Bears fans are starting to face the reality that Caleb Williams had a subpar rookie year, not deserving of All-Rookie recognition. His stats reflect struggles against strong defenses and a dependence on late-game comebacks. Despite improvements later in the season, his overall performance falls short compared to other rookie quarterbacks.
A realization is dawning on many Bears fans as playoff teams and rankings are released. Caleb Williams had a mediocre rookie year. Performance like that doesn't earn recognition. It's not the end of the world. Peter Schrager's team isn't exactly a prestigious award. Williams won't be on any All-Rookie teams, or shouldn't be. Williams had a worse rookie season than Jayden Daniels, obviously. It was also worse than Bo Nix had and even Drake Maye to a large extent.
Why should a top 10 list have four quarterbacks on it? It probably shouldn't have Maye on it, either, but definitely shouldn't include Williams. Some numbers Williams had reflect a passer who came out unable or unprepared to compete against what defenses threw at him, then able later to pile up meaningless statistics while trying to rally from big deficits throwing underneath the coverage of prevent defenses. Williams had a 72.8 passer rating when down one to eight points, a 72.8 passer rating when behind one to eight points and only a 67.0 passer rating in tied games. His passer rating soared to 88.5 when he was down nine to 16 points. These are all stats available on NFL.com. None of the other rookie passers had statistics like this, although Bo Nix had only an 81.2 passer rating in tied games. He also had an 85.2 rating when behind, which was far better than Williams. Maye had a 95.5 passer rating in first quarters, far better than Williams. It's easy to play the blame game and it's also true that the Bears weren't preparing Williams well. In fact, this is the entire theme of the 2024 Bears season. They essentially wasted Williams' first year of development. This was the greatest fear of many Bears fans with this coaching staff of Matt Eberflus, and it was a fear that was realized. Williams got some good exposure to the NFL game but his development within an offense is shot now with the hiring of a new coaching staff. Williams was ranked 29th by NFL.com among quarterbacks for a good reason. That's where his statistics put him. Pro Football Focus has him graded at 67.1, which was 33rd. There are 32 teams. Do the math. There's a Bears fan somewhere bitching that long snapper Andrew DePaola, who played in all 16 games for Chicago back in 2017, made First-Team All-Pro for the Vikings again. ESPN has its contrived QBR statistic, something they made up because they didn't like the entirely objective passer rating which had been used since the 1970s known as a passer efficiency rating. Even with this contrived ESPN statistic, Williams was only 28th at 46.7. Sure, he ranked fifth in Bears history in passing yards but all that says is how low the bar was set by past failed Bears quarterbacks. He ranks near the bottom of all NFL quarterbacks in 2024 by most comparisons and most statistics even though he showed great improvement later in the year. It might seem unfair because of the way the coaching situation went in Chicago, but all of these ratings and rankings and teams to honor players don't award points or special dispensation for hard-luck stories. Williams simply will need to be better in Year 2 in a new offense, with a new coach because he wasn't good enough as a rookie
Caleb Williams Chicago Bears Rookie Season All-Rookie Teams NFL Rankings Quarterback Performance
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