Caleb Williams didn’t have what you’d call a great game on Sunday in Minnesota. He finished 16-of-32 for 193 yards and no touchdowns. The only solace is that he didn’t turn the ball over. Still, the performance left some frustrated. They feel Williams could’ve and should’ve played better. In the interests of fairness, his receivers dropped three more of his passes, which didn’t help. He was also under constant assault. Minnesota blitzed him 24 times in that game, never really letting the Chicago Bears quarterback set his feet. The first half was tough sledding, but William did much better in the second, going 7-of-11 for 89 yards with two drops.
More than anything, it felt like the young quarterback was never out of control. He never appeared lost. All of his pre-snap reads were sounds, and he did a good job getting the ball out more frequently, even if he still had to pull his Houdini act a few times. Mike Sando of The Athletic spoke to a former head coach about Williams. From his vantage point, the Bears QB is onto something with Ben Johnson’s coaching. If things stay on this course, he may end up becoming something the NFL isn’t ready for.
The key is patience.
A former head coach cautioned against overreacting, recalling his own experiences with ugly offensive games inside a division, where opponents know each other well. Bigger picture, this coach thinks Williams has a chance to be a top-10 quarterback, and perhaps even special, if he buys into Johnson’s coaching and develops a better feel for when to go off-script.
That’s essentially what Johnson is saying, whether or not he’s frustrated after averaging 4.4 yards per play, as his Bears did Sunday.
“That is what he’s gotta say, but you have to consider Caleb as a rookie, because he wasn’t buying in before,” this coach said. “He is learning how to play. There are a lot of games you are going to play in like the week before, when he ran (17) yards for the winning touchdown.”
Caleb Williams is learning a crucial lesson for mobile quarterbacks.
The problem that many of them encounter upon reaching the NFL is that they rely too heavily on their running ability, believing it will save them just as it did in college. That won’t work in the pros. Everybody is fast in this league. Every single speedy QB that stayed reliant on their legs hit the same ceiling. It was true of Randall Cunningham, Kordell Stewart, and Michael Vick. Meanwhile, guys like Steve Young, Josh Allen, and Jalen Hurts made a concerted effort to learn how to play from the pocket. Now two of them are Super Bowl champions and the other is a league MVP.
That is where Caleb Williams sits. He is at a crossroads, still leaning on his legs to get him out of trouble, when there were probably some solutions available if he had stayed in the pocket. This tug-of-war is nothing new. It is difficult to break a quarterback of these habits. To Williams’ credit, he has made considerable progress in reshaping his game. He’s operating more and more like a professional each week. It feels like only a matter of time before he breaks through.
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