Bear Digest

Bears realizing the fruits of patient labor with Caleb Williams

Analysis: Bears offensive coordinator Declan Doyle points to obvious progress made despite constant criticism from outside Halas Hall seeking instant proof of development.
Gene Chamberlain|
Caleb Williams looks downfield for a target in Sunday's win over the Giants.
Caleb Williams looks downfield for a target in Sunday's win over the Giants. | David Banks-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

The thinking of Bears coaches all along in terms of Caleb Williams' development has remained steadfast.

It's the voices of fans, the media, social media and the fantasy football mob who have spent 26 games making rushed judgments and wild statements about Williams' future success or failure based on small sample sizes or even a few plays.

This is nothing new in the NFL, but is a detriment to a QB's development. Maybe Mitchell Trubisky had the right idea when he wanted the Halas Hall TVs all turned off?

Bears offensive coordinator Declan Doyle expressed the idea that outside pressures  are one of the big dangers in developing Williams, just as with all NFL quarterbacks. His ability to lead late comebacks is the latest sign it's all working despite the constant scrutiny.

“I think it's how most of the world works, is a lot of people want instant gratification for anything that they're doing," Doyle said. "That really speaks to any profession, any job, anything worth doing. You have to go through a growth process in order to get to where we want to go.

"We've taken that really from the very beginning and preaching to Caleb, 'it's a  growth mindset.' It's every single day we have to show up and do the work to be able to get better."

The calls have been there throughout, yet Williams displays his (Southern) California cool in leading rallies with his legs and arm.

Doyle said the push for Williams to be instantly atop statistical quarterback charts is not a monopoly enjoyed by Chicago. He saw it last year with Bo Nix in Denver.

"Obviously, these young guys have to deal with a lot of outside noise," Doyle said. "So that can be challenging. But, just speaking to Caleb, I think he's done a great job of staying tunnel vision and understanding that this is a long process.

"Every day we're just working to get a little bit better.”

The Bears coaches continue playing the long game with Williams and they're seeing results, even if he struggles to hit the 70% completion goal Ben Johnson put forth. In fact, right now he's struggling to reach last year's sub-par completion percentage of 62.5% as he has completed just 60.8% (178 of 293), even though his passer rating is higher (92.2) by 4.4 points and his yards per attempt is 7.3, a full yard higher than last year.

The criticism from the mouths that roar on social media and elsewhere gets monitored.

“I think it is something that you're constantly talking through," Doyle said. "It's something that you constantly have to monitor, especially with how much outside noise there is in a positive or a negative way. We go out and play well, they're going to hear a lot of praise that, sometimes it's deserving and sometimes it's not, but it really doesn't matter.

"You have to go do it again. That's the main thing is just making sure that there's constant communication and a vision of ‘you're driving this car, but you don't want to be looking out the window.’ You want to be looking in the windshield at the road in front of you. Otherwise, you're going to end up swerving off and being off track."

Getting Williams on the right path is a step-by-step process and they're seeing the fruits of their labor despite the critical barrage. This week's opponent, the Vikings, are seeing this type of rushed judgment with their own QB, J.J. McCarthy after only four career starts.

"Biggest thing is, ‘what can we control right now?' " Doyle said. "What's right in front of me that I can go try to be the best in the world at?’

"And then, we'll worry about the next thing later.”

The step-by-step process continues and they'll stick to their plan knowing they've got it right, even if analysts, social media and the football world in general makes instant judgments on Williams' career on a game-by-game basis.

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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.