Bear Digest

Caleb Williams' reaction to winning Week 3 NFL offensive award

Caleb Williams won the NFC Offensive Player of the Week award and coach Ben Johnson described his reaction to it before the team at a meeting.
Gene Chamberlain|
Offensive player of the week Caleb Williams catches a throw during a drill Wednesday prior to practice.
Offensive player of the week Caleb Williams catches a throw during a drill Wednesday prior to practice. | Chicago Bears On SI Photo: Gene Chamberlain

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Chicago Bears

Coach Ben Johnson says he keeps learning his quarterback better each week and this week's early lesson is humility.

Caleb Williams won NFC offensive player of the week for is four-touchdown 298-yard passing effort against Dallas and Johnson sought to point this out to Bears players in a prepractice meeting.

"Kudos to him, you know, he won offensive player of the week there for the NFC  and he came in today completely unfazed by it," Johnson said. "We tried to recognize him in front of the group and he wasn't having it.

"You know, he's very stoic and he's already on to the next game. He knows he needs to have an even better performance here this week to give us the best chance to win."

He might have shown more excitement about helping everyone win hot dogs at a local eatery when discussing it after Sunday's game than he did the award.

He is the first Bears player to win this award since DJ Moore in Week 5 of the 2023 season. There was some irony to the victory. The Bears have had a hand in who won all three of these awards, as their defense was victimized when Minnesota QB J.J. McCarthy won it for Week 1 and Detroit's Jared Goff won it for Week 2.

Williams has won a weekly honor in the past. He shared the NFL FedEx Air Player of the Week with Green Bay's Jordan Love after the Week 6 win over Jacksonville in London last year.

Williams has been nominated for that award this week, as well.

Sunday's 142.6 passer rating on 19 of 28 for 298 yards was a career high and he matched his career high for TD passes with four, all to different receivers.

It definitely helped that the line kept Williams from being sacked for the first time in his career.

"I think those guys did a great job last week," Johnson said. "Obviously we've got a  whole different challenge here this week with their pass rush."

Johnson labeled Maxx Crosby a "top five" edge rusher, which could create problems for Darnell Wright and Braxton Jones.

"They have some really good blitzer at the second level as well, whether it's the linebackers or their nickels that we've got to account for, so it's going to take a whole group effort to have another day like that."

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.