# Caleb Williams and the 2024 Bears: a poll **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Tags:** football-nfl\ **Created:** [August 2, 2024, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caleb-williams-and-the-2024-bears-a-poll/1005154 "2024-08-02T14:48:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Omniscient](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omniscient/32/3290_2.png) [@Omniscient](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omniscient)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2024, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caleb-williams-and-the-2024-bears-a-poll/1005154/121 "2024-12-18T03:43:20Z")
JPJ started the season at OG and looked like a rookie. He moved to Center mid-season and has been dominant. PFF grades are pure fiction, doubly so when it comes to OLs. But yes, Zach Frasier has been excellent as well. ---
**Author:** ![Hamlet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hamlet/32/2818_2.png) [@Hamlet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamlet)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2024, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caleb-williams-and-the-2024-bears-a-poll/1005154/122 "2024-12-18T21:21:04Z")
Saying a company that gets paid by all 32 NFL teams for their analysis of football is creating “pure fiction” while in the same breath offering your own opinion, unsupported by anything, amuses me. ---
**Author:** ![Chisquirrel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6bbea6/32.png) [@Chisquirrel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chisquirrel)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2024, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caleb-williams-and-the-2024-bears-a-poll/1005154/123 "2024-12-19T02:33:09Z")
Teams may pay for the advanced stats and whatnot, but they’re not paying for the “grade”. This is a website that gave a quarterback a NEGATIVE grade after a 24/35 for 333 and five touchdowns and no interceptions performance. On top of that, grading linemen, especially on the offensive side, is insanely difficult without knowing not only the playcall, but the adjustments made before the play. I’d definitely take PFF with a grain of salt on this, and not use them as a definitive source on anything without other pieces to back it up. > [@Hamlet](#): > > As a Packer fan, I do really hope the Bears make Kliff Kingsbury their head coach. There is no more over-rated coach out there, and I’d enjoy the end of season tanking his teams always seem to do. Much better to give Bears’ fans hope for a little bit than just wallow in misery. That would give them four straight offseason championship victories. I don’t know if the fans can take much more winning. ---
**Author:** ![Hamlet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hamlet/32/2818_2.png) [@Hamlet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamlet)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2024, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caleb-williams-and-the-2024-bears-a-poll/1005154/124 "2024-12-19T03:41:31Z")
> [@Chisquirrel](#): > > Teams may pay for the advanced stats and whatnot, but they’re not paying for the “grade”. This is a website that gave a quarterback a NEGATIVE grade after a 24/35 for 333 and five touchdowns and no interceptions performance. [PFF’s response](https://www.pff.com/news/why-aaron-rodgers-earned-a-slightly-negative-grade) from 2015 for what it is worth. > [@Chisquirrel](#): > > On top of that, grading linemen, especially on the offensive side, is insanely difficult without knowing not only the playcall, but the adjustments made before the play. I’d definitely take PFF with a grain of salt on this, and not use them as a definitive source on anything without other pieces to back it up. Even if you completely reject PFF as a source, the fact someone says it’s doubly difficult to grade an offensive line player, then offer up your very own grade of an offensive line player amuses me. YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2024, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caleb-williams-and-the-2024-bears-a-poll/1005154/125 "2024-12-27T04:10:24Z")
I’m not sure how Caleb did. I blacked out because the game was so boring. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2024, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caleb-williams-and-the-2024-bears-a-poll/1005154/126 "2024-12-27T04:22:39Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > I’m not sure how Caleb did. He was not bad. There were times he bailed out too early before a play developed, but he made some good plays. And that final drive of the game he was practically heroic, but it wasn’t enough. He threw his first career interception against an NFC team but it was a 4th and 10 desperate Hail Mary toss as he was being hit by a tackler with 20 seconds in the game so you can’t really blame him for it. From my eyes he’s not even close to being the problem in Chicago. ---
**Author:** ![Hamlet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hamlet/32/2818_2.png) [@Hamlet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamlet)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2024, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caleb-williams-and-the-2024-bears-a-poll/1005154/127 "2024-12-30T16:11:45Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > From my eyes he’s not even close to being the problem in Chicago. Is he the solution? ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2024, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caleb-williams-and-the-2024-bears-a-poll/1005154/128 "2024-12-30T16:32:30Z")
> [@Hamlet](#): > > Is he the solution? He could very well be a QB you could build a team around with proper coaching and talent acquisition I would think, so from that perspective yes. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2024, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caleb-williams-and-the-2024-bears-a-poll/1005154/129 "2024-12-30T17:24:18Z")
