The Chicago Bears have been waiting a long time to finally learn what they have in Caleb Williams. The debut was not as fun as some fans wanted, but it is a starting point to his journey in the NFL. Now, we get to track his progression and see where he goes from here. What are some stats that fans should watch for now that Williams has played a game?
3. Caleb Williams was taking too many sacks despite not holding the ball very long
One of the big knocks against Caleb Williams coming into the NFL is that he holds the football for too long. Sometimes he tries to make too much happen and that will not fly in the NFL. Through one week, that was not the issue as he had time to throw of 2.74. That is about average in the NFL, as he ranked 17th out of the 32 starters last week.
This is a bit different than Justin Fields, who had a 3.32 time to throw in his career, and it was 3.39 during his last year with the Bears. Even with Pittsburgh, it was at 3.28 in his first start.
So, the Bears got a quarterback who apparently will get the ball out a half-second faster on average. The issue is that this did not reduce his sacks. Williams had a poor pressure-to-sack rate of 22.2%. For comparison, Justin Fields had a career pressure-to-sack rate of 23.3%, and last year, it was down to 19.3%. To be fair, he was at 33.3% for the Steelers, so the first week can lead to bad timing and more sacks.