LAKE FOREST, Ill. — Even if he wasn’t sure what day it was, when Bears quarterback Caleb Williams woke up the morning after his first NFL game, he said he wasn’t thinking about the throws he missed or the many mistakes the offense made in a season-opening win over the Tennessee Titans.
“Waking up, I believe it was Monday or Tuesday morning, you woke up and realize that you won your first game in the NFL regardless of how you felt of your performance,” he said. “We won our first game and felt super excited. … It builds confidence when you can come out and do that.”
Williams might have only passed for 93 yards, but the Bears are 1-0. This isn’t the first time the Bears’ defense and special teams have carried an underperforming quarterback to a win, but they’d like it to be a less common occurrence.
As the reigning No. 1 overall pick, Williams’ performance will be scrutinized in a quarterback-crazy media ecosystem. He has made the Bears a national storyline again. And while it’s not his fault the Bears have had decades and decades of quarterback issues, it’s now his responsibility to fix it.
That can’t happen all at once, and I think even the surliest Grabowskis understand that. But it’s also true the time for winning is now.
Williams’ first start wasn’t much to write about — at least not positively — but no one is panicking, least of all him. Most rookie QBs struggle in their first game. The entire season should be graded on a curve.
On the positive side, he didn’t commit a turnover. His opponent, second-year quarterback Will Levis, had three. That’s why one of them woke up happy and the other was likely frustrated.
.@CALEBcsw is at the 🎙️ https://t.co/bxLfQAYo50
— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) September 11, 2024
“I think it was around six throws that, obviously, if we would have hit those, everything would have seemed a lot different,” Williams said. “Throws that we hit in practice all the time on simple routes, on intermediate and then the one or two deep balls. If you hit those, the game, everything kind of explodes and things would have been said differently about how we played on offense.”
If every bad-game-having quarterback had a half-dozen incomplete passes turn into positive plays, of course things would look better. Williams said the game wasn’t too fast for him, but he recognized he was still in too much of a hurry.
“Sometimes I rushed my drop a little bit, not needing to,” he said. “One specific route that I can think of is Rome (Odunze) when, I think it was a 10-yard route right over the ball, and I rushed my drop and tried to juice it in there a little bit and missed. I didn’t need to. Just trying to hurry up and get the ball to him, getting it in his hands as fast as possible so he can make magic and do what he does.”
The best news for Williams is that his first game is behind him and there’s no one asking him to predict what it would be like. He experienced it.
“Going into that game, it was a little weird for me because it was my first game and we didn’t really have anything on the D-coordinator,” he said. “But when I got out there I was seeing it well. Missed a few passes, obviously, but going back and watching the film, I was in the right place when I was throwing the ball — I also had a few batted balls — but going to the right places, seeing it well, making some O-line adjustments and things like that. I was having good communication on the sideline with my teammates and coaches for adjustments, constantly communicating with them. … It was encouraging to see.”
Because he actually has a good team around him, there are expectations for Williams beyond learning on the job. Not only can’t he be the reason the Bears lose games, but he’s going to have to show the ability to win some.
This week, he heads to Houston for his first road game as a pro. The roof will be closed. It’s a prime-time game. The Texans are good. Maybe Super Bowl contender good. Tennessee squandered a 17-point lead, I wouldn’t expect Houston to do the same.
Williams will likely be without Odunze, who sprained his MCL in the win. Veteran receiver Keenan Allen is nursing a heel injury. The offensive line’s play in Week 1 left something to be desired. Offensive coordinator Shane Waldron is new. There’s a lot to work through.
But this isn’t college. Adversity comes every week. For a team like this, with hopes of making the playoffs, there’s time for him to grow, but not to stagnate.
And that’s the fun part, right? At least it is when you have a quarterback who doesn’t make you cry. Williams had the stat line of bad Bears quarterbacks before him, but there is faith he will be different. This week, he gets another chance to take a step in that journey. But while the story shouldn’t be just about him, the narrative is impossible to ignore this week.
On Sunday night, the eyes of the football nation will be on Williams and Texans quarterback CJ Stroud, who was in Williams’ shoes last year. He took Houston to the playoffs and that’s now the expectation for Williams. Williams doesn’t want to be compared to Stroud because he has enough on his plate. If Williams passes for under 100 yards on Sunday Night Football, hoo boy. The national and local reaction won’t be pretty, second game or not.
“The job is hard, the NFL is hard,” Williams said. “The defense is going to make it tough on you. That’s what they are going to do week in and week out. Comparing that to myself and (Stroud’s) rookie year, typically guys coming in, they have to figure it out. That’s what we are doing right now.
“I didn’t have, obviously, the performance I wanted to, so (I’m) trying to figure it out as fast as possible, making sure we are on the same page, making sure we are handling things that we need to handle. Like I said, all the small things become a lot larger on game day.”
Small things. Scrutiny. Comparisons.
As they say, everything is bigger in Texas. And on Sunday night, Williams’ play, good or bad, will loom larger than the narrative of what he can become.
(Photo: Stacy Revere / Getty Images)
