There were plenty of ways to tell that Caleb Williams’ rookie season didn’t go as planned. First and foremost, there was a 10-game losing streak that saw the Chicago Bears go from a 4-2 squad with legitimate postseason potential to a 5-12 disappointment with an interim head coach and a ton of questions to be answered in the offseason. The most important question, of course, was how to get Williams, the 1st overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, on track?
Step number one was hiring the right head coach… the head coach who wanted to be in Chicago, in large part because Caleb Williams was already there. Enter Ben Johnson, whose tough love approach to coaching the 23-year-old quarterback was exactly what Williams wanted and needed last season as things started going sideways.
Step number two? Getting back the confidence that bordered on arrogance when Williams was taking the football world by storm as a member of the USC Trojans. To remain in that state on a permanent basis, the Bears will need to win games, but even before Chicago takes the field for the first time in 2025, it appears that Caleb Williams has already gotten his swagger back.
Caleb is being coached hard by the new staff in Chicago, and despite some very public struggles throughout training camp, he’s beginning to round into shape and resemble the guy he was during his Heisman Trophy campaign in 2022. That includes having his fingernails painted again, and not giving a damn about what people have to say about it.
“Part of it’s just me being myself and just [being] unapologetic about it,” Williams told Courtney Cronin of ESPN. “And you know, I’m not going to apologize about it. I’m gonna be me.It doesn’t bother me what people have to say about me because I know what I am. I know who I am and what I like to do.”
It may seem like a minor detail, and one that is undoubtedly unique to Caleb Williams, but as Williams and the Bears were in the midst of one of the most depressing losing streaks in franchise history, the expressive young quarterback stopped painting his nails. He had lost his flair and he had lost his confidence. In other words, he lost much of what made him a standout prospect in the first place.
“It was hard to do. We were losing, and days were long trying to figure out how to get things back on track,” Williams said. “It got a little tiring at the end.”
Ben Johnson is Building Back Caleb Williams
While Ben Johnson may not have gifted his quarterback a bottle of Gucci Lucy Baby Blue nail polish, he’s at the very least working hard to rewire Caleb Williams‘ psyche so that he could feel empowered to express himself both on and off the field. That started with identifying some of the bad habits that Williams picked up during his rookie season and addressing each one of them.
Most notably, Ben Johnson wanted to rid Caleb Williams of the defeatist body language he displayed far too often in 2024.
“We don’t want to be a ‘palms-up team’ where we’re questioning everything,” Ben Johnson said. “To me that’s a little bit of a sign of weakness. We don’t want to [see] that from anybody on the team.”
Williams was ‘palms-up’ on a regular basis during his rookie season. Whether it be because the offensive line let him down, or because there was a miscommunication between him and one of his pass-catchers, or because the coaching staff was in way over their heads and not giving Caleb what he needed, his frustration was evident and it only got worse throughout the year.
That won’t be the case in 2025. Ben Johnson and his staff will give Caleb Williams everything he needs, and as a result, Williams can hold himself to a higher standard in his second NFL season.
“He’s as hard on himself as I’m being on him, and he’s disappointed when we’re not spitting the plays out in the huddle the way we should or we’re not taking the proper drop or our eyes aren’t in the right place,” Johnson added. “He’s getting to that point where it’s more self-correction, and we’re off and running from there.”
Caleb Williams Speaks on Motivation Heading Into 2025 Season
Very few quarterbacks have ever found themselves in the position that Caleb Williams has found himself in over the last 18 months. Sure, countless quarterbacks have been the number one pick in the NFL Draft. Nearly as many have had rocky moments in their rookie year. But Williams was perceived to be a generational prospect, and the Bears are arguably the most tortured franchise in the NFL when it comes to searching for a superstar quarterback.
Caleb Williams arrived in Chicago as the perceived savior of the franchise, but in 2024, he more often than not looked like a false messiah. His vision of eight Super Bowl titles looked laughable by season’s end, but now with a competent coaching staff in the building and a more than serviceable supporting cast surrounding him on the field, Williams is likely counting Lombardi Trophies as he lays his head down to sleep each night.
Of course, Williams wants to win at the highest level for himself. He admits, “I love to call myself a winner, and win in everything I do.” But it goes beyond that, too. There’s an understanding of what the city of Chicago has invested in him. And he wants to make good on that goal for the Windy City as well.
“I want to win for the city. I want to win for the Bears. I want to win for my teammates.”
With Painted Nails and Confidence High, Caleb Williams is Ready To Win For the City of Chicago