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Follow-Up RG III Comment on Caleb Williams Makes More Sense
Analysis: RG III is back talking about Caleb Williams again but he makes more sense this time even if it doesn't matter in the end.
Robert Griffin III was in full revisionist mode on Monday about the rant he had urging Caleb Williams to pull an "Eli Manning" and threaten not to come to Chicago.
RG III tried on the Rich Eisen Show to clarify what he said in his March rant and why he said it but qualified this with the statement that he "clearly articlulated exactly," the point he was making and that was Caleb Williams is going to an unstable situation and it would be better for him not to be there.
If he had actually clearly articulated this situation then the number of Bears fans who were taking out pitchforks and torches and came out after him on social media would have been much smaller. His basis for suggesting what he did then seemed entirely unclear because of his ranting.
"I know what you're getting at," he told Eisen, "It made a lot of Bears fans upset. But, like, I have to be honest when I give my assessment of the current situation. And, according to my qualitative analysis, they need to extend Matt Eberflus in order to give Caleb Williams enough runway with the coaching staff that he has to truly solidy himself and to solidify that organization, to do exactly what Ryan Poles said he wants to do, which is break the cycle."
The cycle would be quarterbacks getting their first year with the coaching staff and then needing to learn a new offense. Mitchell Trubisky and Justin Fields both had it happen to them.
If RG III had merely said this, then no one would have batted an eyelash. He's hardly the first to think this. It's been complained about constantly. But he didn't express it this way.
Here's the real problem with what he is saying.
If RG III was upset that Williams was going to a poor organization and would get buried there, and was urging Williams to threaten to not play in Chicago, what would he have done if Williams had done exactly what he suggested?
The Bears were still going to take a different quarterback. The trade of Fields had been made already when he made the rant. They had to draft a quarterback.
So was RG III then going to come in and say whoever that other QB would be, Drake Maye, maybe JJ McCarthy or Drake Maye, they should do the same thing?
That was just a ridiculous rant and stupid suggestion on his part. The Bears were taking Williams. They were going to support him and they told him this. End of story.
RG III's statement at the time was merely Williams was merely the Bears can't develop quarterbacks. Same old Bears. Same old whining. He didn't specify any of these reasons.
Fields didn't wind in Pittsburgh entirely because the Bears mishandled his development anyway.
They did under Matt Nagy, but Fields had two full years in the same offense with Luke Getsy after his first year fiasco and didn't evelvate his own play enough. It's true he had little support the first year but last year he had DJ Moore in a 1,300-yard season and still didn't elevate the team or his own play by much.
The same problems developed. Fields took too many sacks. At first he fumbled too much but then corrected this. He cut down on his interceptions in the second half of the season, too, but also cut down his touchdown passes and didn't run as effectively, going from 7.1 yards to 5.3 yards a carry.
Essentially, RG III is right about the chance the problem could happen a third time. They are operating with Eberflus pretty much on the hot seat and he could be gone after a year just like with Nagy and Fields and Trubisky and John Fox. Eberflus needs to win and prevent a repeat.
RG III just needs to say all of this to begin with instead of making a mindless rant that caused Bears fans to have convulsions on Twitter.
"That's more so my concern because Matt Eberflus was on the hotseat last year, he was on the hot seat at the end of the season and they said they were bringing him back," RG III told Eisen. "Now, if they don't make the playoffs, now what hapepns? Aad I just don't want to see that happen to a young quarterback. That's moreso where I was coming from with that whole thing."
It's interesting to hear RGIII in his apearance with Eisen voice a belief that even if Williams gets them into the playoffs as a rookie, they'll lose offensive coordinator Shane Waldron to a head coaching job.
It's possible. People said this same thing about Luke Getsy when he came to the Bears and he wound up being fired with Eberflus still in place.
If Waldron does leave, doesn't this also alter a quarterback's chance to develop?
Change is constant in the NFL. Offenses change. Coordinators change. Coaches change. Quarterbacks must learn and adapt. The better ones do and they're better for it.
Nothing Williams does shows he is in drastic need of development. His adjustment should be to playing in a faster league. This wasn't the case with Fields or Trubisky. They were not the consensus No. 1 pick. They weren't QBs scouts said anonymously is the best chance for a Hall of Fame player in this draft class, like ESPN was told.
Williams will just have to live with the situation or hope to elevate the team so much Eberflus can retain his job.
Williams looks like the kind of passer with a skill set capable of getting through any kind of coaching situation.
And he's coming to Chicago because he hasn't listened to RG III and forced the Bears to trade the pick or pick him and then trade him.
Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven
