If you don’t like this, you don’t like Bears football! (Okay, I don’t like Bears football.)
Who could blame Caleb Williams for wanting to avoid this team?
It’s funny how people assume we Bears fans are outraged by Caleb Williams’ alleged comments about the team before last year’s NFL draft, when most of us agree with him:
…current franchise passer Caleb Williams, the first overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, actually sought a solution to avoid becoming a Bear prior to last year's draft, according to an ESPN report.
ESPN's Seth Wickersham detailed in his upcoming book "American Kings: A Biography of the Quarterback" that Williams and his family thought about eschewing the NFL Draft and met with lawyers to figure out how to do just that. One potential plan was for Williams to reportedly circumvent the 2024 draft altogether and sign with a team in the United Football League for a year to avoid being chosen by Chicago.
"Chicago is the place quarterbacks go to die," Carl Williams, Caleb's father, told Wickersham months prior to the 2024 draft.
The young quarterback was quoted as being skeptical about his ability to develop under then-Chicago offensive coordinator Shane Waldron, who was fired 10 weeks into his tenure after a 19-3 home defeat against the New England Patriots in Week 10 of the 2024 season. Another NFC North team actually became the object of Williams and his family's eye: the Minnesota Vikings. After a 2024 NFL Scouting Combine meeting with Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell, Williams reportedly told his father that he needed to "go to the Vikings."
Bears general manager Ryan Poles extinguished all hope of Williams going anywhere but Chicago when he reportedly told the USC star signal-caller, "We're drafting you no matter what."
He said Chicago is where quarterbacks go to die because, well, Chicago is where quarterbacks go to die. Literally every other post on r/CHIBears says so.
Okay, to be fair, we’re a place where QBs go to die, not the place. Cleveland and the New York team that wears green uniforms exist, too.
Then again…
And Williams’ experience during his rookie season give us some clues as to why the Bears have so much trouble developing quarterbacks.
Namely, because the team was run by complete idiots as of 2024.
Williams' rookie year was as chaotic as he and his family envisioned with him reportedly being left to watch film alone without the guidance from the offensive coaching staff. Given that context, it's honestly a miracle he threw for 3,541 yards passing and 20 touchdowns to only six interceptions while also rushing for 489 yards. That made Williams one of only four rookies in NFL history to amass 4,000 or more total yards with fewer than 10 interceptions. He joined 2024 second overall pick Jayden Daniels, who won NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year honors, 2023 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year C.J. Stroud and 2012 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year Robert Griffin III. Unsurprisingly, Williams was sacked an NFL-most 68 times, which is tied for the third-highest total in a single season ever. [emphasis added]
Williams also beat the Packers at Lambeau Field, which went some way toward salvaging a complete disaster of a season. That he did so with minimal guidance from the coaching staff is nothing short of miraculous.
Or maybe guidance from last year’s coaches would have made him worse. Honestly, Matt Eberflus might have done Williams a favor by leaving him alone.
Hopefully new head coach Ben Johnson, who helped make the freaking Detroit Lions competitive, can unlock Williams’ full potential. But I’ve been burned too many times to make myself believe it until I actually see it.
Honestly it might take nothing short of divine intervention to give the Bears a true franchise QB.
Though now that I think about it…
As a Packer fan, I have enjoyed the last 35 years of Bears play.