Caleb Williams will be the focal point for the Chicago Bears and national media moving forward. That comes with the territory of being a #1 overall pick. This means every update involving him will command lots of attention. The Bears hit the Organized Team Activities (OTAs) portion of the off-season last month. It didn’t start well for Williams, who had a rough outing against the defense during the first practice open to the media. That inevitably led to panic among some Bears fans. Thankfully, he got some revenge during the second one on Friday, throwing only one incompletion in 7-on-7s and engineering a game-winning drive in the two-minute drill.
Head coach Matt Eberflus has said he’s satisfied with Williams’ progress, especially with his footwork inside the pocket. However, there is still much work to do. One person who thinks such a statement isn’t quite connected to reality is Dave Wannstedt. The former Bears head coach told NBC Sports Chicago that he believes the team is intentionally downplaying the actual progress Williams has made. This is because they don’t want to let people’s hopes get out of control. The team would rather undersell and overdeliver than the opposite.
From everything he’s heard, the quarterback is acclimating fast.
Caleb Williams isn’t known for his patience.
When he was a freshman at Oklahoma, he made it clear immediately that he was gunning for the starting job. It didn’t matter that Spencer Rattler was the anticipated choice. There was no “waiting his turn” in his mind. Sure enough, when Rattler got benched against Texas, Williams was ready. That mindset has never let him. This is a ferocious competitor who holds himself to a high standard. He wants to be great and won’t waste a single second working to reach that goal. His progress won’t be a surprise to those who know him.
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The Bears won’t complain. At the same time, they know how dangerous hype can be. If they pump out constant clips of him practicing well, people will get carried away. This is why they’ve only released three clips of him throwing passes. It whets the appetite of fans while allowing them to control the narrative of his development. The truth will be out soon enough. There’s no sense in letting things get carried away until then. HBO will take care of that when August rolls around.
Highly curious, intelligent, skilled people are seldom patient or accept common results for long.
Every quarterback who is recruited, thinks he should start. Using Caleb Williams’ belief is not an indication of anything. What a guy does to continue preparing, when he isn’t starting, isn’t playing, or playing bad, is the measure of whether he has any opportunity to be decent (not “great,” just “decent”). The question is whether there are enough critical thinkers around him, to analyze any, and every flaw, and motivate him to address them. For instance, when Fields ran off a long run (either planned or unplanned), who was there to analyze every option, every possibilty that WASN’T taken, and… Read more »
Simple greed by the NFL hey. Who pays for these 100 million player contracts? The fans I’m pretty sure. Who watches shows like Hard Knocks? The fans do!! If people really think Hard Knocks is going to be such a big problem for the bears their freaking morons! If the Bears don’t make the playoffs this year it’s because they aren’t good. If the Bears do make the playoffs it’s because they are good. Plain and simple. Hard knocks is no bigger a distraction than any other story lines being played out in the news all year long! Have yet… Read more »
Bounce-back not revenge against fellow teammates. Save the latter for different tribes, nations, and peoples.
Hard Knocks is simple greed by the NFL.