Why Caleb Williams believes he can make quick improvement after Week 1 lessons originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
LAKE FOREST, Ill. — No one should have been surprised by Bears quarterback Caleb Williams’ Week 1 struggles against the Tennessee Titans.
Williams flashed in the preseason, but that was against vanilla looks and second-teamers. His official NFL debut was his first experience against NFL defenses looking to confuse and rattle him.
The results? A 14-for-29 day with 93 yards passing.
Williams didn’t turn the ball over, and the Bears won 24-17, thanks to a dominant defensive performance and timely special teams play.
The No. 1 overall pick vowed to “be better” after the win, and that work started with film review as the Bears closed the book on Week 1 and turned their attention to a Week 2 date with the Texans in Houston.
What Williams saw on film were correctable mistakes and a handful of missed throws that signaled to him that quick improvement was possible.
“I think having a realization, like I said earlier, understanding that it’s not throws that I usually miss throughout all the time that I’ve been playing quarterback and all the practice that I’ve had with other teams, here in Chicago,” Williams said Wednesday at Halas Hall. “I think that’s one, and then also understanding it’s the NFL. They’ve got good players on the other side. They’re gonna make plays. Like a few batted balls that we had. Go in the right spot, throwing the right shoulder, all these other things, trying to throw it over back, all these other things that sometimes a player’s gonna get his arm up, bat it down.
“Having an understanding of those two things is very important to keep growing and progressing and to not lose faith in whether it’s the play, the team, yourself, offense, whatever the case may be, you keep that confidence and understand that we obviously play as well as we wanted to and we came out 24-17 Chicago Bears win.”
Williams is just the latest in a long line of rookie quarterbacks to struggle in their first career NFL start.
Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen went 18-for-33 for 245 yards, one touchdown, and two interceptions in his first start against the Los Angeles Chargers. Peyton Manning completed just 56 percent of his passes and threw three interceptions. Andrew Luck flopped in his debut in 2012 against the Bears, going 23-for-45 for 309 yards, one touchdown, and three interceptions.
Struggles, especially with accuracy, are commonplace for rookie quarterbacks.
All three of those quarterbacks eventually found their footing and took off.
After dissecting the film of his first start, Williams diagnosed something he wants to clean up in Week 2 that should help him stabilize as his NFL journey gets off the ground.
“I would say the drops,” Williams said. “Sometimes I rushed my drop a little bit, not needing to. One specific route that I can think of is Rome [Odunze] when, I think it was a 10-yard route right over the ball, and I rushed my drop and tried to juice it in there a little bit and missed. I didn’t need to. Just trying to hurry up and get the ball to him, getting it in his hands as fast as possible so he can make magic and do what he does. Just making sure I’m trusting the drop, trusting the reads and things like that and getting through them. I would say that’s probably the biggest thing that I’m focused on.”
Williams’ road doesn’t get easier in Week 2.
The Bears travel to Houston to face a Texans team with legitimate Super Bowl aspirations behind star quarterback C.J. Stroud.
Stroud’s rise last season has been the popular preseason roadmap for pundits and fans to throw out for Williams to follow this fall.
Stroud started out fast last fall but hit a rough patch between Weeks 5 and 7. Williams finds comfort in the fact that all quarterbacks struggle from time to time at this level.
For him, it’s about cleaning up the little things that led to some uncharacteristic misses in Week 1. That should allow the Bears’ offense to start clicking and help Williams settle in for the start of his climb.
“I was looking at the NFL this past weekend,” Williams said. “I’m looking at all the teams and things like that and realizing that the job is hard, the NFL is hard. The defense is going to make it tough on you. That’s what they are going to do week in and week out. Comparing that to myself and [Stroud’s] rookie year, typically guys coming in they have to figure it out and things like that. That’s what we are doing right now.
“I didn’t have obviously the performance I wanted too, so trying to figure it out as fast as possible, making sure we are on the same page, making sure we are handling things that we need to handle. Like I said, all the small things become a lot larger on game day. Making sure we handle those things, myself included. Progressing from there. … It’s always going to be a rough patch. Understanding that, maintaining your confidence if not growing it because obviously, realizing that you can keep getting better. So that’s what we are doing, that’s what I’m doing.”
