It had to be Bryce Young.
There are probably plenty of quarterbacks who had a comparable rookie season to Caleb Williams. When your entire season boils down to 'did some good things, did some bad things,' that could apply to, like, 95% of every quarterback who's ever played. There are certainly plenty of Bears options to pick from.
RELATED: Ben Johnson went right at Caleb Williams in practice and QB's response said it all
So, naturally, what did ESPN do? They found the one QB who Bears fans absolutely don't want to hear one (1) single good thing about right now and ... compared him to Caleb Williams! At length! In a new piece that dropped on Tuesday that takes a look at the most pressing Year 2 QB questions around the league, ESPN's Ben Solak does an admirable (if not extremely triggering) job explaining why Williams reminds him a bit of Young, and why that's not entirely a bad thing.
Of course Caleb Williams' closest NFL comparison is Bryce Young
"Young makes a particularly good comparison for Williams because there are similar stylistic components to their rookie years. Both took a lot of sacks (in part because of high pressure rates behind bad offensive lines, and in part because they panicked under pressure). Neither threw the ball very far downfield and avoided interceptions in their caution. Both held the football for too long in the pocket and relied on scrambles, increasingly so as the season went on, to account for their deficiencies elsewhere. On the other hand, 2023 Young is not particularly helpful to understanding 2024 Williams ... As such, predicting a huge sophomore leap for Williams is not difficult. If Young can see such rapid growth in his game behind an improved offensive line and in the hands of a competent offensive coaching staff, so can Williams with similar changes. The first objective for new coach Ben Johnson, offensive coordinator Declan Doyle and the rest of that offensive brain trust will be the installation of easy buttons into a Bears offense weirdly devoid of them in 2024."
This is, like, 20% of the entire explanation, which is well researched, well written, and (sigh) well worth your time. It's actually an encouraging explainer that just happens to pick the one QB that Bears fans don't want to hear any comparisons about. For months – years, even? – Bears fans were so smug about trading off the Young pick, and how much of a steal that decision was. Maybe that's still true to some extent, but it's very Chicago Bears to be one (1) year into a franchise QB and already have him draw comparisons to the guy they worked so hard to avoid. Time truly is a flat circle.