All Activity

While perusing recent sports columns, one in particular caught my attention—it ranked all the current NFL quarterbacks, supposedly based on a list from Sportsnaut. I’m not too familiar with them or how reliable their rankings are, but they had Caleb Williams at 19th overall, behind journeyman Jacoby Brissett (18), former fellow overall No. 1 pick Bryce Young (17), and fellow second-year quarterbacks Bo Nix (14) and Drake Maye (2). Below was their reasoning for his ranking specifically. I was more curious about where current Cleveland starter Shedeur Sanders landed, since there’s been some positive buzz around his recent performances. They ranked him at No. 27 and pointed out that he’s coming off a 364-yard, 3-touchdown game against the Tennessee Titans. It’s worth noting that Tennessee’s defense is ranked in the bottom third of the league overall—roughly in the same territory as our own defense this season so maybe something for us to be concerned with?

At 9-4 in his first year as a coach, the old bears are gone. If they went 0-4, it would be disappointing but we already have seen the direction of the new Bears. Adam is right, this is going to be a close game but their vaulted defense gave up 29 points to Tennessee, the worst team in the league.

Me neither.

I’ll be happy if the newer-new Bears show up. The ones that play four quarters of solid ball. Not this 1/2-come-from-behind-late-in-the-game stuff. I didn’t want to have to test out my new BP meds this early.

Not generally a fan of Cowherds but he does make some good observations here. https://youtube.com/shorts/gqbqWhqZ2YU?si=47VlMclpm_QklJPQ

I believe Caleb will be great for us. Not perfect, since no one ever is, but great, top 3 in the league. I think that's where this trajectory is headed. People can disagree, but then when it happens, remember who wanted to keep him and who was thinking of dumping him. The rest is up to time to tell. I could argue why I think this is true, what my evidence is, but it's a waste of time. We will see.

I don’t want perfection. I want to see obvious progress in simple scenarios. He needs to hit the guaranteed passes that prolong drives and create scoring opportunities.

No. I’m comparing Lovie’s ending with Caleb’s beginning. It’s kind of apples and oranges, but it has the same purgatory feel.

No doubt the first half had more opportunities to criticize Caleb. He was terrible in the first half and it’s almost as if they didn’t trust him to throw the ball. But if the first half was terrible, and the second half has obvious issues that largely cost the team the game, that’s not a good starting point.

I wish the Ben Johnson effect would have used more running, especially early in the game. BJ is getting too predictable especially when he passes when you should run on 2nd and short. The Bears are at the top for running the ball, so please play to your strengths more so than trying to out smart the D.

The bigger question is are these our "New Bears" or the same old? We are gonna find out the rest of the wat this year. My money is on the New Bears showing up and making a statement.

Agree, Caleb didn't exicute the play properly. Kmet went up for the ball and Caleb didn't put enough zip on it. Had Caleb threw to the corner, Kmet would have kept going to the ball. If we got this TD, we still had to get a 2 point conversation, so I'm not sure if we would have won the game. BJ said he would have went for 2. It would have been a lot more interesting to see the call Ben makes for the 2 points.

There's lots of pundits breaking that play down. IMO, if continues to the sidelines, he easily beats his chasers but he slowed down to do his reads. DJ wasn't open yet but did get open after he committed to throw to Kmet. I think he threw where it went thinking Cole could climb the ladder against a 5'10" S but he didn't zip the ball. I think if he threw to the corner, Kmet could have reached the ball. Caleb failed on execution, it was a great play call.

I get the impression, you will only be happy with perfection. I get the growth we have to see from Caleb but I'm afraid, this year, we're only going to see small increments from him. I think a lot of his flaws will only be fixed off season but at this stage we are still winning games and can't be unhappy about that. I think we have to look at this as his first year with BJ and accept it's not all going to happen at once. Because he was the first pick, I, as others, expect it quickly.

You are comparing Lovie's ending with Johnson's beginning.

I think Caleb didnt see the defender who picked it off because he wasnt on Kmet, he peeled off of another player, so he wasnt in Calebs vision when he tossed it so softly to Kmet. Is that on Caleb? Sure, fine. But it's understandable, and Im not hating on him for it at all. I also think Kmet, who COULD see the defender peeling off in front of him should have run a more lateral route to mirror Caleb's rollout. For me, if you want to criticize Caleb, the first half had more opportunities.

Many games of the last 20 years or so have felt like this. A journeyman or worse QB comes in with bad stats and/or receivers, and everyone expects the Bears to dominate. Then that average-to-below average dude starts carving up the Bears’ D. I’ll be honest fellas; this game concerns me way more than it should. It should be a win by 14 or more, but I think it’ll be close.

Kmet COULD have run a slightly different angle, but that INT is 100% on Caleb’s slow read and poor throw. Kmet was open way early and all Williams had to do was lead him.

Yes, it makes us happy, but it doesn’t erase obvious flaws. Wins DESPITE a player can’t be ignored. And that’s how it feels far too often with Caleb missing open receivers. We appreciate the 11 or 12 wins, but yearn for the potential of greatness. It kind of reminds of Lovie’s end. Great, 10 or 11 wins. But then what? Glaring holes and a Divisional round loss? Again, what makes this worse is seeing his potential. His ceiling is extremely high. And if he just cleaned up the singles and doubles, it would be a lot easier to love the home runs. And that goes right back to the accuracy.

To your point - I'm presuming the primary read was a shorter pass and/or him running for 1st down vs. Kmet or Moore...which means by time you get there its too late. I think a good throw still works but that is not that easy when you are on the run in the cold with pressure.

I'm rooting for Rams hard - I think if Rams beat Lions that helps out quite a bit. Reality is we are in control of the playoff destiny - but the probability/odds are tough. I still think if we win 2 games we should be in, but that is easier said than done. Have to show up and play strong against Browns....lose this game and the road gets a lot tougher (and it's already tough enough).

It's interesting because the Bears could win their next two games and still miss the playoffs if they lose to SF and DET. Beating CLE or GB + SF and DET guarantees you a playoff spot because you'd win the tiebreaker against the 49'ers if you both finish with 12 wins. With 11, you'd need them to lose to SEA in that last game, which would be so terrifying to have to sit through. Either way, this is quickly becoming the most important game left on the Bears schedule, especially if Detroit beats the Rams this week.

This is very fair. I'd go as far as saying not getting that completion percentage up above 60% next year would be a major red flag. This year given all of what Caleb is being asked to do, you can accept it. But if in year 2 he is still that low, it trends into a problem. I'm not asking for a jump to 65%+, but he has to get into the 62/63% range and it sure would be nice if we saw him have a breakout game next week with like a 65% rate and he finished the season on a bit of an upward trajectory (since in season it has really declined). I'd say 2nd half was probably one of the better accuracy streaks he's had in a while (which doesn't say a ton). I will note that mechanics and footwork (even just being behind center and shifting his lead food) are pretty big changes and he entered this year making 2 huge ones plus a new system, so I fully expect it will take an off-season of work from Caleb to materially help his side of the equation and I also expect another off-season in the system and training camp / offseason work with receiver's/te's will all help with the passing game.

I think our strength and conditioning coaches will be replaced this year, along with Hightower. All are holdovers from the Eberflus era.

This is what I think happened too. I dont think the defender that intercepted the ball was assigned to Kmet, but he read the broken coverage and made a play. The league is full of great players who make plays, so to expect Caleb to always be better isnt realistic. I think instead, it's fair to say Caleb wasnt good enough in the first half and that contributed to the loss. That's a fairer criticism than the final pass.