Bear Digest

'More Gifted Than Justin' Coming into NFL

One NFL analyst fired back at Merril Hoge's statement backing Justin Fields and criticism of those who made comparisons of Caleb Williams to Patrick Mahomes.
Gene Chamberlain|
'More Gifted Than Justin' Coming into NFL
'More Gifted Than Justin' Coming into NFL

In this story:

Chicago Bears

The Justin Fields backers had their champion in Merril Hoge, who over the weekend concluded Caleb Williams is vastly overrated based on watching six USC games including three from 2023.

The Williams "empire" strikes back in the form of NFL Media analyst Daniel Jeremiah via an interview on the Rich Eisen Show this week. 

Jeremiah, the NFL.com and NFL Network draft insider, is among the multitude who looked at Williams' work and concluded he has the physical skill set/mental makeup to be a QB in the style of Patrick Maheomes.

And he has concluded without any reservations that Williams is better now than Justin Fields was coming out of college.

"I think just looking at who they were coming out, I think he's (Williams) more gifted than Justin," Jeremiah told Eisen. "And I think he does things faster. Everything's a little bit faster. Now, justin's obviously speed-wise (running) is on his own level there.

"But just in terms of quick feet, quick hands quickly getting from one to two to three (in progression), I've seen Caleb do those things. And there's just some instinctual stuff that he has, creativity, some magic, whatever you want to call it, he has that. So he's a higher-graded prospect entering into this portion of the process."

Jeremiah didn't want to step all over Hoge and even spoke with respect for the former Steelers/Bears fullback who in the past had called Johnny Manziel a draft bust waiting to happen and was correct. Hoge didn't call Williams a bust but just nowhere near as good as many have said he is and also not a better choice for the Bears than Justin Fields.

"I don't agree with him on this one, I just don't," Jeremiah said. "And the pushback I would have is, man, if 39 games is not enough to evaluate Justin Fields but three games this year are enough to evaluate and make solid statments on Caleb Williams ... that doesn't make sense to me."

Jeremiah recalled evaluating Mahomes in 2017 and is using the M word again in describing Williams.

"He is to me, in my opinon, it's just my opinion, in terms of ability it's the closest thing to Patrick Mahomes we've seen," Jeremiah told Eisen. "He's got unbelievable arm talent. I mean, I'm talking arm strength from different angles, from different platforms, the creativity. When Mahomes was coming out of college it was screams and scrambles. That's what he majored in. It was helter skelter."

Mahomes definitely wasn't ideal.

"He had a lot of work that he had to do footwork wise," Jeremiah said.

Mahomes, of course, went to the right place to learn behind Alex Smith for almost an entire season before playing, and worked with Matt Nagy among others. Jeremiah said the Chiefs obviously improved the Super Bowl MVP technique-wise.

"Where you go matters," Jeremiah said. "It's going to matter a lot for Caleb Williams but I believe, in my opinon, this is one of the more physically gifted and talented

players we've seen at the psoition in a while and some assembly is required and he's going to need to go to the right place and get developed. But no I wouldn't make that declarative statement (like Hoge) that he's not going to be very good."

The question is whether the Bears and new offensive coordinator Shane Waldron, quarterback coach Kerry Joseph and passing game coordinator Thomas Brown are the right place to develop Williams.

And it must be pointed out in fairness to Hoge that when Jeremiah was making comparisons between Williams and an NFL QB initially, he said the USC QB was closer to Josh Allen.

So which is it?

Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven

Published
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.

Home/News