Albert Breer on Caleb Williams Avoiding Major Injury, Daniels Sidelined and Chargers’ Desperation

Bad as it looked, this is actually a hamstring injury.

All right.

Welcome in to the Report for Monday, September 21st.

We are now 15 of 16 games into week two.

So we got the Rams and Giants tonight.

And unfortunately, a lot of the news that we're gonna get to today is bad news, and that starts in Chicago.

The tone and tenor in that city is much different than it was a week ago after the Bears scored 59 points against the Panthers in their opener.

Coming back in week two, they lose 9 to 3 to the Vikings.

Brian Flores gets the better of the showdown with Ben Johnson, the sort of matchup of gurus there, offense versus defense.

Um, Brian Flores and the Vikings' defense shines again.

Um, but the bigger piece of news, the higher impact news coming out of this one, of course, concerns Caleb Williams.

Uh, now, this doesn't take the Bears off the hook for what happened yesterday.

Caleb Williams did not get hurt until the second to last series.

Of the game.

So he played for 3.5 quarters and for 3.5 quarters, Brian Flores and the Vikings, in some inclement conditions were able to, to shut the Bears down.

But by now everybody's seen the, the, the, the shot of Caleb Williams pulling up and um hobbling off with what looked like a pretty serious injury.

Now, I think any of us in these spots when we see a non-contact injury.

The first thing we think of is, is that an Achilles, is that an ACL?

Well, in this case, it wasn't either.

Bad as it looked, and again, non-contact injury, he gets on the cart, he's got the towel over his head.

Bad as it looked, this is actually a hamstring injury.

And now the question is how serious a hamstring injury this is.

You would think because he was on the cart, he will miss some time.

And there are wide ranges of outcomes here.

So he has an MRI this morning.

The results of that MRI of course, is gonna guide how the Bears go forward with this.

As for where the team is coming out of this, just a, I would say, uh, uh, Not as bad as it could have been situation.

Of course, losing Caleb for the year would be worse than this is presuming this isn't the worst case of the hamstring.

There's a good chance he comes back in, in, in, in 2026 and maybe even for a lot of 2026.

Again, we'll see what the MRI shows.

Um, and then they do have Tyson Bagen, who they signed to a two-year, $10 million extension last year on their depth chart.

There's a reason why you keep a player like that around.

And now, the Bears have a viable answer.

They've got Case Keenum behind Tyson Beige.

They stocked that quarterback room.

And this is gonna be an interesting one because, you know, we've seen this with some of the best offensive coaches in football.

What happens when you don't have your quarterback anymore.

He, Ben Johnson, had mostly a healthy Jared Goff while he was in Detroit.

He's had a healthy Caleb Williams up till now in Chicago, so it'll be interesting to see what happens with Tyson Baj.

But again, We don't have the full breadth of the information there and we'll see, we'll see how serious the hamstring injury is uh for Caleb Williams.

All right, second topic, and sort of in the same sort of area, Jaden Daniels, um, winds up going down, dislocates his left elbow again against the Dallas Cowboys, The Commanders lose going away .

In Dallas, the Commanders are now 0-2.

Um, that game was actually a little more evenly played than the final score would indicate that Washington comes out of there with a double-digit loss.

And Marcus Mariota actually didn't play poorly in the second half.

He acquitted himself pretty well.

Um, but what does this mean for the commanders going forward now?

Well, um, for right now, the information that they have, and he's going through more tests today.

Um, we know that he didn't go to the hospital.

We know he traveled home with the team.

There's no fracture.

Again, it is a dislocation, um, to the, to the, to the elbow.

Um, last year when he dislocated his elbow, he missed 4 weeks and came back and played with a brace.

So, if he is gonna come back and play this year and it's not gonna be a surgical fix, surgical fix will put him out for the year, but if it's not gonna be a surgical fix, We're gonna be talking about him playing with the brace on the elbow for the rest of the year.

And if you look at the commander's schedule, you'll see this could have a very real effect on where their season goes.

They've got the Seahawks, uh, this coming week at home.

They got the Colts the week after that.

Colts look better on Sunday night against the Chiefs, then the Giants, then they go to San Francisco, then they got the Eagles, then they got the Rams.

And again, already sitting at 0 and 2, that becomes a difficult situation.

The hope would be that Jaden Daniels doesn't need surgery, but we already know he's got a dislocation.

We know how it hampered him last year.

He was out for the 4 weeks, he came back, they wound up shutting him down.

He was playing with the Braves.

All of these things are important pieces of information when we're assessing how this is gonna affect the rest of the Commander's season.

And the games I laid out for you that takes you right up to the trade deadline in November.

So it could even affect the way that they approach their roster.

We're talking about where they are in 2026 and then what they're looking at in 2027 and going forward.

So, not an ideal situation for the Commanders either.

Finally, the Chargers.

Wind up losing to the Raiders, 26 to 14, and that is coming off a loss by an identical score to the Cardinals.

The Chargers, the Chargers, again, have, have now lost to the teams that had the number 1 pick and the number 3 pick in last year's draft.

Not an ideal start for, for Jim Harbaugh in 2026 with two new coordinators.

And now you take a look at their schedule and where they're going from here.

They're at Buffalo next week, they're at Seattle the week after that, they got the Broncos after that, then they go to Arrowhead, then they have their bye, then they go to LA to play the Rams, or they're in LA to play the Rams.

Um, then they have the Texans coming to Soi, and then they go to Baltimore.

That takes you into mid-November.

Um, so this block coming up of 7 games when you're already 0 and 2 looks very, very difficult.

The division they're in, of course, is what it is.

So you have the Chiefs who are starting to look like themselves again.

You have a Broncos team that I think we all expect to be there in the end, and a Raiders team that actually looks feisty and already beat you.

Um, this is a hole that's gonna be difficult for them to dig themselves out from under.

And the things that really stick out, again, I don't think the defense has been awful through two weeks, but offensively, the run game doesn't look like it , it, it like, like, like it is what it needs to be.

And Mike McDaniel has always been able to build really innovative, really productive run games.

We haven't seen that so far.

And that's the effect of the way that Justin.

Herbert has played, he's taken sacks, he's turned the ball over, he doesn't look comfortable.

So, one way or the other, they're gonna need to find answers and find them fast before they go across country to play the Bills this Sunday.

Um, a really, really tough start.

And then on the uh on the other side of that, the Las Vegas Raiders, Clint Kubiak, I think you see an identity and what they're trying to do.

I really like where they're at.

Um, you know, Kirk Cousins played really well this week and they were able to win.

Um, based on what they were able to do in the pass game, which I don't think any of us saw coming, when you're talking about Brock Bowers being out, what they've got in that receiver room, they got a big game from Trey Tucker.

Jack Besh was a, was a factor yesterday.

So you see Clint Kubiak developing talent, and that was a week after they won with their running game in week one.

So they're winning different ways.

Uh, they're developing young talent on the roster.

Again, like this doesn't mean that the Raiders are suddenly a playoff contender.

I'd be stunned if they wound up in the playoffs.

That said, I, I , I would look at this and say you should be optimistic about the way young talents coming along.

You should be optimistic about the way these games are being managed and coached.

And you should be optimistic about what this means for, again, those young guys in the roster and maybe in particular down the line, Fernando Mendoza, whenever he winds up getting in there .

But Kirk Cousins did an awfully good job on Sunday.

And so that might not be something you have to worry about for at least a little while.

Appreciate you guys coming out.

As always, you can leave your comments, your questions down below here on the YouTube page.

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We got a couple more beer reports coming for you this week.

Starting with a mailbag edition in a couple of days, we'll see you guys then.