Toward the end of last season, Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson noticed something about his quarterback Caleb Williams at practice.

Williams looked more at ease, especially in the 7-on-7 drill.

At the beginning of the season, Williams struggled with all the different concepts Johnson and his staff implemented. Training camp practices were filled with miscommunication, missed throws, or taking too much time to get to the line of scrimmage.

But as the season progressed, Williams looked different at practice as he approached the line. To Johnson, Williams seemed confident in what he was about to do.

“A drill as simple as that yet you see him look so much more comfortable going through some of those same plays,” Johnson said last week at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis. “You know, a lot of it was like riding a 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 and now you can accelerate your vision a little bit and that’s what he’s learning to do. That’s why I’m really confident in the direction he is going. I’m excited for him.”

Williams showed that comfort in games too, as the season moved along and the Bears returned to the playoffs for the first time in five years. Things looked smoother on the field for him as Williams had a better command of where he needed to throw the ball.

That comfort was most important during the seven comeback wins the Bears had last season, when they trailed with two minutes left in the game. Yes, Williams made incredible throws at times to pull off the improbable. Yet he also trusted what Johnson called and came through with clutch throws. He ended the season by becoming the Bears’ single-season passing leader with 3,942 yards.

But it was far from perfect.

Chicago’s offense stagnated in many games throughout the season, forcing the Bears to win in dramatic ways. Much of those mid-game offensive inconsistencies stemmed from dropped passes, sometimes due to Williams or his target, and errant throws.

Williams ended the season with a 58.1% completion rate, well below the 70% Johnson set for him during training camp. He told reporters at the end of the season that he planned on working on his accuracy and footwork during the offseason.

“Every single rep, every single moment that I have in the offseason that I’m working out or practicing and getting those practice, kind of game reps is where my mindset is going to be,” Williams said. “Being able to be in the offense for a year, being able to be comfortable in the offense now, being able to go back and look at things I could have done better: Was I too far forward? Was I too far back? Was I not consistent enough with my footwork? Did I lean off and fall off the mound is what we call it. It’s just super small things to be able to be more consistent for the guys, for the team.”

Johnson echoed that sentiment at the combine. He believes Williams needs to do a better job of completing passes, whether that’s converting on the easy passes that are in front of him or giving his receivers a better ball to catch.

Williams completed 50% and 54.8% of his passes in his first two playoff games, respectively. He failed to complete more than 61% of his passes in a game since Week 7 against the Baltimore Ravens and completed more than that in three games last season.

For Johnson, it’s finding the perfect balance.

Johnson has credited Williams for being a coach’s best friend because he erases play calls that didn’t work with his ability to create something out of nothing. But Johnson also believes his coaching staff does a good job calling plays that get the primary target open.

“So it’s the balance between the two and I’m looking forward to mechanically he was learning some different things with his footwork,” Johnson said. “It actually looked more comfortable than I would have thought Year 1, and yet I really think a full offseason of really drawing that down home is going to help him become more accurate moving forward.”

The progress would follow a similar pattern for some of the best quarterbacks in the NFL who took major steps a couple of years into a new system. Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen and Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow each took big steps and earned their first Pro Bowl honors in their third year.

Much of what the Bears are doing this offseason is centered around the belief that Williams can be their franchise quarterback who can lead them to a Super Bowl title. Bears general manager Ryan Poles repeated that belief in Williams as the Bears battle a tight salary cap situation heading to the start of the new NFL year next week.

“A lot of it was like riding a 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 and now you can accelerate your vision a little bit and that’s what he’s learning to do. That’s why I’m really confident in the direction he is going. I’m excited for him.”

—  Ben Johnson, Chicago Bears head coach

Each time Poles has said they’re currently making cap decisions with the plan of paying Williams a lucrative contract over the next few years.

“I got a head coach that wants to sustain success and win for a long period of time,” Poles said. “I have a quarterback who continues to progress and he wants to be one of best to ever do it and win a lot of championships.”

The Bears don’t doubt Williams will put in the work to get there this offseason based on what he did this past season.

At the combine, Johnson told a story about how he pointed something out in a game to Williams that he didn’t expect to worry about for their next matchup. When it did end up happening, Williams threw the ball to the exact spot Johnson wanted.

“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 in real time in a game, man, he’s really going to ascend quickly, and so I’m looking forward to it,” Johnson said. “I really do think this next offseason we’ll see significant strides.”