Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams are ‘ready to go’ at Bears training camp

The Chicago Bears will hold their first training camp practice of 2025 on Wednesday, and the most important tandem in recent team history — coach Ben Johnson and QB Caleb Williams — are ready to go.

“I think we’re ready to go,” Johnson said from Halas Hall on Tuesday. “The governor is off. He and I have been talking all spring, all summer, constant phone calls, constant conversations. I think we’re in a great place and he wants to get coached hard—and we’re going to push him as hard as we can and do what is right for the team.”

Williams is certainly ready to go. He said he wants to become the first Bears quarterback to throw for more than 4,000 yards, and Johnson set a goal of 70% completions for the season.

“We certainly have goals that we strive for,” Johnson said. “It’s not a secret. I told him I would love for him this season to complete 70% of his balls. So you would like to think over the course of practice that we’re completing 70% or more, or that’s hard to just magically arise in a game. It’s a lofty goal, but it’s one we’re going to strive for. We’re going to use that as a benchmark and kind of work from there.”

That’s a very high goal to strive for. Only five quarterbacks hit that mark in 2025: Tua Tagovailoa (Dolphins), Jared Goff (Lions), Baker Mayfield (Buccaneers), Joe Burrow (Bengals), and Geno Smith (Seahawks).

Reaching a 70% completion rate would be quite the jump for Caleb Williams, who connected on 62.5% of his throws as a rookie in 2024. Still, under Ben Johnson’s tutelage, anything is possible this season.

“Seventy-percent completion, that helps the team, keeps us on the field, puts us in better positions,” Williams said.