Caleb Williams Earns Top 100 Honors From Players, But Still a Long Way to Go

The accolades continue rolling in for Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams. Just weeks after making franchise history by becoming the Madden 27 cover athlete, Williams has now made his debut on the annual, player-voted NFL Top 100 list, checking in at No. 51.

2025 was a good start, but Caleb Williams needs to show us more

This is a tremendous honor for Williams, let's get that straight to start. The NFL Top 100 list is voted on by his peers, and now he knows players around the league view him as being on the cusp of a Top 50 player. This also marks the highest a Bears quarterback has ever placed on this list (Justin Fields landed at No. 86 in 2023, which was the previous high mark).

However, Williams would be the first person to tell you that this isn't good enough for him. He was selected first overall in the 2024 NFL draft not to be just a pretty good quarterback, but to be an exceptional, elite quarterback. The Bears picked him at the top of a loaded quarterback class so that he could be the NFC's Patrick Mahomes, righting the wrong of the 2017 NFL draft. Williams was good in 2025, but he needs to be better.

What does that look like? Ironically, in the words of his quarterbacks coach J.T. Barrett, that means doing less and taking what the defense is giving him. We all know by now that Williams can make jaw-dropping, seemingly impossible throws. That's great to have, and the coaches surely want him to continue making those plays when he can. However, he must now work on the more mundane parts of quarterbacking, like taking check downs and hitting quick slants.

Those are the vegetables of a quarterback's life, and Williams needs to get those down before he can move on to the dessert of making highlight-reel plays.

Is Caleb Williams already the best quarterback in the NFC North?

Incidentally, just as Williams edged out Jordan Love on ESPN's Top 10 NFL quarterback rankings, his appearance at No. 51 on the NFL Top 100 list places him 21 spots ahead of his NFC North rival. Love has been a very good quarterback over the last three years, but he can't seem to get over the playoff hump, losing his last three postseason games. Dropping that Wild Card game to the Bears and Caleb Williams of all people, after holding a 21-3 lead at halftime, seems to have pushed Love down the hierarchy a bit.

This forces us to confront a tantalizing question: is Caleb Williams already the King of the NFC North? He has a strong argument. He doesn't possess the Pro Bowl accolades of Detroit's Jared Goff, nor does he have the gaudy stat lines of Love. But when evaluating all three quarterbacks through the eye test, and considering that Williams is only entering his third NFL season, it's hard to say he isn't already the top quarterback in the division.

Caleb Williams and Ben Johnso — Chicago Bears QB Caleb Williams talks with head coach Ben Johnson. Mandatory Credit: Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

As aforementioned, he still needs to prove it on the field before we can be certain. But the players have already put Williams ahead of Love, and the scouts, coaches, and executives who made up ESPN's Top 10 ranking agreed (Goff finished one spot higher than Williams on that list). Additionally, the 2026 season marks Year 2 for Caleb Williams and Ben Johnson, which is when we should expect to see significant development from Williams.

We already saw Williams display major growth from his rookie year to last year, and that was with the disadvantage of starting over with a new coach in a new system. If he can show similar development in other weaknesses to his game this year, the sky truly is the limit for the Iceman, and his placement on next year's list would almost certainly hit the single digits.

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