Caleb Williams Talks Madden 27, Goals for 2026

Athlon: But how did you feel when you found out that you were gonna be on the cover?

Williams: Yeah, obviously I tried to play it cool, and then as soon as I left the facility in the building, I ended up calling my closest people and it's like, “Yo, I'm on the freaking cover of Madden!” You know what I mean? So it's really cool, like I said, a childhood dream, and I'm very grateful.

Athlon: Speaking of closest people, tell me what the teammates have said.

Williams: Oh, my teammates love it, which is good. I'm happy that they love it. They said that they love the covers, and some of the designs on the cover, which is awesome to hear from them. Hopefully I can get them a bunch of copies and make sure everybody gets one of those.

Athlon: I heard you with the Kelce brothers, I know that the initial rating is....

Williams: It's low. Gotta work, which is always good and hopefully by the end of the year we'll be a 99.

Athlon: Do you play a lot of Madden? How good are you?

Williams: I'm probably not that good anymore. Play a couple other games, probably a little bit more, but I still have Madden, and I still play Madden and have it downloaded, and things like that.

Athlon: What's your favorite Madden game out of curiosity?

Williams: The one with Michael Vick on the cover, Madden 04.

Athlon: Have you spoken to Vick?

Williams: Yeah. I just saw him and actually thought I was doing something with him over there and said hello, gave him a hug and said "What's up?"

Athlon: Mike Vick told me, because I brought up the curse, because he was the first guy that the curse hit, and he said, "Not happening to Caleb."

Williams: No more of this Madden curse. We're going to go out, we're going to do all the things we need to do, stay healthy, do all the things we need to do to study film and be prepared each week, and go out there and handle business.

Athlon: You're a businessman. How much does this help the Caleb Williams brand?

Williams: When you're on something historic like this, it always helps. It's a good look to be on a cover. They're not hopefully putting any fools on the front of covers, and big moments like this, and I hope I fall onto the non-fool part. 

But yeah, it helps the brand, and honestly, it's really cool for me. Not something I really thought about helping my brand, anything like that. But just a really cool moment for me and my family.

Athlon: Let me share how it's really been a big deal for kids, young adults who play this game. They are so excited that their very own here in Chicago, Caleb Williams, is on the cover of the game they play. Tell me, how much that means to you, that you're touching today's youth like that.

Williams: Yeah, yeah … it's really important for me, something that I wanted to set out and do. I wanted to bring a certain energy back to Chicago, and Chicago football, and Chicago Bears football. This is just a start, obviously, a big portion of it will be winning games and winning the big one. Hopefully it starts this year, and that trend keeps going upwards from there.

Athlon: What’s it like going into the second season under head coach Ben Johnson? After a successful first year together, what's that transition been like?

Williams: Yeah, it's been good. It's been fun, a lot more fun now at this point than I was having last year, just because I was learning so much, and it felt like I was just drowning with all the information and things like that. So now it's a little bit more coverage based, and some more checks and alerts that maybe within the play or maybe that I just have in my head that I can get to, and things like that. It's been fun, it's been awesome, and we're really excited about it. 

Athlon: Do you feel like that's gonna give you more freedom and options in this offense this year?

Williams: Yeah, I think that's a big portion of taking the next step is being able to make checks or having a little bit more information in the mind than I did the previous year so that I can make the right play or make the right check for the team, and keep drives going.

Athlon: What makes Ben such a great offensive mastermind?

Williams: He adjusts well to whatever personnel he has, and then obviously he has some creative plays and things like that, but also his mentality for us that festers throughout the whole locker room and throughout the whole building.

Athlon: Madden 27 players can chase the GOAT status. Which ends with them beating Tom Brady. Did they get that right, or who's your GOAT?

Williams: I mean, Brady. When you go seven Super Bowls it's hard to.. there's not anybody close, and so it gets hard to debate that. I put Brady as number one, and for me, Aaron Rodgers is probably number two. 

Athlon: What are some of your goals for this season?

Williams: Yeah, deliver more catchable balls — we call it runner ball — it's putting it in the right position so (the receiver) can keep running, get as many yards as possible, and then from there, it's just raising the completion percentage and keeping offense on the field as long as possible.

Athlon: You're one of the more exciting playmakers in the league. Would you like to operate a little bit more within the structure of the offense?

Williams: Typically things break down and you get out, and then obviously sometimes you may feel something, and you know you may be right, you may be wrong, and so you get out of pocket or maybe stay in, and it's just fun to find balance between all of it, and being able to deliver passes in time, and deliver, like I said, a catchable ball to the receivers.

Athlon: Do you guys kind of build on your success last year without having to necessarily rely on the heart-stopping comebacks?

Williams: Yeah, I think that's where we're at now is different than where we were at last year. 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, and I think at this point we trust our coaches, they trust us, and we — a lot of the guys — at least we got a lot of returning guys, at least on the offensive side of the ball. 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 when we're out there. We have a better understanding of where we need to go and what we need to do.

Athlon: Trust is built from familiarity, right? DJ Moore is gone. How is the receiving corps going to change roles?

Williams: I think that's the portion that we're building right now in training camp, OTAs, all of that is building the trust between each other. At this point, I have all the faith between Cole Kmet, Colston Loveland, Rome Odunze and Luther Burden, and all these different guys, D'Andre Swift, and things like that. The guys have been here, and that's just building on top of that and adding more confidence to it and belief to it, and then for the new guys, it's just being able to communicate with them, have an open communication about where they need to be, when they need to be there, and when they're wrong, you correct them. And knowing your personnel, you correct them, and you do things like that throughout these periods, and you get to the season, now you're on the same page, and you're rolling.

Athlon: You feel like this is the year that Luther Burden kind of announces his presence?

Williams: Yeah, I hope it's more than Luther, that's my hope. But yes, I hope Luther does, I hope Colson, I hope Rome, I hope all these guys have insane seasons, because that only means that we're doing the right things that we need to do to go out here and put up points, and help put the team in the best position.

Athlon: What are you most excited about for year three?

Williams: Yeah, winning. I want to win as many games as possible, and I think we're building towards that.