Caleb Williams

Last year, with Ben Johnson, Caleb Williams took a small step forward in his play, but it wasn't nearly as massive a step as most think. Yes, he was the QB7 in fantasy points per game while ranking 12th in rushing yards per game and 11th in rushing touchdowns among quarterbacks, but he still struggled mightily as a passer despite the fantasy production and late-game heroics. Among 38 qualifying passers, he was 22nd in yards per attempt, 30th in adjusted completion rate and highly accurate throw rate, 34th in catchable target rate, 25th in hero throw rate, and he had the tenth-highest off-target rate (per Fantasy Points Data). With Ben Johnson back at the controls this year and plenty of skill talent around Williams for 2026, I hope he makes more incremental improvements as a passer to improve his fantasy production because if his rushing production dips, he could see his fantasy stock slightly decline. He should still return QB1 production in 2026.

After an uneven rookie season in which he finished QB16 in fantasy scoring, Caleb Williams took a big step forward in 2025 under new Bears head coach and playcaller Ben Johnson, finishing QB6 in fantasy scoring. Williams threw for a franchise-record 3,942 yards. He boosted his yardage per pass attempt from 6.3 as a rookie to 6.9. He bumped his TD rate from 3.6% to 4.9%, while slashing his sack rate from 10.8% to 4.1%. There's still room for improvement. Williams completed only 58.1% of his throws last season, and he's a notoriously slow starter who sometimes slumbers through the first half of games. But Williams is a remarkable athlete capable of extraordinary throws. He adds some fantasy value as a runner (388 rushing yards and three TD runs last year), though he prefers to use his mobility to buy additional time to throw. Williams has a bright future, and with Johnson as his mentor and a pass-catching corps that includes TE Colston Loveland and WRs Rome Odunze and Luther Burden, a high-end QB1 fantasy season is within reach.

Caleb Williams is poised to take another step forward in his second season with Ben Johnson. Chicago is littered with young talent at the skill positions. He is a dual-threat QB who already finished 2025 as the QB7 in PPG (19.1). Top-10 in fantasy QB1 finisher rate (50%). And that was despite him ranking dead last in completion rate over expectation (-7.4%). Another step forward could easily vault the former first overall pick into the fantasy top 5 among QBs.