Stats in football aren’t the whole story, but they do help paint a picture to better understand why a player, season, or team finished the way it did.
Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams had plenty of different stats – good and bad – that helped tell the story of his rookie season.
He set the Bears' franchise record for a rookie quarterback with his 3,541 passing yards and 20 touchdown passes. Williams’ 17 games played in 2024 are also the most in a single season by a Bears quarterback. He accomplished those feats while being sacked 68 times last season – the most in the NFL.
The most important stat for not just Williams and the Bears but for every NFL team is what numbers slot in the win and loss columns. For the Bears, that was 5-11, which landed them in last place in the NFC North.
One area of Caleb Williams' game that needs to be better
To ensure the Bears don’t end up as the basement feeders in the NFC North with Ben Johnson as their head coach in Year 1, the Bears’ deep passing game must dramatically improve. Here are a few stats that represent how poorly Williams and the offense were in that category last season.
According to Pro Football Focus, for quarterbacks that had at least 20 deep pass attempts (20 yards or more), Caleb Williams ranked 33 out of 38 QBs last season. Only Anthony Richardson, Daniel Jones, Spencer Rattler, Mac Jones, and Drew Lock had a worse completion percentage than Williams.
Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes finished one spot ahead of Williams at 32 with his 29.6 completion % on throws of 20 yards or more. Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff, who Johnson called plays for in the last three seasons, finished 11th with a 41.7% completion percentage.
It was also interesting to see how many deep attempts Williams took in his rookie season. The Bears’ quarterback was tied for the third most with 75 attempts of 20 yards or more. Goff had just 48 (22nd).
Johnson didn’t need Goff to attempt many downfield shots, especially when you factor in the Lions' ability to run the ball. However, Goff was effective when targeting his playmakers for explosive plays.
The Bears had no reason to attempt 75 downfield throws. When you consider the inconsistency on the offensive line and having multiple offensive coordinators, the last thing the Bears needed was to make completions harder to achieve. Williams was also just inaccurate and inconsistent with deeper throws.
According to Pro Football Reference, Williams led the NFL in “Bad Throws” with 110. Here is what the top-10 list looked like last season
- Aaron Rodgers 98
- C.J Stroud 95
- Matthew Stafford 88
- Patrick Mahomes 87
- Josh Allen 86
- Bo Nix 83
- Bryce Young 80
- Sam Darnold 77
- Jordan Love 75
- Joe Burrow 73
Goff finished with 69 bad throws, which was the 13th most. That list has some great quarterbacks on it, including 2024 MVP Josh Allen. Bad throws are not the end of the world, but Williams needs to bring that number down.
The hope is that Johnson’s offense will scheme more effective ways to complete deeper passing plays, but at the same time, create check downs – that Williams needs to take – to stay ahead of the chains.
To see that improvement, it will have to start with Johnson and Williams working through the playbook. The play caller and quarterback need to be in sync and have a clear understanding of why plays are designed the way they are, with specific timing and route concepts.
Then Williams has to take it upon himself to correct some of his accuracy issues and establish better timing with his pass catchers.
This shouldn’t be an easy fix, but over time, the results should equate to improved statistics to go along with the 2025 NFL season.