That would require the Bears front office to concentrate. The team is saturated with incompetence. Can they extract Williams and distill the roster to something more homogeneous? ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2024, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caleb-williams-and-the-2024-bears-a-poll/1005154/130 "2024-12-30T17:32:43Z")
> [@garygnu](#): > > Can they extract Williams and distill the roster to something more homogeneous? I have strong doubts which is why I made sure to qualify my answer. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2024, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caleb-williams-and-the-2024-bears-a-poll/1005154/131 "2024-12-30T17:39:46Z")
> [@garygnu](#): > > That would require the Bears front office to concentrate. It’s pretty clear to me that they are going to fire the entire coaching staff a week from today, and start over – Thomas Brown has done little to build a case that he should remain as head coach. (Then again, this is Bears management we’re talking about. 😛 ) Having watched a fair number of Bears games this season, there are two issues that are obvious to me, and which need to be addressed if Williams is to have any hope of performing better: - They invested in building up the WR and RB positions last offseason, and did little work to enhance the offensive line. As a result, the line has turned out be really bad (AFAICT), which is doing Williams no favors, and is undoubtedly a major contributor to how many sacks he’s taking. - It doesn’t seem like much has been done to coach Williams out of some bad habits, particularly not knowing when to throw the ball away when nothing is open. He’s thrown very few interceptions, which is a good sign that he’s not trying to force the ball, but something’s still not working. Also, they have one of the better TEs in the league in Cole Kmet, who only has 45 catches on the year, and only six in the past five games, while they’ve been focusing almost exclusively on throwing to the WRs ---
**Author:** ![Hamlet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hamlet/32/2818_2.png) [@Hamlet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamlet)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2024, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caleb-williams-and-the-2024-bears-a-poll/1005154/132 "2024-12-30T18:13:43Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > > [@Hamlet](#): > > > > Is he the solution? > > He could very well be a QB you could build a team around with proper coaching and talent acquisition I would think, so from that perspective yes. I think the resurgences of guys like Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold, and Geno Smith, and the early success of guys like Brock Purdy, Bo Nix, and CJ Stroud show that there are a bunch of QBs who could do the same with “proper coaching and talent acquisition”. I agree, put Caleb on a team with a couple of top 20 WR’s, a top 10 O line, a solid running game, and a better than average defense, and he would become franchise QB. I just don’t think that’s unique. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2024, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caleb-williams-and-the-2024-bears-a-poll/1005154/133 "2024-12-30T19:22:26Z")
> [@Hamlet](#): > > I just don’t think that’s unique. I think it’s pretty unique to the Bears organization though. He may be one of the best QBs they’ve ever had, though that seems like an extremely low bar. ---
**Author:** ![Hamlet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hamlet/32/2818_2.png) [@Hamlet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamlet)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2025, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caleb-williams-and-the-2024-bears-a-poll/1005154/134 "2025-01-02T22:55:06Z")
Caleb gave an interview this week, and had nothing but praise for his choice for the future Bears head coach. “I know what type of guy he is. I know he loves football. I know he wants to win. He’s a competitor. And so in many different aspects that I was just speaking of, I’ve been around him. So I would say that being around him, knowing him, asking him questions and things like that, I think obviously if he was here I’d probably have more to say.” It will be interesting to see how much weight the Bears give their “franchise QB’s” wishes, and if they’ll be able to hire Kliff Kingsbury. ---
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2025, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caleb-williams-and-the-2024-bears-a-poll/1005154/135 "2025-01-03T01:49:42Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > He could very well be a QB you could build a team around with proper coaching and talent acquisition I would think, so from that perspective yes. He could be. But I don’t think he’s the next coming of Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Dan Marino, or Joe Montana, which is what the hype machine was saying about him prior to the draft. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2025, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caleb-williams-and-the-2024-bears-a-poll/1005154/136 "2025-01-03T02:27:13Z")
> [@FlikTheBlue](#): > > But I don’t think he’s the next coming of Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Dan Marino, or Joe Montana, which is what the hype machine was saying about him prior to the draft. Oh yeah, no, he’s not that. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caleb-williams-and-the-2024-bears-a-poll/1005154.md?page=6)