Bears’ Caleb Williams saying all the right things ahead of second NFL season

Caleb Williams’ rookie season would’ve broken most young quarterbacks. It’s not that the Chicago Bears’ prized first overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft had a bad year; in fact, he had a really good year all things considered.

Instead, Williams was sacked an NFL-high 68 times and was coached by arguably the worst collection of Bears coaches who’ve manned the team’s sidelines at the same time.

It was that bad.

But, here we are, with the 2025 NFL season less than two months away, and Williams sounds more like a guy who won Offensive Rookie of the Year than a player who several talking heads are already taking shots at.

“This year for me, it’s trying to take a step up in my leadership role and pushing the guys,” Williams said from Halas Hall this week. “Part of it is going out there and being right and doing everything right, getting the play calls in fast, being out there (and) being confident, knowing what I’m doing. And the other half of it is when things are messing up, let’s re-huddle, ‘Get up. Come on. Let’s get this thing going.’”

It’s that kind of approach — those positive leadership traits — that Ben Johnson is emphasizing at training camp and that are already rubbing off on the former Heisman Trophy winner.

“In two-minute, encouraging the guy,” Williams continued. “It’s fourth quarter – I know we’re in practice; it’s a hot day – (but) it’s fourth quarter in a game, it’s time to go win, so let’s go win this game. It’s small things like that. The encouragement, the belief in ourselves, the belief in the hard work we’re putting in. And then other than that, it’s going out there, having fun and showing it.”

By all accounts, Williams has begun to turn the corner in Johnson’s offense, highlighted by big plays downfield and connections to young skill players like Rome Odunze, Colston Loveland, and Luther Burden.

Caleb Williams needs to continue stacking good days, especially as the 2025 preseason opener inches closer — the Bears will play the Miami Dolphins on August 10. And even though we all know that summer scrimmags are meaningless in the grand scheme of a season, we also know that media personalities like Dan Orlovsky and Colin Cowherd are locked and loaded with criticism for any bad throw or late read by Williams.

Still, mistakes are OK. Bad moments are OK. They’re opportunities for a young player like Williams to learn, and the more learning opportunities he has this summer — even in preseason games — the better.

“It’s not my job to care what the outside noise is and things like that,” Williams told ESPN Raido. “My job is take care of everything in here and go out there and play. I know we didn’t win as many games as we wanted to last year, but I didn’t go 20 (touchdowns) and 20 interceptions and things like that. So, you know, take it for what you want, but no pressure is prevalent, pressure is a privilege, but you know the situation that I’m at. I don’t think I have pressure.”