Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams isn't shying away from the expectations heaped on his shoulders in 2026.
Following last year's season full of wins that induced cardiac palpitations, Williams appeared on the "Up & Adams Show" with Kay Adams on Monday ahead of training camp and said he knows Ben Johnson's offense in Year 2 will be even better.
"It's gonna be really exciting. It's gonna be really fun to watch," he said. "It's going to be more entertaining than last year, hopefully not as much of a heart race, but it's going to be a little more entertaining throughout the whole game and what we're going to bring to the table as a team."
The Bears rallied repeatedly in 2025. Six times in the regular season they trailed in the final two minutes of regulation and pulled off the victory. In the Wild Card Round against rival Green Bay, they rallied from down 21-6 in the fourth quarter to win. They almost did it again in the Divisional Round, with a miracle Williams TD forcing overtime versus the Los Angeles Rams, but the Bears came up short.
With a year under Johnson, Williams is more confident in the system and how the entire club can coalesce.
"You can feel it. You can see it," he said. "The confidence, it's not thinking, it's what goes on outside. It's what goes on on the grass that you can see, that you can feel, the connection, the momentum. Whether it's offense or defense -- I'm not speaking about my side of the ball -- or special teams, it's all three of us combined. The connection in the locker room, all of that. We got some good things cooking and we've got to keep growing, we've got to keep going, but it's fireworks and all that. It's gonna be lighting up out here in Chicago, and we're excited to get it going."
The miraculous plays from Williams kept the Bears alive last season. Now the key is smoothing out the offense and becoming less reliant on the heroics. To that end, Williams said he and Johnson went over a compilation of incompletions together to see how the QB can improve heading into 2026.
"We figure out was it catchable, was it not, is there anything I can do better to help the receivers?" he said. "Obviously there's times where guys just drop the ball, but more often than not, it's looking inward and starting with myself and then going from there. It's finding ways through practice, finding ways through individual drills, finding ways through the offseason to get better and work my tail off to build confidence, working on the plays mentally and things like that in the offseason. So, when it gets to the season, to training camp, I'm not thinking, I'm not late to stuff. My feet, everything, is all timed up, and I'm delivering a catchable ball to the guys and they can go make plays."
If the Madden 27 cover athlete improves in 2026 and helps cover over some questions on defense, the Bears will have a shot at repeating as division champs.
