Erik Kramer's single-season passing record for the Chicago Bears stood for 10,969 days, just shy of 31 years.
Caleb Williams eclipsed Kramer's 3,838 passing yards in the 19-16 Week 18 loss to the Detroit Lions at Soldier Field. Williams, 24, finished his second NFL season with 3,942 yards, setting a new record for Chicago's history books.
Kramer has openly acknowledged that his record should have broken years ago, but when it finally happened, the former Bears quarterback went to social media to congratulate the current Bears’ signal-caller.
Congrats to Caleb Williams @CALEBcsw for breaking the single season passing record. Next year you will pass for more than 4000! Now go beat the #PACKERS. Go #Bears
— Erik Kramer (@EKPass) January 6, 2026
Erik Kramer pays his respects to Caleb Williams after breaking Bears record
Kramer can take pride in setting the Bears' single-season passing record in just 16 games, compared to the 17 it took Williams, but Kramer's tweet shows that the retired quarterback fully supports Williams.
What's next on the to-do list for Williams, as Kramer mentioned, is to become the franchise's first quarterback to throw for 4,000 yards, as the Bears are the only franchise in the NFL to not achieve that mark.
Back in July, Williams said one of his personal goals was to be the first “4,000-yard passer in Bears history.” The second-year quarterback was 58 yards shy of achieving that mark in his first season with Ben Johnson as his head coach.
The expectation should be that Williams and Johnson will continue to grow together as the offense continues to develop, as long as the two remain together. Johnson may have called the 4,000-yard passing mark an “arbitrary number,” but it would signify that Williams is operating the offense at an effective level if he reaches that milestone.
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The quarterback play in Chicago has set a low bar throughout the team's 106-year history, which means this should only be the start of Williams breaking records and setting new ones as he looks to stamp his name in the record books as one of the all-time greats in Bears' history.