CHICAGO -- The Windy City's new favorite son, Bears quarterback Caleb Williams, spent Thursday night celebrating his prominent place on the cover of the upcoming Madden NFL 27.
He's hoping the jovial spirit shared inside the Aon Grand Ballroom at Navy Pier is similar to the feeling he'll experience three miles south at Solider Field this winter.
"Winning. I want to win as many games as possible," Williams said when asked what he was looking forward to most entering the 2026 season. "I think we're building toward that."
Williams' anointing as the latest NFL star to grace the cover of Madden is no small feat. The third-year quarterback joins the likes of household names like Saquon Barkley, Christian McCaffrey, Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes and Tom Brady to lead the game's marketing campaign in this decade. When EA Sports comes calling and places you on the cover of their massive football simulation, it's a strong acknowledgement of your success and the expectation for more.
Bears fans can gladly take it as a sign that their team is ascending toward greater heights.
"I wanted to bring a certain energy back to Chicago Bear football," Williams said. "This is just a start. A big portion of it is winning games and winning the big one. Hopefully it starts this year and that trend keeps going upward from there."
After a challenging rookie season, the No. 1 overall pick of the 2024 draft blossomed in 2025, his first season spent playing under offensive mastermind, Bears head coach Ben Johnson. The results were magical: 3,942 passing yards, a 27-7 TD-INT ratio, an 11-6 record, an NFC North title, a Wild Card Weekend win over the rival Green Bay Packers and a highlight reel with enough thrills to fill a major motion picture.
The sudden turnaround transformed the Bears from a frequently frustrating club into the most promising franchise in the Windy City, with the source of optimism wearing No. 18.
It's up to Williams to ensure 2025's successes weren't a fluke.
Williams carried an air of confidence into Thursday night's preview event for both Madden 27 and College Football 27 -- which EA Sports dubbed their first-ever "Opening Drive" -- but despite his years spent in the spotlight at Oklahoma and USC, it's clear the stardom is still relatively new to the quarterback.
It's either that, or Williams understands the work is more important than the theatrics.
Take his response to a question regarding the feared "Madden curse," a belief that a Madden cover athlete is destined for doom in the upcoming season, for example. Williams quickly pivoted away from the hype and back toward the field.
"No more of this Madden curse," he said. "We're going to go out and do all the things we need to do, stay healthy, do all the things we need to do study film and be prepared each week, and go out there and handle business."
The business should be a bit easier, at least during the current portion of offseason activities. At this time one year ago, Williams was submerged in Johnson's new scheme, absorbing as much of it as possible while preparing for his second NFL season that suddenly carried heightened expectations.
"I was learning so much and it felt like I was just drowning with all the information and things like that," Williams explained.
Now, after a year spent together, Williams believes the Bears are properly positioned to grow.
"Where we're at now is different than where we were at last year," Williams said. "A lot of last year was trying to figure it out. A lot of last year was trying to trust teammates and coaches and all of that. I think at this point, we trust our coaches, they trust us. We've got a lot of returning guys, at least on the offensive side of the ball that we know the offense well enough to be able to go out and practice and have these good practices, and with the information that we're gaining on these plays and on these different schemes that we have, it just heightens the awareness for the scheme and when we're out there we have a better understanding of where we need to go and what we need to do."
Familiarity is always a strength in a league that produces annual turnover, but the Bears aren't running back the exact same lineup. Veteran receiver DJ Moore is now in Buffalo, leaving Williams with a supporting cast largely led by fellow youngsters in Rome Odunze, Colston Loveland, Luther Burden III and Kyle Monangai. At 27 years old, both running back D'Andre Swift and tight end Cole Kmet represent the most seasoned of Chicago's playmakers.
It's good to be young and talented. It will be even better if these Bears can apply the lessons learned from their run to the Divisional Round to the upcoming season.
"I think that's the portion that we're building right now in training camp, OTAs, all of that is building trust between each other," Williams said. "At this point, I have all faith between Cole Kmet, 84 Colston (Loveland), Rome (Odunze) and Luther (Burden), all these different guys, (D'Andre) Swift, guys that have been here. That's just building on top of that and adding more confidence to it and belief to it.
"And for the new guys, it's just communicating with them, having open communication about where they need to be, when they need to be there. When they're wrong, you correct them, and knowing your personnel, you correct them. You do things like that throughout these periods and you get to the season and now you're on the same page and you're rolling."
It's clear Williams is embracing his new role as the face of the Chicago Bears, one that looms large enough to stretch across the nation and onto the cover of an incredibly popular video game. It's a job that carries significant responsibility, both to the city of Chicago and the NFL at large.
And even if his coach barely pays it any attention -- "He said 'congrats' and 'heard you're on the cover' and we kind of laughed about it and moved on," Williams said of Johnson -- becoming the face of Madden means more than photoshoots, sizzle reels and game sales.
For a Bears fanbase, it means hope. It means recognition. And it means anticipation, the likes of which Chicago hasn't seen in quite some time, for the upcoming campaign.
"I'm excited to get back out on that field," Williams said. "I've been excited since that last game that we had, falling short in the way we did. ... Excited for the fans to be able to love and enjoy being a fan for Chicago."
