First impressions on Bears first-round pick Caleb Williams: Let’s be honest

I have read a lot of reports on the Bears’ first game, and the debut performance of the highly publicized first-round pick Caleb Williams, and most of them–I hate to say–are way off base.

I am a fan and I am rooting for Caleb, but let’s take off “the kid gloves” for just a second and be honest about his first-ever professional game.

He was horrible. One of the weaker quarterback performances in recent memory, and with the Bears, in that category you might as well (sadly) wait in a very long line.

So, while the excited faithful held their breath in anticipation, the end result reality was our future quarterback savior was dismal at best. His passing accuracy was way off, missing receivers down the field, while late in the game he started to short-arm some throws—showing signs of nervousness and tension. Really, except for one nifty cutback on a run, Williams did nothing special in the scramble/run game either.

So, for all those reporters trying to ease in and gloss over the bad, please.  Stop yourself. Stop with the well–“he managed the game well” or “well, at least he didn’t make any turnovers,” or “but we still won the game.”

Tell it like it is and then move on. He was bad. Our much-ballyhooed number-one pick, laid a complete egg in game one—no reason for any sugar-coating. 

Now, no one is panicking after this first game, and I have no question (well, OK, a little question, but that comes from 60 years plus of watching Bears football with struggling quarterbacks)  that Caleb Williams will turn out to be just fine or even better. So we will not over-exaggerate the performance of one game, his very first professional game.

Also, we would add, there were some positives. Williams did show his ability to elude the rush of ongoing angry, large defenders by scrambling out of the pocket, and he did flash that cannon of an arm with the ball coming out effortlessly on some of his longer throws. 

Maybe most importantly, and this may be a small point, but it is significant:  At game’s end, Williams was fired up, celebrating with his teammates and openly showing the emotion of winning his first professional football game.

The significance here is thus: He didn’t sulk, or seem more reserved in victory, possibly disappointed in his own lack of performance. Instead, he reveled in the joy of victory. A more selfish, me-oriented player might have had a more muted reaction. This showed me that Williams is a competitor first and a team-oriented one at that.

Not by any means insignificant.

So we move on to game two and, hopefully, better things.

But the point here is the press and even the fans have been way too milquetoast in their game one analysis of Williams.

He was really bad. Pure and simple.