CHICAGO, Ill., — Being the No. 1 overall pick in an NFL Draft comes with a lot of expectations. For Caleb Williams, being in Chicago, those expectations are sky high as we enter the 2026 NFL season.
In just his first year under Ben Johnson, Williams put together an impressive season helping lead the Bears to an NFC North title and a playoff win over Green Bay. Now, going into 2026, Williams' importance can't be understated.
With the NFL kickoff being under 100 days away, CBS Sports' Zachary Pereles, listed his top 100 most important players for the 2026 season. Williams landed on that list at No. 88 overall:
Williams cut out the biggest issue in his game -- sacks -- in 2025, thanks to individual improvement and major improvement around him: Ben Johnson and several offensive linemen certainly helped. The next step is improving his accuracy (58% completion percentage) and continuing to make strides playing in structure. The arrow is pointing upwards.
The jump from year one to year two was undeniable for Williams. However, the next step is to have consistency and carry that into his third season in the NFL. One thing Williams will need to improve on is completion percentage.
Williams finished the season completing just 58 percent of his passes, lower than the 70 percent goal Ben Johnson had for him. That is going to be an emphasis for Johnson and Williams this season, along with the wide receiver core which had 29 dropped passes last season.
"Completion percentage is something that we're going to emphasize, and so what did they get when they came into the offensive meeting today?," Johnson said during OTA's. "They got the chart of what our completion percentage was yesterday, who had drops, what did our scramble drill look like, when those naturally occurred. And so that's really our first objective is just drawing more attention to it. Those guys are really critical of themselves in drill settings, routes on air, where the ball placement is."
The big improvement that did happen for Williams from year one to year two came from the number of sacks taken. In his rookie campaign, Williams was sacked 68 times to only 24 times in his sophomore season. This could come from one or multiple reasons: a new coaching staff, a much-improved offensive line, or the quarterback using his experience and mobility to move out of the pocket. Regardless, the Bears and Williams will look to keep this number as low as possible, while attacking the completion percentage number.
Familiarity with coaching and the system will be pivotal for the success of the third-year quarterback for the Bears. The term "the arrow is pointing upwards" is what sticks out the most from the quoted article. The NFL is going to market the heck out of Williams and the Bears, as long as they continue on an upward trajectory. There's going to be a ton of pressure on the quarterback's shoulders this season, but for everything we have learned about Williams, he seems to embrace it. The Bears' season will go as far as Williams takes them.
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