Caleb Williams’ regular season debut is in the books. It wasn’t what we hoped for, but it wasn’t the world’s end. For all that went wrong, there were plenty of teachable or easily correctable moments and many things Williams did right that we don’t see in real-time on Sunday.
Let’s get into it.
Let’s start with Williams’ first downfield throw of the game on Sunday. He’s forced out of the pocket left and tries to hit DJ Moore up top with the off-platform “Jumpman” throw we’ve seen him make many times in college and the preseason.
A few things :
1. For all the praise that Jerrfey Simmons (rightfully) received for his performance on Sunday, rookie T’Vondre Sweat was a menace. Right off the bat, Sweat’s blowing by Teven Jenkins with a swim to destroy this pocket before the play could develop.
2. Look, this isn’t going to be an excuse-fest for Williams, but two things can be true: Williams didn’t play his best game, and much of it had to do with Simmons and Sweat taking the Bears interior offensive line to school.
3. This play featured Keenan Allen running an option route, where he could have taken the route to the boundary or back over the middle, depending on what Rome Odunze’s route did with the linebacker on the left hash. Odunze’s over was designed to pull that linebacker with him, opening things up for Allen’s option route. It didn’t. If you pause at the 37-second mark on the video, you’ll see Odunze open, but by that point, Williams can’t get back to that side of his read because Sweat has already blown the protection up. This is where film and all of the angles are important in evaluating these things.
4. When flushed outside to the left, Allen tries to create some space, but Williams looks at DJ up top and doesn’t get enough on it. That’s a throw I’ve seen him make countless times in all of his college tapes, and we saw it in the preseason, so I have no issue with that choice, all things considered. If I were to split hairs, I would like to see him throw that at Keenan’s feet and give himself a chance for positive yardage on a broken play.
The tape confirms almost instantly that Sweat and Simmons’ combination was a game-breaker for Tennessee in this one.
Two plays later, we had Williams’s first big miss of the day: The wheel route in which Allen burns his cover, and Williams overshoots him. Sweat walked Teven Jenkins back into Williams’s throw, but that shouldn’t have mattered with how easily Allen beat his man. That’s a can’t-miss throw, and he missed it. These types of plays will be my focus in Year 1 for Williams.
In the very next play, Williams nailed Keenan Allen on a fourth-down conversion. Allen didn’t have a great game, but he thoroughly beat L’Jarius Sneed on this play, which Williams doesn’t miss.
In the first series of the day, in those three plays, we have an example of the good, bad, and ugly for Williams. We’ve got the Sweat-Simmons combo wreaking havoc, Williams’s escapability, an inexcusable rookie miss deep, and the rookie working well within the operation to hit Allen to convert an early fourth down.
Additionally, that fourth-down play was a solid design by Offensive Coordinator Shane Waldron. If Allen doesn’t beat Sneed at the line, he has Moore coming over the middle of the field behind him as the second read in the progression. It’s just a good design that gave Williams some options for a crucial play early in the game.
It’s also worth pointing out here: the second-quarter misses deep downfield to DeAndre Carter. It’s the same thing as the Allen miss: Williams saw the win downfield, had the look, and just overshot the throw. For one of the more calm and collected quarterbacks I’ve seen at this stage of his career, Williams looked a little excited on some of these throws, which were two prime examples.
To that point, I expect Williams to reel these throws in and turn them into completions soon. Seeing the win downfield is (as we know all too well) half the battle. Hitting it isn’t going to be a problem for a quarterback with his arm talent.
Williams’ next can-not-happen mistake was the sack, in which he lost 19 yards and took the Bears out of field goal range.
We don’t need to spend much time on this because it’s simple. Williams has to see that there is nothing good coming here with the second wave of rushers to his left and decide to kill the play. It’s risk versus reward. And while some inherent risk comes with a quarterback like Williams, he’s got to be better than that.
Here’s some good. Williams finds DJ Moore on the naked screen and delivers a slightly high (but very catchable) ball on the move with a rusher in his face downfield. Excellent design, excellent catch and throw. That’s Waldron scheming Williams into his bag of tricks.
At first blush, I didn’t like Shane Waldron’s game plan on Sunday, and I still have some issues with it (too conservative on early downs and second down as a mess all day). But the All-22 leaves me with some optimism heading into next week. Waldron is doing some things that play into Williams’ strengths, unlike the previous regime, which tried to make a quarterback fit their scheme. What a refreshing change of pace, a common theme surrounding the Chicago Bears these days.
Later that drive, we had the wild tip drill that Rome Odunze came down with and then fumbled before another Bears player recovered it. The whole thing never should have happened. It was an example of Williams trying to do too much. Let’s take a look at it, and then we’ll discuss it.
Quandre Diggs is the read here. As you’ll see in the illustration below if Diggs were to drop back and play the half-field coverage toward the end zone, Caleb would have this route all day long; it’s a no-doubt yes for him. However, Diggs stayed home in a quarters look, making it a tough throw that had to be on the number and wasn’t.
Again, the caveat is that there’s some inherent risk with a quarterback of this skillset, as he will push the ball into tight windows. He’ll make some mistakes, and he’ll make some dazzling throws. This was the former, as the throw was a tick too far in front for that coverage look.
Let’s jump toward the end of the first half when Caleb Williams should have had the first touchdown pass of his career. Like some of these other plays, there’s not much to break down. It was a beautiful ball, and Keenan Allen just flubbed it. If we hold Williams to his can’t-misses execution, the same applies to Allen. This was a must-catch, and he didn’t.
Let’s take a look at another incompletion to Keenan Allen in the third quarter. Allen is running an out to the boundary up top, and Williams sees it, but they can’t hook up because Khari Blasingame blows his blocking assignment in the backfield.
Again, the vision isn’t the issue. The timing isn’t the issue. It’s the blocking. I gave Blasigame an F in this week’s instant player grades and saw nothing on tape to change my mind. Your scope of responsibilities as a fullback is pretty simple, and Blasigame whiffed hard on Sunday. Williams sees Allen come out of the break with nothing but space (thanks to the DJ Moore go route), and Williams is already getting ready to fire, but he’s hit from his right side after Blasigame lost his matchup.
Final Thoughts on Caleb Williams’ Week 1 Performance
Things this performance was:
Things this performance wasn’t:
Williams missed some shots, forced some throws, and tried to create when he should have played it safe. But that’s what we’re getting in Williams, who has been stylistically compared to Patrick Mahomes and Aaron Rodgers.
Williams has all the tools, elite escapability and improvisation skills, and a heaping serving of arm talent. If he uses those, he will have some inherent risk of forcing things. On a day when the offensive line was taken to the woodshed, the personnel usage was highly questionable (where was Cole Kmet, why did we seemingly force-feed Keenan Allen 1-2 times per drive, etc.), there were plenty of positives t🌠o take away with the negatives.
I thought all of Williams’ tools flashed. I thought Waldron’s game plan showed promise because it’s a game plan with some designs highlighting Williams’ tools. I also thought that Williams made some cant-make mistakes and left some points on the field. I also thought that Waldon’s game plan lacked aggressiveness on early downs, had some confusing personnel choices, and didn’t do much to adjust to the immense pressure that the Titans’ interior defensive line was getting from one half to the next.
It was a learning experience for many, and game one of many fo🦄r Caleb Williams in a Bears uniform. Make the adjustments, and ღmove on to Houston.
