Caleb Williams has been a hot-button topic lately thanks to the recent ESPN report detailing his efforts prior to the 2024 draft to avoid coming to Chicago. It made sense at the time from his perspective. The Bears had a long, ugly history at quarterback. They’d shown many times they could not build the infrastructure necessary to cultivate the position. Why should Williams believe it would be any different with him? In the end, GM Ryan Poles managed to convince him the organization had his best interests in mind and would do everything possible to make him successful.
Unfortunately, Williams’ concerns were well-founded. The Bears’ coaching staff was horribly ill-equipped to develop him properly, exemplified by both the offensive coordinator and head coach getting fired midseason. It didn’t help that he was also sacked 68 times. Everything about that report proved true. Still, Williams weathered the storm, and Chicago kept their word by throwing all sorts of resources at the problem. They hired Ben Johnson to fix the offense (and the team). The offensive line saw a complete overhaul, while Colston Loveland and Luther Burden added more firepower in the draft.
Williams is set up for success in year two. Even so, former player Emmanuel Acho couldn’t resist the low-hanging fruit by casting doubt on the quarterback’s chances in 2025.
Caleb Williams can’t alter the narrative from the practice field.
There is nothing he can do about what happened last year. It wasn’t pretty at times. He looked lost a lot and had ugly stretches of ineptitude. That said, he also showed flashes of brilliance. Throwing for 3500 yards and 20 touchdowns with an 87.8 passer rating despite being the third-most sacked quarterback in a season ever is impressive. If he can do that under the worst possible circumstances, it doesn’t feel like a ridiculous leap to think he’ll be much better this year. Declaring he’s probably a lost cause before games are even played is exactly the type of hot take specialty Acho is known for. If Caleb Williams succeeds, he’ll almost certainly go back on camera, stating he always knew the quarterback would be good. Hypocrisy is like breathing to somebody like him. The best thing to do is to sit back and let the plan unfold.
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