Caleb Williams Undeterred by Failure to Meet Expectations

Caleb Williams hasn't met preseason expectations but he and the Bears see it as a fluid situation with the trend line still going upward heading into Week 16.
Caleb Williams gets a pass off before Vikings linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel can arrive for the sack Monday in Minneapolis.
Caleb Williams gets a pass off before Vikings linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel can arrive for the sack Monday in Minneapolis. / Brad Rempel-Imagn Images
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The frustration of unmet personal expectations meet those of unmet external goals for Bears rookie quarterback Caleb Williams.

The only answer is to keep plugging away as the Bears host another division title contender Sunday at Soldier Field in the rematch against the Detroit Lions. It's a matter of time for him.

Williams' has plenty of regrets, one of those last week coming on a missed deep ball to Keenan Allen. He threw while moving forward and overthrew the target on a sure touchdown.

"Yeah, carried a little bit too much momentum into the pocket movement and tried to give him a little bit more touch than I did and the ball just carried with the momentum of moving up in the pocket and I didn't want to drive it because of where the defender was," Williams said. "I thought he was going to try and undercut it.

"Tried to give him a little touch. The momentum forward let the ball carry a little bit more than I wanted to."

It's all a matter of patience for Williams, whose overall numbers have improve even as the Bears' win total has been stuck at four through eight games.

"Yeah, it's frustrating," he said. "I hate missing passes, especially ones that I've been pretty consistent on for a good amount of time. That's coming."

He's convinced of it.

"The progress has, over this football season, it's been growing for myself and things like that of routes and combinations of routes put together and seeing all these different defenses and throwing all these footworks together," Williams said. "The progress has been on a steady trend upwards, but I would say it is pretty frustrating on missing some of these passes that I've missed."

Williams' completion percentage dipped below 62% after last week's game but his touchdown percentage is 3.7% and interception percentage is a very healthy 1.1%.

Some would suggest he's not taking enough risks, but his goal is to win and not necessarily focus on upping his 87.7 passer rating. The accuracy has to be better, though.

"Some of it comes to the fundamentals and footwork and stuff like that," Williams said. "I think some of it also comes from the amount of reps that a rookie player overall, just a rookie player gets, and finding that feel throughout the games and throughout practices of the plays and things like that.

"When you're getting live bullets, you're not thinking so much about those small things, you're thinking about a lot bigger things like pressures or coverages or the play and the routes and stuff like that. I think it just comes down to the reps and footwork and fundamentals and just being in rhythm."

And all of that takes time. Interim coach Thomas Brown thinks Williams needs to stay within himself and the offense more.

"I think some of it comes with trying to do too much at times, from a standpoint of extending plays," Brown said.

One of those extended plays wound up with Williams taking a huge hit following the pass last week, and he had to shake it off on the sidelines.

"There’s a time and place to be able to have some off-schedule throws, but also being able to be patient and go through progressions," Brown said. "Kind of a balance of both."

Sometimes passers get hit too much as rookies and it damages their growth. They'll miss open receivers while looking in different places during their progression.

"I don't know if that's the issue," Brown said. "Obviously, gotta do a really job of protecting the quarterback but obviously I take it from the thought process of me being able to find more ways to get the ball out of his hands faster from a play calling standpoint can help out with that.

"But as far as not finding open guys, I don't really find that as an issue I have seen on tape."

Williams keeps notes on what's going on for future reference, probably in the offseason when he gets more into improving the basics than on knowing how to attack defenses.

"I probably have so far this season, I probably have written down five to eight things," Williams said. "I would say all from pre-snap stuff to even post-snap, whether it's footwork, whether it's pre-snap and recognizing what they're in, if they rotate to here, how fast can I get to this, how fast can I get to that route, this alert, that alert.

"So, I got a good amount of stuff that I’m planning on going over."

The losing and big hits he has taken caused a groundswell of sentiment about the Bears ruining his fundamentals, but also just getting him hurt by letting him play behind a sub-par offensive line.

He's not worried about this situation and is trying to stay up-beat through the last three games. A positive attitude helps.

 "This is going to sound crazy, but you talk to yourself, to be honest," Williams said. "You motivate yourself, you encourage yourself. You have positive affirmations, is the word, that you say to yourself. With that, it makes the days better, it makes when you’re going through a tough patch, it makes those days a little bit easier rather than pulling yourself down, telling yourself you’re this and that.

"Like I said, it sounds kind of crazy, but I tell myself certain things: 'I am great. I will be great.' All these different things. So, I think that's one of the biggest things, is not pulling yourself down and being gracious with yourself."

Twitter: BearsOnSI


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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

BearDigest.com publisher Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.