Bear Digest

Hold Off on Caleb Williams Enshrinement Says Bill Belichick

Analysis: Former Patriots coach was unimpressed with Bears QB during his play in preseason even while others went wild over the USC rookie's performances.

Gene Chamberlain

Kyler Gordon returns an interception against New England as Bill Belichick watches on from the sidelines in a Bears 2022 win.
Kyler Gordon returns an interception against New England as Bill Belichick watches on from the sidelines in a Bears 2022 win. / Bob Breidenbach / USA TODAY NETWORK
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While he isn't coaching in the NFL this year, Bill Belichick is still around the game.

And for Week 1 he's around the game dissing the starting Bears quarterback.

Belichick is a regular now on the Inside the NFL panel each week on CW Network and during their panel discussion Belichick said to put the brakes on Caleb Williams talk based on preseason.

"Well, he wasn't accurate," Belichick said. "He was 10 for 20."

The highlight type passes to Rome Odunze and Cole Kmet and the tricky screen for 42 yards to D'Andre Swift didn't turn Belichick's head, either.

"They weren't that good," he said. "There were a couple highlights but they weren't that good."

Belichick reminded everyone Williams didn't put up his highlights against starters.

"Whoever they played against in the preseason, it wasn't the best players on the other team," he said.

This wasn't entirely true. Buffalo had some starters in the game in Week 2 of the Bears preseason when Williams made his debut and drove the Bears to two scoring drives on two possessions.

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Cincinnati didn't have starters out there but Williams was more impressive in the rain against the Bengals first team during practice than he was in the preseason games and even had Bengals reporters talking about him afterward.

Either way, for all Belichick did in terms of wins, he is now in his 70s and out of football as a commentator and made a mess of the quarterback situation with the Patriots in his final two seasons, including the game the Patriots got beat at home by the Bears 33-14 during a season when Chicago won three games.

Belichick knew one quarterback. Without Tom Brady, he was an 84-103 coach (.449) for his career.

Meanwhile, while it might be a bit too premature to call Williams Canton-bound, the people at Southern California have accorded him a place of honor. His jersey was retired along with Reggie Bush's.

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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.