An NFL team can't truly find out what it has in a young quarterback until it makes a real effort to surround him properly. Caleb Williams showed flashes of his talent as a rookie last season, but the chaos of two head coaches and three offensive coordinators made those moments far-too fleeting.
The centerpiece of the Bears plan this offseason was fostering Williams' development into a franchise quarterback. A top-notch play-caller as head coach? Check. A remodeling of the offensive line? Check. More skill position talent never hurts, what about that? Check as well.
The Bears have effectively removed any excuses for Williams heading into his second season. One of the lowlights of his rookie season was taking a league-high 68 sacks, as he often tried to do too much. He was pressured on 10 percent of his dropbacks, despite Pro Football Focus grading the Bears' offensive line as a top-10 pass blocking unit last year. There's a reasonable argument that the additions on the interior will actually make the Bears' a bit worse in pass protection this year.
Some of Williams' issues with taking too many sacks can be assuaged by a better offensive scheme and more effective play-calling. He is not the first rookie quarterback to struggle with pocket awareness and such, and if not for his mobility he may have set the new league record for sacks taken in a season.
Deeper stats absolve Caleb Williams of some blame for fatal flaw from rookie season
In acknowledgement of Friday the 13th, Kevin Patra of NFL.com took a look at players who were subject to some of the unluckiest stats from the 2024 season.
One such bit of bad luck applied to Williams.
"Williams' rookie struggles were notorious. Some of the issues were on the young passer. Others were on a woeful offensive line. According to Next Gen Stats, Williams was the victim of 57 unblocked pressures and 13 unblocked sacks in 2024 (both most in the NFL)."
"Chicago hopes that horrific stat line will be negated by improved blocking and a more aware QB in Year 2."
So according Next Gen Stats, 19.1 percent of the sacks Williams took as a rookie came courtesy of an unblocked defender. Without more context, nearly one-in-five sacks by an unblocked rusher feels like a high percentage.
Read more: Rome Odunze's path to delivering fantasy gold in 2025 is (almost) too easy
Some of that may also be on Williams being properly aware of when someone was going to be unblocked, and adjusting to get the ball out of his hands quicker. How much autonomy he had to audible in those situations is also a pertinent question, and it wouldn't be surprising to find out he was neutered to a large extent there.
Figuring out why Williams took so many sacks last season is not rocket science, and the blame can be pointed in any appropriate direction depending on how nuanced you want to get. But a high volume of unblocked defenders does take some blame away from the young quarterback, while highlighting how critical it was to improve the structure around him.