The Caleb Williams who will run out of the Soldier Field tunnel, guiding the Chicago Bears against their bitter rival Green Bay Packers in the NFC Wild Card on Saturday night, offers little resemblance to the one who pulled a Bears cap over his head as the No. 1 pick in the 2024 NFL Draft.

As these playoffs begin, though, Williams is even further from a finished product.

“Caleb Williams has a long career ahead of him,” former NFL quarterback Sage Rosenfels, who has trained the Bears’ quarterback since he was in eighth grade and worked with him during the Quarterback Collective Camp, tells Between The Hashmarks. “And we all know he doesn’t lack in confidence and belief in himself. He does have the physical abilities that really almost nobody else has in the league right now.”

Williams’ name is already etched into the Bears’ franchise record book with six comeback victories this season, just his second in the NFL, and is finally stepping confidently into the expectations that heralded his arrival in the Windy City.

This isn't just another chapter in the NFL's oldest rivalry. Saturday is the first real stress test for the most expensive infrastructure project in Chicago sports history. By pairing a generational talent, like Williams, with the clinical play-calling of Ben Johnson, the Bears have finally stopped trying to survive the Packers and started trying to outbuild them. Chicago spent last offseason fortifying the offensive line by adding veterans Joe Thuney, Jonah Jackson, and Drew Dalman at the top of the market while dropping pass catchers Rome Odunze, Colston Loveland, and Luther Burden into Williams’ supporting cast in the first two rounds of the past two drafts. Saturday night is merely the arrival of these Bears.

Last year, Williams was a human pinball, absorbing an NFL-high 68 sacks. This year, that number dropped to 24, an insane testament to the brick wall general manager Ryan Poles built for his franchise cornerstone.

Unlike a rookie season where Williams was forced to navigate coaching turmoil at every turn, from the sideline to the pocket, Chicago has built out the infrastructure to set their 24-year-old quarterback up to write the next chapter for one of the NFL’s heritage franchises.

It might begin Saturday night, but the seeds for whatever these playoffs and Williams’ career becomes, were planted on January 20, 2025.

That’s the day Ben Johnson put pen to paper inside Halas Hall.

“The most important decision that has occurred so far, and maybe will ever occur,” Rosenfels says. “In Caleb Williams’ career, was the hiring of Ben Johnson.”