Bear Digest

Should Bears Sit Caleb Williams for Their Season Finale?


Analysis: While beating the Packers is always important, there are some reasons why it might not be a good idea to let the Bears starting QB play again this year.
Gene Chamberlain|
The ability to keep Caleb Williams properly protected is one factor the Bears must consider in deciding whether he sits or starts.
The ability to keep Caleb Williams properly protected is one factor the Bears must consider in deciding whether he sits or starts. | Talia Sprague-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

The Bears are looking at a difficult decision heading into their mini-bye week.

Actually, it would probably be more of a decision GM Ryan Poles is going to need to make, either with or without consultation with interim coach Thomas Brown.

He might even ask Caleb Williams about it.

That is, will they use Williams in the regular-season finale against the Green Bay Packers.

There are simple considerations to take into account when they decide this.

Williams hardly sounded like someone who would be sitting out the finale after the loss ended Thursday.


“Frustrating, annoyed, but learning, I would say," Williams said, summing up his state of mind. "I definitely think that this is going to be good for me. Excited about this last game and then excited about the future.”

The problem is it all becomes a difficult decision when everything is taken into account. It's not as clear cut as you might think.

Here's what the Bears need to ponder when they whether Williams get to play.

1. The Reps

Williams has played 16 games with 3,393 yards passing, 19 touchdowns and six interceptions. No one really cares what place in Bears history he achieves by adding to those numbers because it's the future that matters and not the past.

However, something does matter for his future and that's the game reps.

Williams' 330 completions in 533 attempts shows at 61.9% completions and that's very mediocre by modern NFL standards. His downfield accuracy hasn't been good all year.

"Some of it comes to the fundamentals and footwork and stuff like that," interim coach Thomas Brown said about Williams' inaccuracy.

And then he used the magic word.

"I think some of it also comes from the amount of reps that a rookie player overall, just a rookie player gets, and finding that feel throughout the games and throughout practices of the plays and things like that," Brown said. "When you're getting live bullets, you're not thinking so much about those small things, you're thinking about a lot bigger things like pressures or coverages or the play and the routes and stuff like that. I think it just comes down to the reps and footwork and fundamentals and just being in rhythm."

This is huge. He might have 16 games and 533 attempts but he can always use more because that desired accuracy just hasn't been there from him. Getting more at easy throwing within the pocket can benefit Williams.

When Williams comes back in the offseason for OTAs and minicamps, provided the players union hasn't had them banned, his passes won't be against live competition. He won't get the benefit of that again until next preseason.

Reps are king if you want to develop as a starter, particularly at QB.

2. Health

After the game, Williams voiced some concern about all the hits he has taken the past three or four games.

"I think anytime you take multiple hits throughout a season or throughout a game, I mean they add up, obviously," Williams said. "Just as anybody, if you get hit more often, more often than not, you start to feel those a little bit more."

He's been sacked a team record and team individual record 67 times already. Is it really wise to subject him to more of abuse and risk injury.

When a player suffers a serious injury at season's end, it can carry over through the offseason and affect his availability both for offseason work and training camp. That work is critical even if he isn't facing live pass rush fire because it builds timing with receivers.

So, being at camp and available for offseason work will be huge for improvement next year leading up to training camp and the regular season.

It's also going to be offseason work with a new coaching staff and a new offense, unless the Bear like the work they are seeing from their current 0-4 coaching staff.

So, with new coaches and a scheme, it's imperative Williams is available and healthy for the offseason work.

3. Surrounding Cast

A huge factor is who is left playing alongside and in front of Williams.

His receiver group and backfield is intact and uninjured, barring something unreported by the team from Thursday night's game.

The big question is the offensive line with Teven Jenkins and Braxton Jones out injured. Jones is now on IR and Jenkins has a calf injury. His status as a free agent after this season and he injury might cause the team to keep Jake Curhan in the starting lineup.

Curhan's holding penalty wiped out what might have been Williams' best touchdown pass of the season, thrown to Rome Odunze while crossing the field to his left and under pressure.    

If the Bears can't keep Williams protected, then he shouldn't be playing as he's the key to their future. It's really the only reason to keep him sidelined.

4. Precedent

There is no precedent for players in Williams' situation being held out of meaningless finales. Justin Fields missed the last game of his rookie season but was injured. He also missed the last game of the 2022 season but the team reported he had a hip injury. Fields wasn't even coming back in 2024 and the Bears used him in the 2023 finale.

Go back and there's no recent history of first overall picks being held out of the last game in their rookie season.

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Joe Burrow missed his because he was already injured and had surgery. Bryce Young played, Kyler Murray played, Trevor Lawrence played. Baker Mayfield was in the exact same situation Williams is in now. In his rookie year, the Browns fired Hue Jackson during the season and finished with Gregg Williams as interim coach before they hired Freddie Kitchens to coach the next horrendous season. The Bears can only hope their next hiring doesn't take that same path. Anyway, Mayfield played the last game of his rookie year with a new coach coming in and he played the next year's finale when Kitchens was obviously going to be fired and they eventually hired Greg Stefanski.

5. Rivalry

It's the Packers.

So they're not going to let Williams face the team's biggest rival, a team they completely outplayed until the final blocked kick in the first meeting?

Not a chance. For some of the Bears, it's the only reason they had left to play other than the paycheck.

There’s no one left on the team who has beaten the Packers in a Bears uniform except long snapper Patrick Scales, and he’s been on IR all year.

6. Pride

Williams isn't going to want to finish his last season as a healthy scratch. No player would want it on their record.

Twitter: BearsOnSI

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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.