Bear Digest

Caleb Williams critic takes hindsight to new level of irrelevance

Analysis: Whether Caleb Williams was being "entitled" by not wanting to come to Chicago is a viewpoint rendered entirely irrelevant by 15 months of history.
Gene Chamberlain|
Finding fault now with Caleb Williams' reluctance to come to Chicago after he already willingly came and played is hindsight to the upteenth degree.
Finding fault now with Caleb Williams' reluctance to come to Chicago after he already willingly came and played is hindsight to the upteenth degree. | Daniel Bartel-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

It's extremely easy to criticize what happened in the past when you're way into the future.

They call this hindsight. Hindsight is an understanding of a situation or event only after it has happened or developed.

The worst hindsight is criticizing something that has since been rendered irrelevant. It makes the critic irrelevant, like one critic of Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams seems to be.

Former NFL quarterback Boomer Esiason, he of 57% career completion percentage, 81.1 passer rating and 80-93 win-loss record, blasted Williams for not wanting to come to Chicago, according to comments in a book by Seth Wickersham. 

The former Bengals QB turned proadcaster (broadcaster and podcaster) concluded his tirade with this for Williams: "Keep your pie-hole shut, and go out and play football and earn your keep and earn your respect."

It's funny, but it seems like he did that 14 months ago. I don't recall anything detrimental coming from Williams' 'pie-hole' recently in this regard.

Esiason's shots are fired based on a book about something that sounded like parental interference more than anything else, and it's something that happened 14 or more months ago. It has become entirely irrelevant because Williams was drafted by the Bears and ultimately said he wanted to come here.

It's as if Esiason did not bother reading the story about this book or skipped this one line in it:

"I can do it for this team. I'm going to go to the Bears."

That's what Williams was reported to have told his father about coming to Chicago. That doesn't sound like entitlement. If you were going to criticize Williams, it should have happened then because there were plenty of reports out at the time about how their reluctance to come to Chicago, just not as detailed as the book's.

Then came the draft and then came a first Bears season when he had the best touchdown-to-interception ratio (20 to 6) of any QB drafted first overall since the AFL-NFL merger, did it behind an offensive line that got him sacked 68 times, and while playing for an offense ranked last in the NFL.

That's pretty efficient quarterbacking for a team so bad at moving a football and scoring points. They were better than only four other teams at getting points on the board. Oh by the way, they supported the rookie QB with a running game ranked 28th.

The revelation in the book that they didn't give Williams assistance with reviewing film, whether exaggerated or not, must be presumed to have at least a shred of truth to it if it isn't entirely true.

It may also be that the message was misinterpreted or someone exaggerated a comment Williams made about it, but it should surprise no one if this is entirely true because we've already seen the lack of common sense at work with that Bears coaching staff. Thanksgiving Day last year, the end of the Hail Mary game, and the end of three or four other games the past three years showed as much.

Definitely that staff was capable of assuming Williams knew more about reviewing film on his own at a pro level than he did.

Instead of condemning Williams for his attitude of 14 months ago or more—if it really was his attitude or not—maybe Esiason should be pinning a badge of courage on the Bears QB for surviving a rookie year when he hung in and took punishment but did his job well enough to go 20 TDs and only six interceptions. He set an NFL record for consecutive rookie passes without an interception for coordinators and a head coach so inept that you have to wonder how GM Ryan Poles ever signed off on bringing that entire operation back for 2024, unless ordered to by George McCaskey.

Nowhere is there a more clear reference of Esiason looking at ancient history and failing to understand things have already changed than when he made this comment:

"And you know, I understand that there could be a discussion that ;hey this is 'where quarterbacks go to die.' Well you know, go fix it. Be the reason that the team is going to turn it around and be the player that you think you are."

Williams already did this, or has been trying. It was called the 2024 season. Read about it. Get with it and comment about things of relevance.

The stuff in the book, which doesn't come out until September, actually all occurred before Williams decided he'd be glad to go to Chicago around the time of the combine and his pro day, 2024.

The only relevant part of Esiason's commentary is when he says:

"So you know what? Now it’s on his ass. It’s going to be on his ass to live up to these so-called lofty expectations that he has for himself and that his father has for his son."

It is going to be on Williams now. Just as it's on every other player in the draft every year and every play of every game. That never changes.

That's not much of a take on the situation, but at least it's talking about the future and not something entirely irrelevant now like a lecture about entitlement for not wanting to come to Chicago 15 months after Williams willingly came here and competed hard.

QBs Chosen First Overall
Best TD/Interception Ratio

(Since AFL-NFL merger)

Caleb Williams, Bears, 2024, 20 TDs, 6 INTs

Baker Mayfield, Browns, 2018, 27 TDs, 14 INTs

Kyler Murray, Cardinals, 2019, 20 TDs, 12 INTs

Joe Burrow, Bengals, 2020, 13 TDs, 5 INTs

Jameis Winston, Buccaneers, 2015, 22 TDs, 15 INTs

Andrew Luck, Colts, 2012, 23 TDs, 18 INTs

Cam Newton, Panthers, 2011, 21 TDs, 17 INTs

Jim Plunkett, Patriots, 1971, 19 TDs, 16 INTs

Sam Bradford, Rams, 2010, 18 TDs, 15 INTs

Jeff George, Colts, ,1990, 16 TDs, 13 INTs

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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.