Bears QB coach J.T. Barrett wants more efficiency, fewer superhero plays from Caleb Williams

Bears quarterback Caleb Williams has shown plenty of ability to pull rabbits out of his hat over his first two seasons and he did that often enough to get the team into the divisional round of the playoffs last year.

Williams and the Bears hope to make an even deeper run this season and quarterbacks coach J.T. Barrett knows how he’d like to see Williams lead the team to those heights. While the last-second wins and miraculous throws from Williams are a thrill to watch, Barrett said that his message to Williams this offseason is that we “don’t have to work as hard for our money” if they’re better about making the easy plays when they present themselves earlier in games.

“Late in some of those games, we were making some heroic plays . . . but it wasn’t necessary if we execute in the first quarter and second quarter,” Barrett said, via Jason Lieser of the Chicago Sun-Times. “We might be up two touchdowns by the time we get to the fourth quarter. We can be efficient and take what the defense is giving. You don’t necessarily have to put the cape on and make those crazy plays because you already were killing them in the first three quarters.”

The Bears talked a lot about Williams getting to a 70 percent completion rate last offseason. He finished at just over 58 percent, which leaves a lot of room to improve while setting the table for fewer hair-raising finishes this time around.