Bear Digest

Pressure Already Building for Caleb Williams to Succeed

Cooldown urged after comment by scout calling USC QB the most likely player in this draft to make the Hall of Fame.

Gene Chamberlain

Caleb Williams has been called the most likely Hall of Famer from this class, and this could be taking the hype too far.
Caleb Williams has been called the most likely Hall of Famer from this class, and this could be taking the hype too far. / Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports
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It could be time to walk back some of the Caleb Williams hype, maybe take it down a few levels.

At least it seems this way from the sound of the discussion on FS1's Speak, regarding Caleb Williams and an ESPN article. The article by Matt Miller quoted an unnamed NFC East scout saying: "Caleb is the most likely player in this class to become a Hall of Famer."

Most of the members of their panel seemed to think it was putting too much pressure on Williams himself, and former Packers wide receiver James Jones saw the comments as being way over the top.

"I think his talent is going to carry over (from college)," Jones said. "I think he is going to ball out, especially with what he has around him. But understand what we're talking about. We're talking Hall of Fame. We are talking Hall of Fame.

"We are talking about quarterbacks that played the game at a high, high, high, high, level, that has Pro Bowls, that have playoff wins and then still might not get into the Hall of Fame."

Jones maintained it's time to let Williams prove all this himself instead of fitting him for that gold jacket in Canton.

"Do you know what I'm saying?" Jones said. "Do you know how hard the Hall of Fame is? Just like we don't want to throw around Super Bowls, we dang sure shouldn't be throwing around no Hall of Fame.

"It is extremely hard to get into the Hall of Fame. Philip Rivers might not make it. Eli (Manning) might not make it. The Cam Newtons might not get in there.  The Josh Allens, as good as we think he is right now, might not get into this Hall of Fame."

WHAT HISTORY SAYS ABOUT CALEB WILLIAMS' CHANCES FOR ROOKIE SUCCESS

The expectations are high in Chicago, but also around the league and country.

"And we're talking about this young fellow," Jones continued. "Now he hasn't thrown a pass to Keenan Allen or DJ Moore yet. He's got zero passing yards as a Bears quarterback.

"And we're saying Hall of Fame. Let's just let the young player go ball out."

Joy Taylor, also on the panel, summed it up best.

"This is outrageous," she said, before concluding, "Can't we please pump the brakes?"

The only QBs drafted first overall to be main starters as rookies for playoff teams as rookies were Andrew Luck and John Elway. This is since the AFL-NFL merger.

There have been 27 quarterbacks selected first overall since the merger and the best of them statistically as rookies was Baker Mayfield of the Browns in 2018 with 27 touchdown passes and 14 interceptions.

Arizona's Kyler Murray had the second-best rookie season with 20 TD passes and 12 interceptions in 2019.

Luck often gets cited as the best QB as a rookie but his success came with the team overall, as they made the playoffs. He had 23 TD passes that season but threw 18 interceptions.

And like Jones said, he's one of the QBs not in the Hall of Fame.

Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven

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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.