NotKyle

23 completions 3 intentional throwaways 2 balls knocked down at the line (one of which was his own lineman's helmet) 1 interception

This is bad stat work. All the games count. You cannot get an accurate picture by arbitrarily picking an endpoint that gives you the answer you like the most. I'm going to do it anyway. Williams' last three games, extrapolated over 17 games, would be 4462 yds 38 TD 13 INT

I'm trying really hard to make this generic and not about Fields because the fanbase that refused to believe this stuff was an issue with Fields really wants to move on and not talk about Fields anymore. But yes. Fields is so freaking bad at all this stuff and it drove me absolutely freaking nuts that people refused to see it. The pre-snap reads that would let his running back run straight into two run blitzers for a -5. The failing to see the defender jumping the screen and not throwing the alert slant built into the back of the play to prepare for the possibility of the screen being jumped. The ungodly slow dropback and slow release making his receivers look "covered" because they gave the defender an extra step or two to close on the ball. I got so tired of being told it was impossible for a QB to account for those things, that those aren't the QB's job to handle. On three separate occasions, I saw this exact scenario play out: Defense shows extra blitzer on Fields' right, the vision side. If the blitzer comes, it's QB's responsibility to hot read the play. The blitzer comes, Fields never once shows any reaction to the large man running straight at him, gets blasted for the sack. Bears fans insist that it wasn't Fields fault because it was a "blind side" sack that the OL let through. Even putting aside the fact that free rushers are often a designed part of protection and the QB's responsibility,, Fields' awareness and reaction time was so poor that people assumed it must have been a blind side sack when it came from vision side.

QBR falls under the same category as PFF grades for me. If you won't tell me the formula, I don't care about it.

I cannot emphasize enough how much Caleb Williams is exposing how much fan cope there is over bad QBs. It wasn't just Bears fans with Fields, I've seen it from every fan base when they have a QB who just isn't good enough. "The playcalling is giving him no chance" Modern NFL offenses operate on QB decision-making. There are audibles, hot reads, and line checks. Almost every play has multiple executions built in where the QB can choose to do one of several different things depending on what the defense shows. They're not going out there with instructions to throw to a specific route no matter what. The QB has more control over what happens on a play than the playcaller does. "But nobody is getting open" In the NFL, single coverage is open enough. The laws of physics dictate that there's a side where you can throw it that your WR can get to it and the DB can't, throw it there. I'd point out a play where Williams did it yesterday but there were almost too many to choose from. "But the offensive line is giving him no chance." I thought the offensive line was pretty poor in pass protection yesterday. Darnell Wright had a particularly bad game. We almost didn't even notice because Williams' pocket presence, footwork and quick release consistently made up for it. "We don't really have the playmakers" People vastly underestimate how much better a QB can make the playmakers look by getting them the ball in the right spot, at the right time. A tick slow, a bit off-target, stare them down a bit too long, all of those things give the defense more time to close. Williams is making these things look easy and he's giving his receivers repeated opportunities to catch the ball without breaking stride and have a step or two before the defense is on them, which makes a *huge* difference in their ability to break plays.

JFC this is so good. This is his best week on film yet. I'm sure the Youtube reactors will find some reads that he could have made but didn't, but for me, watching this, the interception is literally the only thing I can ding him on. I thought live maybe he missed the safety, but no, he saw the coverage correctly, he just underthrew it by 7 yards. His accuracy falls off a cliff when he throws lofted deep balls. Anything he can throw on a line, even if it's 40 yards downfield, he can hit a dime-sized target, but the up-and-down ones always seem to get it. I literally can't think of any other complaints or nitpicks. It's almost hard to list all the things he did well. He's lasering balls into absurdly tight windows. He's going through his progressions with good tempo. HE's diagnosing the defense well both pre- and post-snap. He's using his asburdly quick release and pinpoint accuracy to give his playmakers more room to make plays (hell, he even used some no-look arm angles to make sure the defense had less time to flow toward the receivers). He made the offensive line look better than it was with his pocket presence and footwork. He's showing an instinctive understanding of the sliding scale of risk based on down and distance, making good throwaways in early situations and then taking risks on third. Hell, he even did a great job minimzing the damage when he did take a sack. The only doubts I have about him being a franchise QB are the generic "anything can happen to anyone, who knows" marginal doubts I'd have about literally any player. He might be a Kyler Williams type franchise QB or he might be a Patrick Mahomes type franchise QB< but his 10th-90th percentile projections are all in that range.

