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Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams has quickly become one of the faces of the NFL following an impressive sophomore season where he wowed with his impressive escapability, improbable throws and penchant for leading Chicago to comeback wins.
While Williams made strides in his second season -- and first with head coach Ben Johnson -- his completion percentage hasn't been where you'd like it to be in those first two years. Last season, Williams completed 58.1% of his passes for 3,942 yards with 27 touchdowns and seven interceptions. But his completion rate ranked 32nd out of 33 quarterbacks in 2025.
"I throw the ball away the most to try and keep us in advantageous positions because I know coach will go for it on fourth down," Williams said. "So, I'm not fearful of only having three downs. I also know our ability and how explosive we are, so I'm not fearful of, like I said, throwing out of bounds, dirting it. I obviously scramble and people count my scramble seconds of holding the ball, but it's a bunch of different things that I can go into that I know that people speak about. Stats aren't always something that you should look at. You should look at how they win games."
Williams led the Bears to an 11-6 record, an NFC North title and the franchise's first playoff win in nearly two decades. He also established himself as one of the most clutch quarterbacks in the NFL with a record seven fourth-quarter comebacks. Still, Williams acknowledged his desire to improve his completion percentage in 2026.
"Obviously I want to get that up, get the completion percentage up, but some of the things that I do on the field, it negatively impacts that," he said. "But we'll get it up this year just to shut everybody up and help everybody to understand."
For what it's worth, Williams also mentioned that some of the greats like Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and Patrick Mahomes all average around 62 to 65 completion percentage in their career. So it's not the end all be all, although Williams vowed to improve in that area. At the end of the day, the only thing that matters is winning. And Williams is well on his way to keeping winning football in Chicago.
This article originally appeared on Bears Wire: Bears QB Caleb Williams claps back on completion percentage criticism
Continue reading...
While Williams made strides in his second season -- and first with head coach Ben Johnson -- his completion percentage hasn't been where you'd like it to be in those first two years. Last season, Williams completed 58.1% of his passes for 3,942 yards with 27 touchdowns and seven interceptions. But his completion rate ranked 32nd out of 33 quarterbacks in 2025.
"I throw the ball away the most to try and keep us in advantageous positions because I know coach will go for it on fourth down," Williams said. "So, I'm not fearful of only having three downs. I also know our ability and how explosive we are, so I'm not fearful of, like I said, throwing out of bounds, dirting it. I obviously scramble and people count my scramble seconds of holding the ball, but it's a bunch of different things that I can go into that I know that people speak about. Stats aren't always something that you should look at. You should look at how they win games."
Williams led the Bears to an 11-6 record, an NFC North title and the franchise's first playoff win in nearly two decades. He also established himself as one of the most clutch quarterbacks in the NFL with a record seven fourth-quarter comebacks. Still, Williams acknowledged his desire to improve his completion percentage in 2026.
"Obviously I want to get that up, get the completion percentage up, but some of the things that I do on the field, it negatively impacts that," he said. "But we'll get it up this year just to shut everybody up and help everybody to understand."
For what it's worth, Williams also mentioned that some of the greats like Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and Patrick Mahomes all average around 62 to 65 completion percentage in their career. So it's not the end all be all, although Williams vowed to improve in that area. At the end of the day, the only thing that matters is winning. And Williams is well on his way to keeping winning football in Chicago.
This article originally appeared on Bears Wire: Bears QB Caleb Williams claps back on completion percentage criticism
Continue reading...
