CHICAGO — The ability to turn off-script plays into huge, jaw-dropping moments is a special talent that has defined Caleb Williams’ young career.

It propelled him to a Heisman Trophy at USC in 2022 and was a big part of why the Chicago Bears selected him with the No. 1 pick in 2024.

Williams’ penchant for big plays when something has broken down and his ability to operate in the two-minute offense are not in question as he prepares for the beginning of his second season with Monday night’s game against the Minnesota Vikings at Soldier Field.

Paired with 39-year-old coach Ben Johnson, who quickly rose to prominence over the last three seasons as the coordinator of the high-octane Detroit Lions offense, the Bears believe the offensive guru can tap into Williams’ talent in the club’s never-ending quest to produce a player worthy of the tag “franchise quarterback.”

You can scrutinize the team’s misses, miscalculations, follies and flat-out negligence in quarterback development and play from now until kickoff Monday. It all has been documented, reviewed and — unfortunately — repeated.

Johnson isn’t here to answer for the past. His job is to bring the Bears, who pioneered the forward pass with Sid Luckman, out of the abyss, and Williams is as talented of a prospect as the club has ever had.

There’s no overstating how significant the 2025 season is for Williams. By year’s end, he’s going to be the solution the club has been seeking or the Bears will be in limbo somewhere between clinging to hope he clicks in Year 3 and bracing for the possibility of change in the not-too-distant future — like 2027 or 2028.

The Bears’ plan to develop Williams as a rookie failed in so many regards. What was supposed to be the best situation a highly drafted quarterback has entered in a long time was quickly exposed as a ruse. The offseason, beginning with the hiring of Johnson and his staff, was dedicated to fixing that before it was too late. General manager Ryan Poles spent lavishly to upgrade the offensive line. The skill positions were augmented with additional young talent.

The coaching staff went back to the basics with Williams, beginning with his footwork, and challenged him every step of the way. Now, it’s nearly time to see where he’s at against a Vikings defense that was highly ranked a year ago and will be more exotic than anything else thrown at the offense this season.

“I’ve got the utmost confidence in Ben in his coaching ability, his play-calling and all of that,” Williams said. “Throughout the week when we’re messing up, which is going to happen, we have to get back in the huddle, redo it, so that when it happens on game day, we go out there and execute exactly what he dishes out for us.”

Johnson said he began to see things slow down for Williams at the midpoint of training camp after the team completed installs. There were some bright moments over the summer, especially leading into the second preseason game against the Buffalo Bills, and a lot of ups and downs, which is how things wrapped up with an uneven exhibition performance at Kansas City.

Now that the Bears are into an actual game plan, we’ll get a clear look at what Johnson believes Williams does well. That is going to be on the call sheet — the coach tells you what he thinks his players can execute.

For Williams to take a significant jump this season, he must improve as a pocket passer. The money (and draft picks) spent to add guards Joe Thuney and Jonah Jackson and center Drew Dalman were dedicated to making the pocket a friendlier and more productive work space for Williams.

“They hold the protection with the best of them,” Williams said. “Do I feel good back there? I feel great and excited to get to go to war with them.”

On throws made inside the pocket, he struggled as a rookie with a QBR of 43.7 (26th in the NFL). From the pocket, his completion percentage was 65% (27th) and his yards per attempt was 6.3, ranking 34th ahead of only Mac Jones and Cooper Rush.

He needs to be able to win from the pocket consistently and play in rhythm and on time in order to ascend. It can’t be measured with a social media cut-up of plays, and it’s a process that will play out over the course of the season. His second season needs to be evaluated as a whole and not in a vacuum of one or two weeks.

“So much of the story around Caleb is the style with which we’ve seen since he came into college,” Fox Sports analyst Greg Olsen said. “The whole offense rode on his back. It was shotgun. It was improv. It was play off-script. It was incredible throws on the run and in and out of the pocket. I think that’s the exact opposite of how they want him and how he needs to play at this stage of his career.

“I think there’s got to be more timing, rhythm, on command, hit the back foot, ball out, higher completion percentage. Get the sacks down. Don’t try to create and create and create. There will be a time to create and he’ll know when it is. There is a fine line for Caleb between executing the offense the way Ben designs and also at the right moment in time — third-and-pass — you’ve got to go create. If it’s not there, go be an athlete. Go do what you’ve done your whole life.

“Last year it was too much of that. I wasn’t here. Scheme, coaching, system, who knows? But moving forward, I think Ben is going to put him in situations where it’s play action, ball out. Understand two-man reads, understand half-field reads, get the ball out of his hands, get completions. If he can do that, they’re talented enough around him that he doesn’t have to do more. If halfway through the season he’s just running an efficient offense, protecting the ball, completion percentage is up and they’re trying to generate some big plays down the field, which they sucked at last year, and he can keep the sacks down, that’s were they need to be.”

It’s a tall ask. It’s the point at which so many young quarterbacks — through their own fault, the situations around them or often times both — fail. Mitch Trubisky couldn’t operate at a high enough level from the pocket. The same thing plagued Justin Fields. The Bears need to see growth because it’s the key dimension to elevating Williams’ game.

Johnson talked about being locked in to preparation and the steps required in getting the team between now and kickoff Monday. As the man overseeing the operation, does he allow himself to wonder what it will look like under the bright lights?

“I go back to when I was in high school going into game days, and we’d only throw it about five times,” he said. “Now, we were a really good team — we ended up winning state my junior year — and I would come out of the game wondering, ‘Why didn’t we throw it more than that?’ As a quarterback, it goes back to what did the week look like in practice. That’s why the preparation and how it looks like on the field is so important.

“We’ll have a real good feel as a coaching staff for what we’re going to get out of Caleb on Monday night with how he approaches the next few days. It’s going to help dictate how I call the game as well. Are we going to put the ball in his hands and on his shoulders to carry us through? Everybody on the offense is going to have to carry the load at some point in this game. Since I became a coach, I go in early in the week and I have a lot of concerns about what it’s going to look like on game day and I don’t know if this is going to work, blah, blah, blah. By the end of the week I usually have a high degree of confidence in our guys because of how they’ve gone about their business. I already feel that right now with this group.”

Patience will be required. Monday’s opener will offer only a glimpse of what is ahead with Johnson in charge. Williams should look different in the middle of the season and, if the plan goes accordingly, improved by the end. The coach-quarterback dynamic has looked good all offseason.

“He’s been great for me,” Williams said. “He has pushed me. But like I’ve said many times, he’s a teacher and he will be persistent until you get it.”

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