Colts game. But I would love to see more games like that where we fall behind enough to abandon the run and let him throw 50+ with tempo. Our defense is probably too good to let it happen often, but the Commanders game is a good candidate. So are the packers games.

Williams pace update: 3732 yards, 26 TDs Would be good for 3rd and 5th all time on bears single season lists

Yeah through two weeks we were near the bottom.

The Packers refuse to give me justification for my belief that they're mediocre so I probably have to let it go. We will see how losing Hutchinson impacts their defense, but the Lions are probably the most complete team in the division. I'm still not a Darnold believer. But the Vikings defense is as legit as it gets and is by far the scariest unit in the division. I think we are probably tied with the Packers for being the worst team in the division, and that's with the caveat that I'm probably underrating the Packers. I'm not excited about any of our divisional games.

https://streamable.com/7e3agm This is my favorite Williams throw of the game. Converting passes in the short field near the end zone gets so much harder as the defense compresses. To be a great QB in this league, you have to be able to convert in the extremely tight windows down there. "No one is open" is not an excuse for legit great QBs. Single coverage is open enough because you can always throw to leverage and give your guy a chance. The coverage was pretty good, but Williams threw a perfectly timed dot to Allen's outside shoulder, away from the defender's leverage, and gave Allen a chance to make a sick spinning grab.

It seems pretty mixed. They've got quite the civil war going.

Oof. I saw a still frame. His leg takes a 90-degree turn at a place that isn't his knee. Season ending is definite. He'll be fortunate if it isn't life altering.

I'm not watching the replay but the comments I'm seeing on it make it sound pretty gruesome

Non Caleb thoughts: I thought the pass protection had a really shaky day and got bailed out by playcalling and scramblng. But the run blocking might be the best we've seen this season, especailly on the outside they were getting some serious push. I think I saw Swift not getting taken down by the first guy at least once, which is notable because it almost never happens. And he made a couple of nice reads on zone runs that were missing earlier in the season from him. I still think in a perfect world he's a 3rd/long specialist and not an every-down back, but he's doing a good enough job. Whatever, it's RB, who cares. Roschon Johnson had that one really nice catch, I'll give him that, but I think he's extremely medicore even as an RB2. You can hand him the football and let him run forward 3-4 yards without fumbling. Cole Kmet should get his first pro bowl this season. Tory Taylor outkicked his coverage twice. I think most special teams coaches would rather see 45 and hanging with no chance of a return over 60 and returnable. It wasn't a bad game by Taylor, but it was just fine. The defense is so well-coached. It feels like you can just plug guys in every week and they hold their spots reasonably well. They make tackles, punch balls for fumbles and incompletions, and don't make big mistakes. I wouldn't have minded seeing a smidge more pass rush early, but that's a thin complaint.

I still think playoffs are less than 50/50.

The first time the Bears have scored 5+ offensive TDs in two straight games since 1956.

He's already just two short of the Bears rookie record for a season.

I don't know if this is a playoff team or not, some much tougher schedule looms. I am as confident as it is possible to be through six games that we finally have the franchise QB of my dreams. I get so tired of bad QBs getting excuses made for them. Nobody was open on that first touchdown to Allen, the third of the game, and Caleb Williams *made* it open with an insane throw to leverage. The pass protection wasn't great today, but Caleb Williams made it look a lot better than it was with his pocket presence, including that Mahomesian scramble to find Kmet wide open. Bears rookie record for TD passes and he would have had one more if Swift had eaten an extra biscuit for breakfast. I continue to be completely befuddled that the line was set this close and somehow moved towards the Jags all week.

For real. It's easy top 5 in NFL history and has a good argument to be on the podium.

Justin Fields did it twice in 5 days almost a year ago. The only two times he's ever done it, and 50% of his passing TD total for the year.

This is late to the party but the end zone view of keenan allen's touchdown is unbelievable. When you have an elite QB, single coverage with leverage is open.

Caleb Williams runs the best two minute drill we've had in at least a decade. Possibly my lifetime

Lines have moved all the way to Jacksonville being favored in some sites. That seems absolutely bonkers to me, but it's more likely I am biased than the lines are.

Today in "yes I broke down and bought NFL premium film access," I noticed Kiran Amegadjie got his first non-ST, non-kneelout snap last week. He came in as the TE in a jumbo set in the red zone. Adequate block on a run to his side. He's huge and slow and will need a lot of work to be a tackle, but if they can't get him there, I think his skill set plays at guard someday.