Caleb Williams Is Convincing His Own Teammates the Bears Can Win It All

The Chicago Bears are entering the 2026 season with something they haven't seen in many years: expectations. After clinching the 2025 NFC North championship and upsetting their archrivals in a miraculous Wild Card playoff win, the Bears are expected to be playoff contenders once again. But that may not be good enough for backup quarterback Tyson Bagent. In speaking to Bears beat reporter David Kaplan, Bagent made a promise that the Bears would win Super Bowl LXI in February.

The Bears aren't as far away from a Super Bowl as the oddsmakers may think

Depending on where you look, the Bears' odds of winning the Super Bowl in 2027 are somewhere in the middle of the pack. This indicates a general sense that the Bears will likely miss the playoffs or sneak in as a seventh-seed. I can understand being cautiously optimistic with the Bears. They've given the fans hope before only to see a massive regression the very next year.

But this Bears team is not that Bears team. For one thing, the Bears finally got their head coach and quarterback right. Caleb Williams showed significant progress in his development after just one season with Ben Johnson, and there's no reason yet to believe that that won't continue in Year 2. The Bears also made some key roster upgrades this offseason, adding at least one player who should help the Bears replicate Ben Johnson's attack with the Lions.

Don't forget that the Bears were just one completed pass away from pulling off an overtime win in the Divisional round and advancing to the NFC Championship game. The Seahawks would have been heavy favorites, but the Bears proved beyond any doubt last year that they could hang with the best of them. It's very easy to imagine an alternate world in which the Bears went on to face the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LX, and from there, anything is possible.

Tyson Bagent sees Caleb Williams taking a huge step towards superstardom

Bagent also told Kaplan that this offseason is the most impressed that he's been with Williams. "I see him being a team leader in the building. I see him working hard and really trying to do things the right way," Bagent said. "I think the sky's the limit for what our offense can be."

That's exactly what Bears fans should hope to hear. Williams is the key to making Bagent's promise come to fruition, after all. If he's not the Bears' franchise quarterback, nothing else will matter until they find an upgrade. But if he continues his ascending trajectory into a full-blown superstar, and it looks like he will, then the Bears will finally be a true contender, and that could start as early as this season.

Remember, Caleb Williams has doubled down on his goal of winning multiple Super Bowls. Ben Johnson told his players that he wanted to build a dynasty in Chicago almost as soon as he arrived. The 2025 season was fun, but the team fell short of their ultimate goal, and neither Johnson nor Williams will be content with that.

The Bottom Line

I won't be bold enough to co-sign on Bagen't promise of a Super Bowl victory, but I don't think it's that outlandish. Caleb Williams has proven to be a guy who can snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. It's how he earned the nickname Iceman. His seven fourth-quarter comebacks were the most in NFL history for a quarterback younger than 25-years-old.

As long as Williams is under center for the Bears, they have a chance to win any game against any opponent. If the rest of the roster does their job, I believe that Williams can do the heavy lifting to get the Bears back to the Promised Land and secure the Bears' first Super Bowl win since 1986.

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