Amon-Ra St. Brown defends Caleb Williams against ridiculous criticism

As the No. 1 overall pick from his draft class, quarterback Caleb Williams has been a polarizing player in the NFL, especially since he was drafted to the Chicago Bears, a team infamous for destroying the careers of promising young quarterbacks. An up-and-down rookie season in tandem with the No. 2 overall pick from his class winning Offensive Rookie of the Year did Williams no favors as the floodgates of criticism were flung open.

Some of the criticism is legitimate. Williams has to get better at sack avoidance. He must learn when he can play hero ball and when it's better to throw the ball away. His accuracy on deep passes can't continue to be so poor. However, the aspersions cast at Williams in recent months crossed over into the absurd, like when one Williams critic felt that the length of his socks would be a problem or that head coach Ben Johnson was hiding Caleb Williams during the preseason.

A surefire sign that the Caleb Williams hate has gone off the rails, however, is when a division rival goes on the record in support of him. Amon-Ra St. Brown, the Detroit Lions receiver, hosts a podcast with his brother and on Wednesday morning they invited Bears receiver Rome Odunze onto the show.

At one point, they spoke about how Williams is talked about online by fans and analysts and Amon-Ra was livid about the way Williams is disrespected (warning: the clip contains NSFW language).

St. Brown noted that the perception of Williams among some fans and analysts is as if he "can't do [anything] right", saying he feels bad for his division rival. "Like there's one dude in the NFL," St. Brown went on to say, inferring that there's plenty of other players to talk about but that the media and the fans fixate on one.

Odunze agreed and added that whether the complaints about Williams are football related or not, it all seems to be false. He referenced his recent media appearance in which he was asked about the narratives around Caleb Williams, to which he replied, "You tell me. Y'all are the ones out there creating the stories."

Mercifully for Bears fans, the regular season is finally upon us and the Bears will play football again on Monday night against the Minnesota Vikings. All of the offseason drama and narratives will go away in an instant if Williams can step up to the plate and proves that he's a franchise quarterback.

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