Bears Fans Are Not Happy With My Take On Caleb Williams
The Bears are on a roll. They've won seven of their last eight games and they've got a great Coach, a dominant running game, a good defense, and a young Quarterback with a ton of potential. What's not to be excited about?
Well about two months ago I made the statement that I'm officially out on Caleb Williams and I'm currently getting crucified for it in Bears twitter world. It seems like all delusional Bears fans are headline grabbing and not paying attention to the points I made. So I'll outline them here.
“He just bails out of the pocket so quickly.”
“On highlights it’ll look great, because he can look like Mahomes.”
“But that’s not a sustainable way to run an offense.”
“His completion percentage the last 3 games has been sub-60%”
“You gotta be able to play from the pocket.”
“If he is able to do that, he can turn it around. But I haven’t seen anything through the first 7 weeks of this season to say that he is even coming close to turning it around. Everything is bailing out to the right.”
All of this is still true. But since then:
He has been sub-60% completion % in seven of next nine games
He still also is bailing too quickly a lot, but admittedly have seen some improvement in staying in the pocket. I would like to see more on schedule throws and quicker decisions. *The pass to Monangai vs. GB blitz was perfection. Now let's build on that and do stuff like that consistently.
I'm sorry, I'm not the one that makes the rules here. This is just how winning Quarterbacking has been played and evaluated for decades. And until he can do that stuff consistently, he'll be an average NFL Quarterback.
If we're being objective, and tiering QBs, assuming 100% full health with trying to win in a one year window (for example, if we scaled it based on age/contract, everyone would take Caleb Williams over Matthew Stafford which is not the exercise), I don't see how you could even argue you'd take Caleb over these guys (in no particular order):
Josh Allen
Patrick Mahomes
Drake Maye
Joe Burrow
Matthew Stafford
Lamar Jackson
Justin Herbert
Jayden Daniels
Jalen Hurts
Jordan Love
Jared Goff
Dak Prescott
That's 12 right there. So even the most homer Bears fan can say he's the #13 QB in the NFL right now! But then there is another group where I would put Caleb somewhere towards the bottom of if talking a one year window:
Brock Purdy
Sam Darnold
Baker Mayfield
CJ Stroud
Bo Nix
If you excluded all of them, he'd be the 18th best Quarterback in the NFL. But we're parsing hairs. If he's somewhere in between QB13 - QB18, given based on the fact that there are 32 NFL teams and 32 starting Quarterbacks, that would make him in the average window.
THIS IS NOT AN INSULT
Is Caleb Williams elite right now? Certainly not.
Is Caleb Williams good right now? In the closing minutes, he might be great.
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Is Caleb Williams a bad Quarterback right now? I don't think so. There is too much good to be bad.
Was he bad for the first 55 minutes of the game Saturday where the Bears scored six points? I'd say so.
Overall his evaluation is still to be determined. But since we're in football season and we make football takes: I stand on my take that I'm out on him until he can change some of his habits.
I would like to see him stand in the pocket and deliver strikes on schedule. He will need to win from the pocket in January/February.
I would like to see him bail out less often
I would like to see him run more. His legs are one of his best tools.
If he does those things consistently, the sky is the limit. But we're just not there yet. And that's ok. Now go eat an Italian Beef sandwich and have an ice cold Miller Lite and relax.
Catch today's full Wake Up Barstool here: