Bears' Caleb Williams on Cusp of 'Transcendent' Label in Quarterback Rankings

If there's one thing we know about Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams, it's that he's on the cusp of superstardom.

Williams took a step closer to that last season, when he led to Bears to an 11-6 record, an NFC North title and a playoff win.

Williams still has to fully prove himself in order to be considered among the league's elite quarterbacks and that was perfectly encapsulated in the rankings of CBS Sports' Bryan DeArdo.

In those rankings, DeArdo placed Williams in the second tier, which was labeled "borderline stars" and fell behind the "transcendent talents" tier.

"Williams' flair for the dramatics included a game-winning touchdown against the rival Packers in the NFC wild-card round," DeArdo said. "He'll join NFL (and Chicago/Indiana?) royalty if he can lead the Bears to the franchise's second Super Bowl title. More consistent play will be needed if that is going to come to fruition."

Included in the second tier with Williams was Jalen Hurts, Sam Darnold, Bo Nix, Jayden Daniels, Jared Goff, Brock Purdy, Jordan Love, Justin Herbert, Dak Prescott and Trevor Lawrence.

Meanwhile, the higher tier consisted of Matthew Stafford, Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson and Joe Burrow.

Is Caleb Williams in the right tier?

Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams (18) passes the ball against the Detroit Lions. — Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The two tiers after Williams' tier are "promising prospects" and "volatile veterans" and we'd say Williams is past the former and doesn't warrant being in the latter, so he's in the right spot.

Williams looks like he could definitely be the elite quarterback he was billed as having the potential to be coming out of college, but he must improve his overall play while continuing to lead the Bears to wins moving forward.

Even general manager Ryan Poles has admitted Williams needs to show the Bears more before they fully commit elite money to him that would amount to $50 million or more per.

"It's good to almost feel like you've got it," Poles said of Williams. "If you go with a traffic light, it went red as a rookie to yellow. You can creep forward a little bit and start having some of these conversations to anticipate it.

"But we need him to give us a green light. I think we'll find out this year about his progress."

Two areas Williams needs to improve at, according to head coach Ben Johnson, are his accuracy (he completed 58.1% of his passes in 2025) and his judgement for when to stick in the pocket and go through his progression and when to leave.

If he can fix both of those issues and take a step forward while also leading the Bears to another strong season, Williams can jump up a tier in 2027.

Add us as a preferred source on Google