Drastic gap between Drake Maye & Caleb Williams should have Bears fans on edge

Despite having the NFL's No. 2 rushing offense and a legitimately top-five offensive line, Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams is still enduring severe growing pains as an NFL sophomore.

Williams was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. Fans in the Windy City have waited for a franchise QB savior for decades, only to come up empty time and again.

What's with some other teams? Like how do the Packers go from Brett Favre to Aaron Rodgers to Jordan Love? And how do the Patriots, after a mere brief dip from six Super Bowl wins, go from Tom Brady and Bill Belichick as QB and coach to Drake Maye and Mike Vrabel?

At least the Bears look to have the coach part of that equation correct with Ben Johnson. Williams is a little more dubious to this point, especially since Maye went two picks after him and his miles better entering Week 14, 2025.

Advanced stats underscore how badly Patriots star Drake Maye is outplaying Bears QB Caleb Williams

Chicago can afford to have patience in Caleb Williams' development process. There's a sound infrastructure there for him to win games while being an oft-inaccurate game manager.

But my goodness. Drake Maye has far less to work with in New England and he's making lemonade out of some rather sour lemons. Doesn't seem to matter who's blocking, who's catching passes, or how aggressive Maye wants to get on his throws. He's connecting at a high clip.

Looking past the obvious, basic stats, there's a more disturbing trend for the Bears when you stack up what Williams and Maye have done this season:

That coveted Year 2 leap every organization who drafts a QB high longs for is unfolding in real time for Maye and the 11-2 Patriots. Meanwhile, the Bears are 9-3 in spite of Williams, to put it bluntly.

PFF charts quarterbacks' splits on their depth of throws. Those aren't subjective grades that can be fudged or manipulated. On passes of 10-19 air yards, Maye hits at a league-best 67.7% clip—uncanny accuracy. Williams' 45.8% hit rate is only better than Bryce Young and Cam Ward.

Maye is second only to Sam Darnold in completion rate on attempts of 20+ yards (55.6%). Guess how far back Williams is? Way back. Try 35.2%. OOF.

Also, Maye's PFF adjusted completion percentage from 0-10 yards is 87.2%, good for fifth, whereas Williams is 24th at 79.9%.

For someone who can generate the torque and velocity that Williams can, it's baffling that he can't nail his target more often to the intermediate and deep parts of the field. I can understand the difficulty of taking zip off the ball when you have the arm cannon he has. Alas, Williams' ball placement is, well, all over the place. Williams often sails the ball over receivers' heads. Very much a work in progress from a mechanics standpoint.

What's funny is, I thought Maye's collegiate lowlights from North Carolina showed someone who had little command of his footwork. The freakish downfield accuracy was there, and the risk-reward play style that often netted big rewards and continues to do so in the NFL. What's so surprising is that Williams looked like he played with a better base and poise in the pocket at USC, even when he very often broke out and made superhuman plays out of structure.

Just goes to show nobody knows anything about QBs. Nobody can quantify the butterfly effect of landing with one team versus another and how a career could be drastically different. And you never really know how that player will develop until it plays out in real time.

Read more: Draft guru's initial 2026 1st-round mock addresses critical Bears need

Between Maye's ascent in 2025 and Jayden Daniels guiding the Commanders to the NFC Championship Game last season as a rookie, the Bears might' very well have passed on two QBs superior to Williams at the top of the 2024 draft.