Caleb Williams is in good hands. The Chicago Bears quarterback made that clear himself throughout this offseason, expressing his growing belief in Ben Johnson as the overseer of his development and the leader of a team that continues to raise its bar.“Coaching matters,” Williams said in April, then later praising Johnson for “his information, his knowledge, his wisdom.”“It goes a long way for me,” Williams added. “I’m 110 percent in on whatever he says.”Best of all, Williams and Johnson have connected on a deeper level with both men understanding their shared ambition will only result in grand accomplishments if they remain united in their dedication to improvement.“There’s so much to unlock,” Williams said after the Bears’ final practice of the spring. “There’s so much to get better at. There’s so much ball left for me and us.”Is regression coming for Chicago Bears in 2026? Robert MaysAfter winning the NFC North last season, then notching the franchise’s first playoff victory in a decade and a half, Williams and the Bears have moved well past the feel-good celebration of 2025 and are focused on sustaining their success.Williams will check into training camp this weekend preparing for Wednesday’s first full-team practice in Lake Forest, Ill., with full understanding of the Bears’ opportunity this season — and a firm grasp on what it will take for both him and the team to get where they want to go.To set the stage for the six-week on-ramp that will take the Bears toward the regular season, The Athletic’s Dan Wiederer and Kevin Fishbain discuss what’s ahead for Williams during camp and how his growth will be shaped in 2026.Dan Wiederer: The one thing I think everybody must understand is the Caleb conversation is only growing louder and more opinionated. For us to continue bringing perspective and nuance into the ring, it will be important to emphasize the developmental targets being set by the coaches at Halas Hall this season. More on those here shortly.But even before camp begins, the intrigue surrounding Williams’ present and future continues growing and the range of assessments remains vast. At the beginning of this month, three-time Super Bowl champion and current NFL analyst Mark Schlererth made waves with his emphatic opinion that Williams is “not a good quarterback.” (Schlereth’s follow-up explanations offered more layers to an initial take that seemed extreme.)A few weeks later, ESPN — after polling more than 70 league executives, coaches and scouts — stamped Williams as the NFL’s No. 10 quarterback heading into 2026. Just like that, we had multiple high-profile evaluations that featured either harsh criticism or promising praise.As we await Mike Sando’s always enlightening “QB Tiers” exercise for The Athletic, where’s your head at with Chicago’s QB1 as we head for training camp? Are you comfortable approving a top-10 ranking for Williams? And — pardon the pun — how much of a “Stink” do you think Schlereth’s comments should have caused?Caleb Williams made a name for himself with late-game magic last season, but he needs to be more consistent for he and the Bears to achieve their goals. (Kamil Krzaczynski / Imagn Images)Kevin Fishbain: This is somewhat unfamiliar territory for us in Chicago. I don’t know how long that ESPN poll has been a summer staple, but I don’t recall any former Bears quarterbacks making that list — or even sniffing it. That speaks to how much Williams’ dazzling sophomore season resonated with the league’s decision-makers and evaluators.To piggyback on your nuance point, how many quarterbacks in the league — right now — would you rather have the ball in their hands in the final minute of a close game than Williams? He has proved over and over again his ability to make magic happen.However, Williams wasn’t perfect at the end of games. And there are several reasons the Bears needed him to put on that Superman cape — they had dug themselves a hole, and one of those reasons was Williams’ own inconsistencies early in games. Breaking down his stats as a whole, he might appear to be an average starting quarterback. Viewing it through the lens of what he’s capable of — and what he accomplished in the wins over the Packers and Bengals, among others — reflects a quarterback who can give defensive coordinators nightmares.I get why someone like Schlereth is not really moved by Williams’ performance when focusing on his completion percentage or the games in which the offense sputtered early. I also was in the building to see Williams take apart the 49ers defense on national television and then perform brilliantly against the Packers with the world watching and the game on the line. Twice. That was top-10 material.