Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - What can we expect from Caleb Williams in second year with Ben Johnson?

Episode Date: March 2, 2026

Leila Rahimi and Mark Grote discussed what we should expect out of Bears quarterback Caleb Williams in his second season with head coach Ben Johnson.

Rahimi Harrison Grody, Midday's Tyndal 2 on Chicago Sports Radio 1043 The Score. This is Rahimi Harrison Brody on 1043 The Score. And this is something that amidst all of the business of the bears and the discussion surrounding what the priorities are or maybe what they see, it kind of got lost in the shuffle and I think it deserves discussion with you, Mark Grody. Ben Johnson in a side session with the media at the combine last week was asked about what he expects to see from his quarterback Caleb Williams in year two. What are the advantages Caleb has being in the offseason in his second year with you

in terms of knowing what you want? And also, you know, how much growth can be made because, you know, it's not new anymore. It's, you know, focusing in, I guess. Yeah, well, I mean, we saw enormous growth over the course of the season. You know, I keep going back to what, you know, seven on seven look like at the end of the year versus what it looked like to start the year. A drill as simple as that, and yet you see him look so much more comfortable going through some of those same plays. A lot of it was like riding the bike for the first time with some of these

concepts. You just hadn't seen it and you get thrown a different coverage each and every time. Now you can accelerate your vision a little bit more and that's what he's learned to do. And that's where I'm really confident the direction he's going. I'm excited. for him. I think he's going to be able to look at some of these cutouts from the self-scout and look at what he could have done a little bit better. I think what's most encouraging to me is something happened at the end of the year where I showed him one thing on tape and didn't even think it would come up in the next game, and yet it did. And then he threw the ball to the exact spot that I would have wanted him to throw the ball to. Now, the result of the play wasn't

what we wanted to for other reasons. And yet something as simple as that, I'm like, holy cow, if this guy can take one little nugget that we talked about the week prior and we really weren't emphasizing and yet be able to apply that real time in a game, man, he's really going to ascend quickly. And so I'm looking forward to it. I really do think this next offseason will see significant strides. That's high praise from Ben Johnson. and he sounds a lot different about Caleb Williams and talking about him now than he did it,

say, this time right before the season began, for example, after her training camp. Yeah, I mean, and there's still obvious places where Caleb Williams still needs to work. I mean, the easiest one completion percentage, 58.1% was 32nd in the league. you know all the stuff checkdowns footwork accurate the runner ball that we always talk about that he got better at the one thing Leila that that has bothered me all year about Caleb Williams or since he's been with the Bears and I bring it up a lot and that's the batted down balls at the line of scrimmage and I'm like I was thinking like he's got to be up there in the league and yeah as it turns out Caleb Williams had 18 passes batted down at the line last year and I'm like I was thinking

last year. Tied for second in the league with Dak Prescott behind Trevor Lawrence who had a league high, 20 of those from last year. So there's some like, I don't know if this is the right way to put it. Easy ways to get better for Caleb Williams. You know what I mean? Like that doesn't seem like it would be a huge haul to look at some obvious spots

where he can get better. The runner ball, you should be able to fix. getting in better places to throw the ball should be something that he gets better at. So I hesitate to use that word easy, but I think with Ben Johnson, there are some discernible things that he can improve. Yeah, I think the bat of ball concept is one that I've thought about as well, because that was always one of those things I wanted to see more of,

was, for example, the throw to Colston-Loveland over the middle that helped win the game against Cincinnati. Those are the ones where at his height, you are doing the most. You know, you're having to see over the line, people are jumping up at that point to try to bat the ball, for example. Are you throwing a line drive?

Are you throwing more of a three-pointer? Yeah. And some of it's because of the off-scriptness. I get it. You know what I mean? Like Caleb sees the field in a different way than others. I think about Max Crosby and how he rushed the line and how he was able to bat the ball down at the line of scrimmage.

Yeah. I mean, that one stands out. He has a tendency to go to his outside. You know, typically that would mean behind turn all right, because that's the more consistent way. Also, because there's pressure on the left side, he's getting flushed out of the pocket. So when you predict that,

you know, like, where do you think the ball is going to... So if you're rushing, rushing the passer on the right side of the play, his right side, then that's obviously something that stands to happen as well. That might have just been timing, too. Yeah, timing. And then the height thing, too. I mean, he's not a tall quarterback.

And so that's part... Did you remember when I was at the combine? Are you kidding? We're the ones who told you to go find out how tall. But here's the thing, Trevor Lawrence is 6-6, so what's his excuse? Right, right, right. You know, if he's number one, Dak Prescott is 6-2 and has been in the league, how long?

