Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams knew what was about to happen as he stood on the field at Halas Hall.

The quarterback and the rest of the Bears offense were taking part in the team’s offseason program during the past month. Bears head coach Ben Johnson started to radio in the play call when Williams knew what the rest of the call was going to be. Williams got the offense set up and he started to repeat Johnson’s call.

It’s a drastic turn compared to the Bears’ offseason program last year.

Williams and the offense struggled in the same situation last season. Players couldn’t get in the right places sometimes, leading Johnson to throw a unit off the field.

Now, Williams has become an extension of Johnson on the field with his comfort in the Bears offense.

“He’s obviously a lot more mature than me,” Williams told reporters at mandatory minicamp this week. “He’s older than me by many years. So he brings a lot of wisdom to me. He notices things that I may not notice in the moment or things like that. So his information, his knowledge, his wisdom and things like that, it goes a long way for me and I’m 110% in on whatever he says.”

It’s a major reason why the Bears offense is confident at the end of the team’s offseason program.

The Bears’ offense took a while to click as a unit in Johnson’s first season last year. Although Williams helped lead seven comeback wins last year while trailing with two minute left in a game, the offense struggled to get on the same page throughout games. Things started to click for Williams as the season progressed into the Bears’ playoff run.

That has carried over to the offseason program. Because of last year’s success, the Bears’ core offensive players saw their hard work last season pay off. New players like veteran wide receiver Kalif Raymond have noticed that intention and have been motivated by it.

“You got guys with the work ethic, the will, you got those kind of guys in the building,” Raymond said. “That’s the kind of guy you want next to you when it’s the fourth quarter, two minutes on the line, and you’re trying to have some change and you’re trying to score touchdowns, score points. So you got those kind of guys.”

They’re following the lead of their quarterback.

Williams has taken a larger leader role on and off the field. Apart from Williams’ control of Johnson’s offense, he’s correcting players if they’re in the wrong spot. He’s also vocally getting after players if they’re not doing what they should.

Williams talked about being more of a leader at the end of last season. He realized what it looked like when Raymond approached him during a practice where Williams was frustrated with himself.

Raymond helped him realize how much his teammates look up to him and how important it is for him to be stoic.

“When he said that to me, it stuck with me and it bothered me,” Williams said. “So, just every day having that type of mindset. Be as stoic as possible, strong as possible for the guys because they are looking at me. It takes a lot to do that because it’s such passionate and the energy in the sport is so strong. It’s important to me, it’s important to the guys and it’s important to coach.”

There’s also excitement about the talent on the offense aside from Williams.

Johnson praised all of the young offensive talent on his team. He told reporters over the past few weeks that he’s buying wide receiver Luther Burden III’s stock. Johnson was also excited for how much he can increase tight end Colston Loveland’s route tree and Rome Odunze’s potential with health.

Bears general manager Ryan Poles also brought in other talented targets like Raymond, wide receiver Zavion Thomas and tight end Sam Roush.

“I view it as we like a young core,” Odunze said. “Just some hungry dawgs in this league ready to get after it, really. We have a lot of young players that have a lot on our plates and I feel like that’s good for us. And maybe the expectation of young players in this league is mental and different mistakes like that, I think we’re excited for the opportunity and trying to exceed expectations for younger players in this league and this younger core.”

The Bears in general focused on fundamentals during their offseason workouts. Johnson didn’t put anything “exotic” in as the offense mostly worked on basic formations.

But all of this has allowed the Bears offense to put themselves in a spot to succeed once training camp starts in six weeks.

“We’re a lot further along in that regard and now we can focus on some finer details of the game of football,” Johnson said. “That’s really been the intent over the last few weeks is honing in some things we can learn from last season that we’ll be better for this year as well.”