Bear Digest

The Danger Bears Face by Turning Caleb Williams into a Crash Dummy

Analysis: Caleb Williams is getting rid of the ball in time, but games like Sunday night's can change this in a hurry and create career-threatening habits.

Gene Chamberlain

Danielle Hunter sacks Caleb Williams in Sunday night's Bears loss against the Texans.
Danielle Hunter sacks Caleb Williams in Sunday night's Bears loss against the Texans. / Troy Taormina-Imagn Images
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The Bears are back in a familiar spot, tied for the most sacks allowed in the NFL.

At least they're in good company as the San Francisco 49ers have also allowed nine sacks in two games. The Raiders also have given up nine.

With such a small sample size, it's more difficult to cite reasons for this other than the offensive line's failures, but there are some.

The Bears finished near or at the bottom of the league in pass protection the last three years because Justin Fields held the ball too long.

In this case, it's not happening. Caleb Williams is getting rid of the football in 2.64 seconds, which ranks ninth fastest and is one spot behind Patrick Mahomes according to NextGen Stats.

There is no reason to anticipate Williams lacks the talent to play. There is reason to wonder if he'll survive to have a future, that he could become the next Andrew Luck or David Carr—a human crash dummy.

While that might be a bit exaggerated, there is a real problem here. It can be development of bad habits, the kind that can derail a career.

No one ever had to invite Williams to leave the pocket and throw. Something like the pressure he faced Sunday night forces him out of the pocket and could get him in the habit of bailing out of the pocket too soon.

"He's a very tough person, he's very resilient," Bears coach Matt Eberflus said. "He hangs in that pocket. Again, he showed his toughness last night, he took a couple in there."

Another danger is putting the ball into dangerous spots, either with his arm or when he's holding it to throw. The results are not so clear here, because one of his interceptions was right into triple coverage and he had another interception wiped out by penalty when he really didn't need to throw it deep at that target.

"The main thing he's got to do is ball security in the pocket–which he's been relatively good at," Eberflus said. "Then, also being able to stay in the pocket and ride the pocket when it's firm.

"He's got to use his  instincts when it does break down, because in the NFL, it does sometimes. He does a good job with that as well. Just staying on ball security, staying in the pocket, stay on his progressions, keep his eyes down the field. Just keep doing the basics right."

The good news is he hasn't generally risked bad throws. NextGen has another metric called aggressiveness percentage, which measures the times a quarterback puts the ball in danger with a throw. Williams is at

10.6%, one spot behind Sam Darnold, who is fifth, and two behind Mahomes, who is at 9.4%

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The other danger is bad footwork when he throws.

There is plenty of evidence of this taking place.

When he throws on the run, he has been excellent in the past. Now, he needs to run even faster because the linemen and linebackers are faster. It's not going to be as easy to make plays on the run. He needs to set his feet and throw, especially on his deeper throws.

"Anytime you have an inaccurate throw, you always go to the feet, you always go to the base," Eberflus said. "I think that's always where it is with any quarterback.

"I know that quarterbacks talk about throwing off platform and all those things. They still have their feet planted in the ground, and they do a good job of getting their shoulders around and getting their feet planted towards the target area. I think it's important that we start with the ground up. He's no different than any other quarterback."

He has been different in one way than veteran QBs. Williams admitted in training camp he needed to get better at handling blitzes.

Apparently, so too does his offensive line. When the Texans went to a five-man pass rush it became a matter of rush and cover, but not in the traditional sense. The Texans rushed and Williams had to cover up to avoid injury.

There's one sure way to stop blitzing, but the Bears are going to see it again from the Colts because it worked against Williams and the Bears offensive line on Sunday night in Houston. One way to stop it is put the fear of the running game into the opponent.

Obviously, they haven't done that yet.

The other way is to have someone who Williams is going to get the ball too quickly and consistently over the middle to beat blitzes. They had that person when they traded for Keenan Allen.

They didn't have him Sunday night and no one can be sure now when they'll have him back at a 100% level or at all.

So it's easy to see why they're talking about running the ball when the entire offseason was about building a viable passing attack.

In 2002, the Houston Texans had Tim Couch at quarterback as a rookie with a new franchise. They finished 31st in rushing and got Williams sacked a whopping 76 times. There has always great speculation about what the first pick in the 2002 draft would have become if he hadn't simply been a target and a crash dummy as a rookie.

The Bears are looking at that future for their No. 1 overall pick unless they start running the ball and learning how to pick up blitzes.

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.