And at one point it was getting serious conversation for MVP. Yeah, I don't know what their stories were. Like, I had to go back and actually watch theirs, but. Well, Lawrence had no excuse. If you hadn't had that many balls batted down, and my goodness, where were the team of Ben record-wise in the regular season? He might have ruined the season with his batted balls. I don't think that was it, but they definitely

enjoyed quite the come-up with Liam Cohen as the head coach. What if that keeps going? He thinks going? Like, does he, does Trevor Lawrence, like, has he made man now? Has he made it? Like, is he just going to keep getting better? Or is he is what he is? He was marketed originally as a generational talent. He's on his second contract. No, he's good. He's good. But no, he's not generational, please.

I mean, but here's the thing. Trevor Lawrence in his second year, let's do this. Let's do the thought exercise. So let's take the Bears by his. out of it. Trevor Lawrence in his second year under Liam Cohen, I'm optimistic. So why would I not have reason to believe I should be optimistic with Caleb Williams after showing that much improvement in one year? Right. And his

second year with Ben Johnson. Third year in the league, I mean, I know his first year sucked with the coaching around him, but you can't take it away from it. It will be his third year. It will be, but at the same time, when you asked yourself at the beginning of last season,

what you wanted to see out of Caleb Williams, knowing, yes, Ben Johnson threw out there the 70% completion rate. Yes, that was a part of it. But when you asked yourself, how was he going to improve? What were the things you were looking for? Some of the same, well, maybe the biggest thing for me going into this year is because I saw it up front, obviously covering the bears, was the deep ball accuracy, just that accuracy in general, because that didn't seem to be part of his story at USC in terms of having trouble with accuracy.

So that was probably the biggest part and then the taking less sacks, which he accomplished in a big way. And he was more accurate, too. And I think 708 makes a good point on our tax line. Caleb also likes to use creative arm angles that could cause those as well. And even that improved throughout the year. You know, it wasn't just the arm angles. It was that not everything was a plus plus fastball. Like when you've got to throw off speed a little bit with that touch to somebody who is either running perhaps a crossing pattern over the middle of the field.

Or, you know, it's somebody just ahead of the line of scrimmage that can get some yards for you. I feel like that was also the case. Well, hopefully, I'm sure that's part of what they're looking to approve on the batted balls. And they can look at each and every one of them and look at what the story was and hopefully improve that a little bit without. And this has been one of Ben Johnson's superpowers without. taking away Caleb Williams's identity. He never did that this year. I mean, he probably did tone some things down early and simplified some things early,

but you never saw Ben Johnson not allowing this quarterback to be himself. The one thing, at least if it's a quarterback-related issue, not receivers needing to catch issue, I want to see a more established screen passing game. Okay. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I'm talking old school, just basic. Your receiver is next to you, you know, line of screen. Grimmage-wise. He's dead even with you in the play. He's five yards away from you. Just toss it

really easy. Like that touch pass to be able to let him go. And that's a runner's ball too. Ben Johnson was also on with Mike Florio. So here's what Ben Johnson told Mike Floreo about this same need to do things. Give me one thing that you want to see Caleb Williams do to get to the next level in 26. He's got to continue to ascend, continue to work and go in the same direction. that he ended the season. That's the hard part is coming back and getting back on the horse and regaining right where he left off. I think that's really important.

I think when you look back at last year, there's probably 40 throws out there that, man, if we can find a way to get completions on, we feel so much better about where we're at as an offense, our passing game, and he's going to feel a lot better about where he's at as a quarterback as well. And there's some throws he made last year that I don't know anyone else can make those throws. You're 100% right. And that's the balancing act because

yeah, as much as we want those 40 throws to come, we still have probably those 40 that he did make that not many other players can make. Yeah, I mean, it's fair to think about it. You don't want to digress at the things that you did get good at. And those balls that Ben Johnson is talking about, yeah, they were spectacular. But it also just showed that his deep ball accurate got better. You don't want that. So keep that. Don't let that waiver at all. And then the other part two was the eluding of pressure was an A plus for Caleb Williams this year in terms of the awareness of the pressure and then alluding it was elite. I can't, I can say that. Everybody wants to hear that word out of my mouth. His ability to elude pressure and run away was elite last

year, kids. No, it absolutely was. The only person who impersonated Caleb Williams better than Caleb Williams was Micah Parsons in practice. Yes. That's it. Like that's the list. Coming up next here on Rahimi Harris and Grotie, what about what the general manager thinks? Cassie Carlson of Fox 32, talk to Ryan Poles, so he will add to this conversation next.