

"We certainly have goals that we strive for. It's not a secret," Johnson said. "I told him, I would love for him on the season to complete 70% of his balls."

That, to be clear, would be a Bears' single-season record.

The most accurate quarterback season in Bears' history, with a minimum of 200 pass attempts, is a tie between when Mitchell Trubisky and Brian Hoyer completed 67 percent of their passes in the 2020 and 2016 seasons, respectively.

What should be music to Johnson's ears is how that's already on Williams' to-do list for this season.

"I have self-goals," Williams said Tuesday. "Being the first 4,000-yard passer in Bears' history. That's a goal of mine. Seventy percent completion, that helps the team, keeps us on the field, puts us in better positions."

Williams is coming off a season that was considered a worst-case scenario. The Bears made the wrong hire for its offensive coordinator vacancy, the offensive line struggled and the team fired its head coach mid-season.

Still, Williams threw for 3,541 yards, 20 touchdowns and just six interceptions. It was the best rookie quarterback season in Bears' history and it was a sign that, even with so much going wrong, Williams can be impressive.

He wants to do more re-writing of the Bears' history books.

"Other than that, just trying to go down and score the most points that we can with each drive that we have," Williams said.

Dig deeper:

Just being a productive offense is a good start, too. That didn't happen often last season.

That's why it's imperative to set lofty goals and heady challenges early for Williams. That didn't happen last season, especially when considering what expectations the team was placing on Williams as a rookie.

In retrospect, it felt like the bare minimum.

"It’s really just to maximize his ability," then-head coach Matt Eberflus said on training camp report day last year. "There’s going to be adversity, I want to see him lean on all of us to get through those moments. Then when you’re clicking and you’re in the zone that those high moments are high and just continue to learn and continue to get better every week and every day."

The present-day Bears coaching staff has been adamant they are not paying attention to the past and they don't know how things were run before they arrived at Halas Hall. That's a good way to step forward and move on.

It's also a good way to show they want to fund all the ways to bring the best out of Williams.

"We have not put, ‘You have to complete 60% this day, 65 this day’ – we haven't done that," Johnson said. "You would like to think over the course of practice that we're completing 70% or more. That's hard to just magically arise in a game. It's a lofty goal, but it's one that we're going to strive for. Because of that we're going to use that as our benchmark and work from there."

Completing 70 percent of his throws and passing for over 4,000 yards is attainable, but it's not easy.

Only five quarterbacks in the NFL completed 70 percent of their throws or better in 2024. Only six quarterbacks threw for 4,000 yards or more. Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff, with then-offensive coordinator Ben Johnson, was one of them.

If anyone knows how to properly set expectations and see them through, it's Johnson.

Williams is up for the task, too.

"Other than that, you have to go win," Williams said. "That's success for me. That's success for the team. That's all we wish for."