If there's one thing I'd guess Bears fans want to read about after going through the biggest gut punch loss of their season, it's a very long explainer detailing a ton of concerns and issues with Caleb Williams. The fun never stops this season!
ESPN, never one to shy away from a challenge, delivered. In a lengthy break down of all rookie QBs this year, NFL analyst Ben Solak uses most of his word count to break down why Williams – so far, at least – is his lowest-graded rookie QB this year.
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Although, honestly, it's not that bad: Williams gets a C+. Speaking as a lifelong C-student, I can confidently remind everyone that C's do still get degrees. Nothing wrong with a nice C – they get the job done. And it's not like Bears fans aren't used to getting C+ quarterback play, so this shouldn't really come as much of a shock to anyone. The whole breakdown is definitely worth a hate read, but here's Solak's ultimate report:
ESPN's Ben Solak says Caleb Williams has had the worst season of any rookie QB in 2024
"Williams has made plenty of the prototypical rookie errors in his season with the Bears. He'll spray on routine throws, get stuck on reads that he should have eliminated pre-snap and snowball bad plays into worse ones. But he has also shown several excellent traits and skills that are not typical of rookie quarterbacks at all. His high-difficulty throws can stack up against any elite QB in football ... With better play around him, Williams can clearly hang at the NFL level, and his ceiling will be defined by ironing out the snap-to-snap roller coaster he's currently riding."
I mean, worse things have been said about Bears' QBs. It's been, like, two months – if you told Bears fans two months ago that Williams' first season would be kinda up-and-down, they'd all roll their eyes and point out how much better up-and-down is than 90% of the other QBs that have put on a Bears uniform. Admittedly, it does kinda sting that *Bo Nix* has had a better season than Williams, but the list of rookie QBs that looked promising after one season and then flamed out is longer than the ones who didn't.
So, all in all, this isn't that bad. But if you need to be mad at ESPN because, thb, that's what they exist for – I'm not going to get in your way.