On his way into the Chicago Bears’ offseason program last month, quarterback Caleb Williams was brimming with eagerness. He knew what the 2025 season signified — a breakthrough for him and the franchise, a division championship run built on rapid growth with a playoff victory over the rival Green Bay Packers as punctuation.There was plenty to be pleased with, so much evidence of the growth Williams made during his second NFL season and his first working with coach Ben Johnson. But, through Williams’ lens, little of that was cause for celebration.More so, the wind the quarterback felt at his back seemed more like a push to keep moving forward. “Yes,” Williams said in April, “that was a good stepping stone for me. But that wasn’t the last stepping stone.”Far from it.After months immersed in the grind with the always-intense Johnson, Williams has come to embrace his coach’s expectations: the intense focus on every detail and the physical, mental and emotional investments required just to survive. Even with a personal 2025 highlight reel that was among the league’s most jaw-dropping.Williams understood the language Johnson was speaking shortly after last season ended with a heartbreaking home playoff loss to the Los Angeles Rams.“One of the first things we talked about when we first met is, ‘Now it’s going to be more difficult. I’m going to push you more,’” Williams said. “And my answer is, ‘Yes, sir, let’s do it.’”That’s what this spring continues to be about at Halas Hall, looking ahead in the quest for improvement. For Johnson and Williams. For the offense they are both hoping to elevate. For the entire team, really.The Bears became a winning team last season because of their unwillingness to settle. But for the offense, the drive to level up is intensifying and will enter a new stage next week when the team gathers for its first session of organized team activities.Under Johnson’s guidance, Williams will be at the controls. And truth be told, so much of the Bears’ 2026 campaign may hinge on how much progress their 24-year-old quarterback continues to make.Elevating Williams’ completion percentage (58.1 in 2025) is near the top of the checklist. And with Johnson vocalizing his goal to get that number north of 65 this season, there’s an internal sense at Halas Hall that Williams can accelerate his climb on that particular trail with greater comfort in the system, plus improved habits in feeding the ball to open playmakers. Add in the efforts to continue polishing Williams’ throwing mechanics, and there’s a clear path for the quarterback to elevate his play.Still, the Bears won’t make this a one-man mission. Across every other position group, looming questions need to be addressed during OTAs, minicamp and the early stages of training camp. Among them:• On the offensive line, how quickly can second-round pick Logan Jones prepare to replace Garrett Bradbury as the starter at center? And which player — Braxton Jones, Theo Benedet or Jedrick Wills Jr. — will seize the starting job at left tackle?• In the backfield, how can the running backs do their part to continue the ground potency the Bears established last season, leading the NFC with an average of 144.5 rushing yards per game? And how will the coaches diagnose the issues that caused that production to dip in December and January, when the Bears averaged 122.6 rushing yards per game?• As for a stable of talented young pass catchers, can tight end Colston Loveland and receivers Rome Odunze and Luther Burden III all make significant leaps in what sets up as an important season for all of them?Bears coaches will also seek greater success in the off-script passing game and with an end-of-half two-minute operation that too frequently coughed and wheezed in 2025. From Week 7 on last season, the Bears scored just 6 points on their final drives before halftime, a somewhat startling reality given how dangerous Williams and the offense were during end-of-game situations.“We had numerous (opportunities),” Johnson said, “and we didn’t score many points. We tended to get the first first down. But we didn’t end up moving the ball very much after that. So that’s a point of emphasis.”Johnson, meanwhile, will continue to mold the offense around his personnel and, in an ideal world, will have a better feel for the group’s identity far earlier this season. To that end, with 13 offensive players back who started at least one game last season and Johnson still calling the plays, continuity should be on the Bears’ side.Said tight end Cole Kmet: “I’m sure the coaches will have tweaks based on the self-scout of this past year. But you pick it up really quickly and you get going.“I think it will help us get where we want to go at a quicker rate. Hopefully the things we had to iron out last year at this time and in camp, we can kind of bypass quickly enough and get to the nitty gritty.”Buy-in is also already solidified with Williams voicing one of last season’s most important revelations in his development.“Coaching matters,” he said. “That’s something we always say. And then you have to have the person on the other side to receive the coaching.”In other words, this continues to be a group effort. And after the Bears made encouraging strides last season, leaping from last in the league to sixth in total offense, from 32nd to ninth in yards per play, and from 28th to ninth in team scoring, the belief that more significant improvement is within reach feels invigorating.