Caleb Williams is in new territory. The Bears quarterback has never gone through a losing streak like the one he’s experiencing in his rookie season, with it reaching seven games after a thrashing in San Francisco.

The Bears quarterback hasn’t experienced something like this, mostly because his presence on a team normally means losing is a rarity. The NFL offered somewhat of a rude awakening for Williams, who couldn’t prevent the fluky awfulness that has characterized this losing streak that got both Matt Eberflus and Shane Waldron fired.

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He tried, with late-game comebacks ultimately squandered against Washington, Green Bay and Minnesota. Williams was somewhat culpable in a failed comeback against Detroit, though Eberflus could’ve helped his quarterback but didn’t.

All that has led to a season where the Bears didn’t play to expectation, where Chicago was expected to compete with the very best. That didn’t happen, and the Bears have fallen hard after a 4-2 start to the season.

Playoffs are no longer a consideration, with four games left in a 2024 campaign. That’s how bad things have gotten.

“I’ve never had a streak like this of losing in my playing (experience),” Williams said in his Thursday press conference. “So I ask questions. I do understand that this is, one, my first time being a part of something like this, of losing and this streak going, so I ask questions to the guys that may have lost a bunch of games in a row like this or had losing seasons. I ask them questions because the more knowledge that I have prepares me for the future if this ever comes close to something like this again. Gonna work hard and make sure it doesn’t, but if it ever happens again, figuring out ways to keep going, keep pushing, because it’s part of it.

“…Not getting results is tough. Being able to respond and being able to get up and do it again and again and again shows consistency, shows how tough you are, shows how, when adversity strikes, you know how you face it.”

Williams has great perspective for someone so young. He said last week that he was trying to learn from the experience of losing a head coach. Now he’s trying to learn from an unprecedented losing streak where the season has gone south.

He has resources on the roster, with the few veterans who have been around the block and have experienced some rough patches during the run of Bears struggles.

Jaylon Johnson and Cole Kmet have been to the puppet show and seen the strings. Both guys were drafted in the second round of the 2020 season and have gone on to star for a team that has struggled during their tenure. The Bears have been awful during that tenure, so they’ve weathered some storms.

It doesn’t make things any easier, but they know how to proceed and find new motivations now that playoff hopes are essentially dashed.

“You step between those lines and try to whoop the man in front of you,” Johnson said. “That’s still what the game is about. It’s simplified. You don’t have playoff hopes and all that, but you play for your name. Your resume is still out there. You can tank all you want, and that film is going to be out there forever. So, I know, when I step out there, there’s always something to prove regardless of the circumstances.”

Kmet has dealt with a tough season, to the point that he spoke to his father about how to handle a season that went down in a blaze. Kmet’s father was briefly an NFL player, and he talked a bunch about having gratitude for being able to simply play the game.

“This is the situation that we’re in and that I’m in,” Kmet said on Tuesday. “I thought I had a good talk with my dad the other day about perspectives moving forward. At this point, he had a great thing that he said to me. It’s like as dark as this might seem in the moment right now, you’ve got to have perspective as to what you get to do. He was saying he’d given anything to go back and just to play one more game, to be in the shape that I’m in right now and to go out and play football.

“I think that’s kind of the perspective that I want to have going forward for these last four and just enjoy being out there with the guys, put some really good stuff out on tape and just enjoy each other’s company while we go do it.”

There’s also another point to be made once the Bears season has permanently hit the skids. The Bears know the camera is always watching, especially with the team evaluating everything as they realize upgrades are required almost everywhere.

That doesn’t include Johnson, one of the NFL’s best defensive backs. Even he’s looking at the end to this season as a way to show well, despite the fact he has a big contract and a lock in the starting lineup.

That’s especially true with what’s likely to be a new coach supervising the roster.

“Whoever comes in, we’ve got to reprove ourselves to them and figure out a way to stay on the roster,” Johnson said last week. “So, of course with me being in it, going through it before, I kind of know how it goes already, so I think everybody is really trying to make sure their resume speaks for itself in these last five games. So everybody playing with pads has just got to go out there and make their plays and coaches have to do what they can situationally, put us in the best position, because everybody is auditioning for a job.”