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Bears Coaches Walk a Fine Line With What They Stress to Caleb Williams

More accuracy from the Bears QB is necessary and could occur naturally, but the coaching staff can't afford to take too much gambler out of Caleb Williams.
Gene Chamberlain|
The Bears need to be careful not to coach the comeback out of their comeback king, Caleb Williams.
The Bears need to be careful not to coach the comeback out of their comeback king, Caleb Williams. | Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

So much emphasis on Caleb Willliams' Year 3 improvement centers around his passing accuracy and his own ability to improve on 58.1% completions that it hides another important factor in his development.

This is simply coaching and how he takes to it. Williams, in Year 3, hasn't been and is not going to be coached the exact same way as in Year 2 because it's unncessary after what happened last season.

This isn't to say they let Williams completely slack off but instead their focus point with the offense and his learning is completely different and more advanced.

Sports Illustrated columnist Albert Breer pointed something similar to this out during his summer break takeaways for every team. He underscored a quote by quarterbacks coach J.T. Barrett that said it clearly. They're trying to indicate to Williams that, "We don't have to work as hard for our money."

Breer dials it back to the start of last year when the term "fire hose," became regularly used by Ben Johnson, former offensive coordinator Declan Doyle and Barrett, as well as Williams himself. Force-feeding him the offense the way they did was like drinking through a firehose. They were giving him everything and seeing what he could retain.

"This summer, I bet we'll see more of the easy-money things Barrett references to show the quarterback he doesn't need to do as much of the spectacular to play winning football," Breer wrote.

It's possible, and this would no doubt improve Williams' completion percentage from 58.1% if he started taking easier open targets than the downfield ones. However, Williams was ninth among starters in intended average air yards. Start cutting him back too much on depth of targets and you wind up with a Checkdown Charlie.

It's a fine line between comebacks and accuracy

Then again, there were two basic reasons Williams tended to look more downfield. One was his inexperience with the offense and not being able to check it down through the progression of targets fast enough.

This could naturally be better with more time in the attack. Another one was the Bears were getting behind for various reasons and Williams had to force the issue. During Barrett's last meeting with Halas Hall reporters, he pointed one of these out.

"Now, the information is not foreign to him," Barrett said. "He has better understanding of why we do things and what’s the reason.

"For him, you’ll just be able to see a growth of operation and execution of the offense, just from the efficiency standpoint and getting us in the right plays and being able to communicate. All of that is going to improve being that he has more ownership of it.”

The firehose isn't necessary now. Williams knows how to operate and knows his stuff.

Different QB requires different tactics

Barrett found other reasons this is the case.

"No doubt, there are countless reasons why," Barrett said. "Some of that is just better familiarity with everything around routes and also the guys he’s throwing to, having the guys returning, knowing Colston (Loveland), Luther (Burden), Cole (Kmet), all those guys being a big part, Rome (Odunze), of course. That is going to be something as well, where he has another year throwing with these guys with these route concepts and understanding what we’re trying to do."

All of this isn't to suggest Williams should completely forget about using the natural ability that landed him among the top QBs in NFL history for fourth-quarter comebacks. He can't because one of the issues leading to him using it is still a problem. The Bears' defense remains a huge question mark. So does his own offense's running attack, at this point. He was forced to operate from behind, and it could happen again.

If the Bears' defense can't stop anyone unless they're able to take the ball away, or if the running attack is suddenly bogged down by blocking issues caused from losing linemen Ozzy Trapilo and Drew Dalman, so much will fall back onto the shoulders of Williams to lead comebacks again. Then where are you if he's had the comebacks coached out of him by curtailing risks.

The staff has been and must continue to walk a fine line between getting Williams to choose wisely and letting him use his basic instincts. Going all in on accuracy can mean better individual numbers but those better numbers can sometimes come at the cost of a better number in the win column.

Williams didn't get on the cover of Madden for throwing dump-offs to D'Andre Swift.

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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.

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