Williams enters the 2025 season looking to build on a promising first NFL campaign during which he registered a 93.8 passer rating and set Bears rookie passing records with 351 completions, 3,541 yards and 20 touchdowns.
The No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 draft also became the first Bears quarterback to start every game in a season since Jay Cutler in 2009. In addition, Williams was one of only four NFL quarterbacks with at least 20 TDs and six or fewer interceptions, joining Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen and Justin Herbert.
Williams has already benefitted from working with Johnson, who was hired by the Bears after coordinating one of the NFL’s most prolific offenses in Detroit. Over the last two seasons, the Lions led the league in points (30.1) and yards (402.2) per game. In 2024, Detroit scored an NFL-leading 68 touchdowns and ranked second with a franchise-record 409.5 yards per game while winning the NFC North title with a 15-2 mark.
“[My] knowledge of football and NFL football has grown even just sitting in some of the meetings this, year and even today and going through our first game week and just understanding things I may not have understood last year,” Williams said.
“Whether that’s defenses, whether it’s offenses, I think I’ve taken a step there. I have to keep taking those steps throughout this year and many years from now. But Ben, he’s been great for me. He’s pushed me. Like I’ve said many times, he’s a teacher and he will be persistent until you get it.”
Johnson’s persistence was evident in training camp when he stopped practice to correct mistakes, helping players to learn from and not repeat their miscues.
“I’ve got the utmost confidence in Ben: in his coaching ability, his play-calling and all of that,” Williams said. “It comes down to being able to execute exactly what he puts out there for us as a team, as an offense. Throughout the week when we’re messing up—which is going to happen—we have to get back in the huddle, redo it, so that when it happens on game day, we go out there and execute exactly what he dishes out for us.”
Regardless of which plays are called Monday night at Soldier Field, Williams views his role as a distributor in an offense that features receivers DJ Moore, Rome Odunze, Olamide Zaccheaus and Luther Burden III; tight ends Cole Kmet and Colston Loveland and running back D’Andre Swift.
“We need to go out there and do our jobs,” Williams said. “We need to run our routes at the right depth. We need to be able to hold up in protection. And I need to be able to deliver the ball, whether it’s under pressure or not. Other than that, it’s getting the ball out of my hands and allowing our guys to be able to go out there and make plays and be special, which they are.”