After his third NFL start for the Chicago Bears, No. 1 overall pick Caleb Williams hasn’t had the start to his rookie season that many imagined he would.
Now, he’s a rookie coming into the NFL. Patience with his game is required. One way to immediately burn a rookie quarterback out is to rush the process. Expectations can be a killer for young quarterbacks, and that’s certainly true with Williams.
Caleb Williams’ Overall Grade After 3 Weeks
When looking at Williams’ play through the first three weeks, two types of reactions seem to appear most frequently.
The first is those who go straight to the box score to evaluate his play. Looking solely at box scores is an unserious way to evaluate quarterback play, and it’s especially true for Williams’ start to the 2024 season.
The second type is to be blindly optimistic about Williams because of the pedigree he came into the league with. In his three years of college football, Williams accumulated over 11,000 yards of offense, scoring 120 total touchdowns. For those who don’t follow football closely, that’s a really, really impressive stat line.
Now, through his first three NFL starts, it’s looked a bit different. He’s completed 70 of 118 passes (59.3% completion) for 630 yards, two touchdowns, and four interceptions.
When looking at his overall production through three weeks, there’s more to be desired, without a doubt. But, at the same time, he’s shown improvement each week, and from a rookie quarterback, that’s what you want to see.
That, and the stats look much worse than the film.
Week 1: 14/29, 93 yards, 0 TDs, 0 INTs, 5 rushes, 15 yards
Week 2: 23/37, 174 yards, 0 TDs, 2 INTs, 5 rushes, 44 yards
Week 3: 33/52, 363 yards, 2 TDs, 2 INTs, 1 rush, 8 yards
Again, the stats don’t tell a full story, nor will they ever on their own. That’s especially true with how poorly the offensive line has been playing through the first three weeks of the season. That doesn’t invalidate Williams as a recipient of blame, but in the blame game, the offensive line wins for a third straight week.
Williams’ play has shown flashes of why many considered him the best quarterback prospect in years, while also showing his immaturity in the league as a first-year player.
There will be plays in college that highly talented quarterbacks can get away. In the NFL, that’s a much different story.
Considering all the factors playing into how Williams has looked thus far, his grade might not be as low as some expect. This grade is based off of what he’s shown, not what the Bears’ offense has shown.
If it were an overall grade of Chicago’s offense, the grading scale would need to be re-defined, as an F isn’t low enough.
Grade: C+
What Caleb Williams Has Done Well In 3 NFL Games
After his first three games in the NFL, Williams hasn’t looked nearly as bad as his stats might suggest.
But, when looking closer at his play, there’s plenty to be excited about.
First off, Williams does an incredible job at diagnosing defenses before the snap as a rookie. Not only does he diagnose the coverage schemes, but he’s already been vocal at the line of scrimmage, making line calls before the snap.
Sure, maybe that’s something a lot of quarterbacks should be able to do, but for a rookie to do it in his first three games is nothing short of impressive. At the NFL level, the little things matter.
Another part of his game that’s been impressive is his middle-of-the-field accuracy through three games. Williams has been much stronger in that regard than the two quarterbacks who preceded him in Chicago, and while that shouldn’t be the standard, it’s a promising sign of future success.
In fact, after just his third start in the NFL, Williams broke Justin Fields’ career-high for passing yards (335). So, while it isn’t perfect in Chicago, it’s already better than it was.
On top of his accuracy in the short-to-intermediate game, Williams’ ability to improve each week is what’s truly impressive from him.
For some quarterbacks who struggle early, their ability to bounce back isn’t there. Williams has shown clear improvement each week, both on film and in the box score.
In his first game, he threw for short of 100 yards. The next week, he was just shy of 175 yards. Then in Week 3, Williams threw his first two touchdowns of the season and surpassed 350 yards.
Most Pass Yards in a game this season
Caleb Williams 363 (Week 3)
Tua Tagovailoa 338 (Week 1)
Geno Smith 327 (Week 2)
Brock Purdy 319 (Week 2) pic.twitter.com/LdF1AQVRza— NFL on CBS 🏈 (@NFLonCBS) September 22, 2024
Sure, his rookie season hasn’t been perfect, but that shouldn’t be the expectation. The expectation is that he’s showing promise each week and he’s improving after each game.
More could be expected from him as the No. 1 pick, but as long as the improvements continue, the sky is the limit for Williams and the Bears’ offense. If by Week 10, the issues are still present, then that could be the time to break out the panic button.
But for how Williams looked in Week 3, his stock should be on the rise.
What Caleb Williams Needs to Improve Immediately
When looking at Williams’ game through three weeks, an area that must be cleaned up is his down-field passing.
It feels like Caleb Williams just needs that first deep ball completion & things can get rolling.
We know deep ball completion percentage is not always linear from year to year but this has been very uncharacteristic of him to start the season. #Bears
— Aaron Leming (@AaronLemingNFL) September 22, 2024
In college, Williams was consistently capable of hitting on deep passes, especially those that were a result of a broken-down play. His ability to improvise at the college level was nothing short of mesmerizing. In the NFL, though, that hasn’t been the case through his first three games.
It’s something that will get better with time. Williams and his receivers are still building up chemistry, and that will take time. This is a very new offense across the board. The Bears have a new offensive coordinator, a new running back, new receivers, a new tight end, and new offensive linemen.
While it’s frustrating to watch for Bears fans, patience is required with Williams and the entire offense.
Another area that Williams must improve on is the amount of miscommunication between him and his receivers.
There have been far too many instances of Williams throwing the ball to no one because either the receiver or Williams was on the wrong page.
This can cause drives to stall, and with how lackluster the offense has been as a whole, this part of his game must be cleaned up immediately.
However, as is true with his rookie season as a whole, patience is required. The end product is far from complete, and Williams has plenty of time to turn this season around.
Lastly, while he was turnover-free through Week 1, he’s gone back-to-back games with at least two turnovers, throwing two interceptions in Weeks 2 and 3. Williams also had the ball stripped from him in Week 3, totaling five turnovers in his last two games.
While he’s still learning one of the toughest jobs in the NFL, he must protect the football better, plain and simple. Cleaning up turnovers will be a must in the remaining 14 weeks of the NFL season if Williams wants to avoid joining Peyton Manning’s rookie-season infamy.