Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams took a massive step forward in 2025. Yet, he just began scratching the surface of his sky-high potential.
There were ups and downs, though Williams regularly blew folks away in his second NFL campaign. The arm talent, athleticism, playmaking, and improvisational skills were on full display. He gained many fans along the way, including outside Chicago, such as NBC Sports' Chris Simms.
Simms spoke highly of Williams during a conversation with CHGO Sports from Super Bowl LX's Radio Row.
NFL analyst and former QB Chris Simms gives strong Caleb Williams endorsement Bears fans will love
By the sound of it, Simms has admired Williams from afar for quite some time. The former's vision took a little longer than anticipated to shine through, but now everyone can see the latter for what he is: special.
"Caleb Williams — how can you not be amazed at what we just saw?" Simms asked. "Caleb Williams is a superstar. There's only a few people in the sport that can do what Caleb Williams does."
Simms didn't mince words in the best way possible. He declared Williams an elite signal-caller while adding that the film is self-evident. Talk about a ringing endorsement; comments like this are why Bears supporters are counting down the days until next year.
Skeptics love to cite Williams' 58.1 completion percentage, which ranked 50th out of 57 passers with at least 50 dropbacks this season. However, that doesn't seem to bother Simms, who believes today's style of play is more about explosives than dinking and dunking in hyper-efficient fashion.
"Please stop with the stupid completion percentage crap," Simms said. "I know we want that, but this is not in 2008 anymore. It's a different league; it's about making plays, and changing field position and explosive plays. And that to me is where [Williams] is special, and the other stuff is coming as we all saw."
If we want to play the numbers game, how about Williams' league-leading six fourth-quarter comebacks? Or his 30 total touchdowns? Or the 11-6 record and playoff berth (plus a Wild Card win) he guided the Bears to?
Read more: Nahshon Wright and Kevin Byard just sent Ryan Poles a loud free agency message
Growing pains are natural. Yet there were many more positive takeaways than negatives. Williams proved capable of hitting a gear that few other players can and of being the franchise centerpiece that Simms and the Chicago faithful see.