Now that most of the 32 NFL rosters are set ahead of organized offseason team activities, it’s only natural to start thinking about the 2025 season to come. Which team will see the biggest turnaround, a la the 2023 Houston Texans or 2024 Washington Commanders? And which player will have a breakout season?
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You might be able to find the answer to both in Caleb Williams.
If Williams is the breakout player of the year in 2025, you better believe that means the Chicago Bears also had a massive turnaround from that ugly 5-12 run last season. They’ve started off 2025 well, making shrewd moves in both free agency and the draft to set up Williams and first-time head coach Ben Johnson for success.
In Year 2 in the NFL, one of two things can happen for a player. Either they improve on their rookie year by continuing to work on their weaknesses, adapting and reacting to new defensive schemes, and studying film. Or, the opposite happens.
Other teams do their own homework on a player, learn his tendencies, and keep him from doing the things that make them great. NBC’s Mike Florio believes Williams will do the former in 2025.
“Caleb Williams, to me, is the most likely to really explode this year. And, he’s got a group of haters out there. There is a palpable anti-Caleb Williams contingent in the fans, not the media as much, but the fans. That are just, ‘I’m sick of this guy, I’m sick of hearing about this guy,'” said the PFT journalist.
“We saw enough of Caleb Williams in the preseason to think he’s got that factor that will make people go, ‘Woah’. He just didn’t get a chance to really display it last year,” Florio continued.
Last year was an unbridled disaster for the Bears. They did get their guy in Williams, but after a 4-2 start, they lost 10 of their last 11 and fired head coach Matt Eberflus midseason. Their new head coach, Ben Johnson, promises to create the perfect environment for Williams to thrive in 2025.
Ben Johnson has set up Caleb Williams and Bears for success
Johnson has already proven that he can take a talented, former No. 1 overall draft pick and turn him from dud to stud. He just did it with Jared Goff in Detroit. After three mediocre seasons with the Lions and L.A. Rams from 2019 to 2021, Goff was rejuvenated in 2022 when Johnson took over as Detroit’s offensive coordinator.
In 2022, Goff had his most TD passes (29) since 2018, his fewest INTs (7) since 2017, his highest passer rating (99.3) since 2018, and made the Pro Bowl for the first time since 2018. Goff only built on that campaign over the next two seasons. Johnson can surely do something similar with Williams, who arguably has more physical gifts.
Chris Simms addressed why fans might not like Williams, suggesting perhaps there was some level of subconscious (or conscious) homophobia among fans about his pink phone case or his penchant for painting his nails as the reasons he has so many “haters.”
However, Simms argued that there will be no one more motivated than Williams in 2025. Especially after the guy picked right after him in the 2024 NFL Draft, Jayden Daniels, eclipsed Williams so thoroughly in 2024. Simms believes that last year didn’t present much of a chance for Williams to strut his stuff, and he still had a decent year.
“There was a number of issues with their football team. And I don’t think anything totally conducive to great quarterback play. And even saying that he had 20 TDs and 6 INTs, he threw for over 3,500 yards. They weren’t a dominant running football team. But yeah, there’s areas he can improve… It’ll be a different year. I will be shocked if he doesn’t pop off this year.”
Johnson himself was a huge coup for Caleb Williams, but then the coach led a charge to surround Williams with talent that’s arguably even more important. They spent their top three picks on a TE (Colston Loveland), a WR (Luther Burden III), and an offensive tackle (Ozzy Trapilo).
They also signed not one, not two, but three new starting linemen in guards Jonah Jackson and Joe Thuney as well as center Drew Dalman.
No excuses this time, Caleb.
