Brad Biggs at the Chicago Trubune answers your questions
“Please articulate what you believe are Ben Johnson’s measures and key indicators of success for Caleb Williams. Help the casual fan understand how he will be evaluated so we know what to look for inside of this offense. — @2004_cjp”
“Johnson is looking for Williams to be comfortable and efficient playing on time and from the pocket. He looked like that in the second preseason game against the Bills, who rested their starters. He didn’t look like that in the preseason finale against the Chiefs starters. Does he regularly hit the top of his drop and — boom — deliver the ball on time and accurately? Does he efficiently work from his first to second and sometimes third reads? Is he comfortable climbing the pocket to create space and time to deliver a throw?
“Williams excels when it comes to second-reaction plays and operating outside the pocket and in the creative world. That stuff shines when he’s in the two-minute offense. To be an elite NFL quarterback, he has to be able to win from the pocket on a regular basis, and that was a struggle during his rookie season. Williams also needs to show a mastery of pre-snap assignments, which will help the Bears avoid some of the penalties they’ve had in camp and the preseason. The cleaner the operation is pre-snap, the better idea the quarterback will have of what the defense is doing post-snap.”
As I was reading this, I was thinking about an amusing section of a recent episode of The Bill Barnwell Show where Barnwell asked his guest, Gregg Rosenthal which of two seasons he thought Bears fans should prefer:
- Bears go 8-9 but Caleb Williams is the 8th best quarterback in the league the second half of the season
- Bears go 13-3 on the strength of their defense and make the playoffs.
Before the second scenario was described, even before Barnwell could even finish describing the first scenario, Rosenthal said, “That’s the season I want! I don’t care!” I could only laugh and nod my head.
Absolutely that’s the season we want. Bears fans know better than anyone that defensive success without a quarterback only leads to short-term gains. Williams being a top ten quarterback in the second half of the season means a long future of competitive football.
Being something of a downer by nature, there are visions of Mitch Trubisky‘s first pre-season game in my head as I think about Williams performance against Buffalo in this preseason. Trubisky looked exactly like Williams did and we all know that led nowhere.
Given that Williams first season was a complete organizational failure, I’ll more or less say the say same thing I said last year. No matter what the record in 2025, if Williams looks like that at all in the second half of the season, it will have been a success.