ClutchPoints
The Chicago Bears have had a tremendously successful regular season. They were a last-place team a year ago, and that led to the team hiring Ben Johnson as their new head coach. It was clear from the moment he was hired that his primary job was turning No. 1 draft pick Caleb Williams into a winning NFL quarterback.
Johnson accomplished this goal with hard coaching, pointing out Williams’ mistakes and significant flaws in offseason practice sessions, training camp and in-season practices. Williams is far from a perfect quarterback, but he got the most out of his ability to become the kind of leader who comes through with his best football when the game is on the line in the late stages of the 4th quarter.
This allowed the Bears to come through with victories in games against the Bengals, Giants, Vikings and Packers, with each win leading to a significant jump in the team’s status.
The Bears won the NFC North title and earned the No. 2 seed in the NFC playoffs, and that means the Bears should have an excellent shot of getting to the conference title game against the top-seeded Seattle Seahawks.
However, the Bears have a number of problems that will keep them from getting to the NFC title game. They could fall short in the Wild Card game against the Green Bay Packers.
Williams has had a season of tremendous growth this season, and his ability to come through with pinpoint passes at the most crucial moments has turned him into one of the great winners in the 2025 season. He is one of the best quarterbacks in the league when it comes to escaping pressure and finding his receivers when it looks like a sack is inevitable.
However, Williams often starts games slowly and that’s why the Bears are often in a position of having to register comeback victories. There has been a lack of urgency as the game gets underway and that puts the Bears at a disadvantage.
Williams is not as accurate a passer as he needs to be. There are times that his powerful arm either overthrows or underthrows his receivers.
Wiliams completed 330 of 568 passes for 3,942 yards with 27 touchdowns and 7 interceptions. While his production was solid, his completion percentage was not as high as it could have been. He completed 58.1 percent of his passes, and that ranked 34th in the league among qualified passers. That figure is well behind Packers quarterback Jordan Love, who completed 66.3 percent of his passes and ranked 15th in accuracy.
D’Andre Swift and rookie Kyle Monangai give the Bears a solid running game in support of Williams. Swift ran for 1,087 yards and 9 touchdowns while averaging 4.9 yards per carry during the regular season, while Monangai ran for 783 yards and 5 TDs.
The Bears lost their last two games of the regular...
