Caleb Williams has endured about as difficult a rookie season as could have been expected.
The ‘generational’ quarterback arrived to the league with much fanfare after starring for USC in college, landing with the Chicago Bears as the No. 1 overall pick earlier this year in a draft class loaded with big arm talent.
Before the season kicked off, some believed the young gunslinger, projected to revitalize a lowly Chicago franchise, was landing in the best situation for a rookie No. 1 overall pick in NFL history.
Fast forward several months and that suggestion looks laughable as the broken Bears have fired their offensive coordinator and head coach mid-season and suffered their eighth straight loss — a 30-12 defeat to the Minnesota Vikings on Monday Night Football.
Williams and the now 4-10 Bears struggled all night long as their porous offensive line failed to protect their signal caller with any regularity — a theme of their entire season.
Caleb, once compared to the great Patrick Mahomes, was beaten up by a Vikings defense that continued to find him and finished with two sacks and three quarterback hits.
Williams looked defeated on the bench after he took a huge hit from Vikings linebacker Jihad Ward during the fourth quarter. The cumulative effect of so many hits this season looks to be taking its toll, with the young star looking visibly pained at one point from taking so much contact.
The 23-year-old has been sacked an NFL-high 58 times this season, a damning stat indicative of the Bears’ O-line woes.
Williams admitted after the game, “I think I’ve got a couple bruises and contusions.”
“Let’s put it in this context,” Williams added. “Say you get in three car accidents in a month, you’re going to feel it. That’s what a hit is in football. … Getting hit, especially when you can’t deliver a hit to somebody as in like run the ball, you take those over an amount of time and it builds up.”
On ESPN’s national broadcast, former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman said he was worried the Bears might break Williams.
“He was grimacing and in an enormous amount of pain. When you watch him, you can tell that he’s a defeated guy… what you worry about is a rookie quarterback losing confidence.”
Shannon Sharpe echoed Aikman’s sentiment, acknowledging the Bears’ interior issues but also laying some of the blame at Williams’ feet for ‘holding onto the ball too long’ and making ‘bad decisions’.
4
4
“They’re bad,” Sharpe said.
“Their offensive line is not the greatest, but I do think Caleb Williams holds on to the ball entirely too long. Clearly he’s not comfortable making the right decision than letting the football go on cue and on rhythm.
“I just think it’s pre-snap. He’s just got to get a better job of pre-snap.
“He’s got to do a better job of processing and letting the football go.
“Like I said, there were situations that he had receivers open, and for whatever reason, his eyes went elsewhere.
“He’s very good at playing off script, but that’s not how you want to try to make a living. Now, it’s nice to have that in your back pocket. You see guys like a Lamar Jackson. You see guys like a Patrick Mahomes. You see guys like a Josh Allen be able to make plays off script, but that’s not how you want to live.
“You want to be able to go through process information very rapidly, one, two, three, check it down, do it away. That’s how you have to do it.
“That’s the only way to be successful. You’re not going to make a living in this league continuously making plays off script. It’s just too difficult for you to do,
“They started terrible, and then they got going right at the end, but I just don’t think that’s a great way to try to win football games, to continuously fall behind and then ask your rookie quarterback to try to now make plays.”
4
The Bears’ offense recorded just one touchdown against the Vikings, with 300 total yards gained. Williams completed only 57 percent of his passes for an offense that lacks explosive plays.
Everything that could go wrong, has gone wrong for the Bears this season, who were 4-2 in mid October and looking like a playoff team.
Jake Crain, host of @CrainAndCompany, exclusively told talkSPORT’s Run Down show.
“One of the knocks on Caleb Williams … is he has some front runner in him when it’s going good.
“Caleb Williams is great. When it’s not going good, Caleb Williams tends to add to those problems and we’ve got to see if he has the ability to lead in dark times because that’s when you find out.
“Everybody can be good when it’s going great. But when it’s going tough, even as a young guy, can you be that leader — can you be that mature guy in the locker room?”
Chicago’s season has unraveled since impressing against the Jaguars in London, and Williams reflected on his tough rookie season following the Vikings defeat.
“It’s been frustrating and encouraging,” Williams said. “I would say the frustrating part is obviously we’re on a — how many games now, eight? — yeah, eight-game losing streak. Like I’ve said before, it’s new to me. I haven’t experienced anything like this. That’s the frustrating part. The encouraging part is how much we fight as a team.
“The encouraging part is us as a team … being able to go through all of what’s happened this year. Me not playing well at the beginning of the season and feeling like I was seeing it well and then being able to find ways to keep growing, keep progressing through those times that I was frustrated.
“Coaches getting fired and all of this stuff going on, 4-10 right now. Being able to wake up, be consistent, do that every day with how it’s been going is encouraging for me. It’s encouraging for this team and we’ve got to keep going. It’s been encouraging but also frustrating for myself.”
Next up for the Bears is the small matter of the Detroit Lions, one of the most physical teams in the NFL, made in the image of their gritty head coach Dan Campbell.
Williams will now rest and recover before likely getting roughed up once again on a short week.
“We’ve got to get going on this game plan for Detroit, I believe, in a few days,” Williams said. “So being able to correct and then move on very fast is something that we have to do right here, right now.”
talkSPORT is your home of the NFL on UK radio, joins us for weekly commentary and subscribe to our dedicated NFL channel for news, interviews and our weekly ‘Run Down’ show