In case people weren’t sure going into 2025, there is no mistaking it now. The rivalry between the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers has reignited. It lay dormant in many ways for years, a cold war that saw the Packers dominate with just five losses between 2008 and 2023. Everything changed when Chicago selected Caleb Williams #1 overall in the 2024 draft. The young quarterback immediately embraced the rivalry, making it his personal mission to reverse the team’s fortunes.
After narrowly missing out on an upset in the first meeting, Williams engineered a comeback victory at Lambeau Field to close the season out. It was the first time the Bears had beaten Green Bay in six years. Some Packer fans called it a fluke. A freak happenstance in a meaningless game. So imagine their surprise when Williams led two double-digit comebacks to beat them last season, first in December to steal the division lead, and then in the wild card round of the playoffs.
An uncomfortable truth began settling in the pits of their stomachs. Williams might not be just another Bears quarterback. Mike Heller, a Wisconsin reporter who covers the Packers, made an admission that may scare Green Bay faithful to death.
Williams is eerily similar to Aaron Rodgers.
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This Caleb Williams comparison shouldn’t be shocking.
After all, the Bears quarterback idolized Rodgers throughout his youth, seeing the Packers legend as the gold standard of the position. He modeled much of his own game in that way. Everything from the deep accuracy to the ability to feel and avoid pressure is there. Both of them even played for west coast programs (Rodgers at Cal and Williams at USC). Heller would never even touch that comparison unless he had no other choice. He must be honest with what he sees. The glimpses of Rodgers are there. Ignoring them won’t help anything.
Of course, Packer fans will be quick to point out that Rodgers was already a master of the little things from the moment he stepped on the field. He wasn’t posting an embarrassing 58.1 completion percentage. While true, it’s worth noting that Rodgers also didn’t start a game until his fourth NFL season. In the limited action he saw through his first two years, he completed 48% of his passes. Even in his first year as a starter, he was at 63.6%, which was slightly below the league average. Caleb Williams had 62% as a rookie. The comparison still holds.
Williams becoming like Rodgers is Green Bay’s worst nightmare.
After all, they know full well what the future Hall of Famer did to Chicago throughout his run with the Packers. It was endless torture, always finding ways to win the big games and driving a stake into the Bears’ hearts. Now here’s Williams, who has already done it twice in the past two years. Three, if you count that comeback in 2024, which locked the Packers into the 7th seed and forced them to play the Eagles in Philadelphia. What happened in that wild card game this past January was the equivalent of the infamous Rodgers-to-Cobb disaster in 2013. It is a type of pain Green Bay fans weren’t ready for.
Losing to the usual NFC contenders like Philadelphia or San Francisco is one thing. Losing to the team you’ve dominated for decades, thanks mostly to their quarterback, no less? It’s enough to cause severe internal panic. Is this what Packer fans have to look forward to for the next 10-15 years? If Heller is right, the answer is yes. Williams isn’t going anywhere, and like Rodgers, he only figures to get better as his mastery of Ben Johnson’s offense grows.
