When the Chicago Bears drafted Caleb Williams No. 1 overall last April, many in the franchise and fanbase believed they had found their savior, and that Chicago would soon be in contention as a winning football team. Despite being considered the consensus top pick and a generational-type talent, Williams did not burst onto the scene as expected during his rookie season.
Instead, Williams's rookie year was marred by an offensive coordinator firing, head coach firing and a 5–12 finish for the Bears, largely due to a 10-game losing streak over their final 11 games of the season. Williams managed to show flashes of his other-worldly abilities through this period, but he also was inconsistent and could not help the Bears overcome their woes.
Bears general manager Ryan Poles candidly spoke on what went wrong for Williams during his rookie season, starting with Williams lacking the strong foundation he had in college under Lincoln Riley.
"I think he's 37 starts in his [college] career, one offense, one coach," Poles said, via ESPN Chicago. "This game, the playbook, is a completely different animal. The responsibility of a quarterback in the pros is different. That takes a lot of adjusting to. How you set up the foundation is really, really important. I really think at some point there were some steps skipped to get him to game day."
Poles not only admitted that there were "steps skipped" in Williams's preparation, but that he did not master the fundamentals needed to operate at the level of an NFL starting quarterback. Poles believes new head coach Ben Johnson will change that.
"I know Ben's going to do it, go back and reestablish that foundation so that he can be a true professional and operate like he should at the level," Poles said. "How you work protections, move the line, how you set up the run game, how you go through your reads, how you work your feet, all of those. There's a lot of those fundamentals and basics that need to be mastered first before you move on to the next thing. I've got a lot of faith that we're going to be able to get that done."
Though it's no surprise that a rookie needed time to adjust to the NFL, it is surprising to hear a general manager admit their team skipped steps when that rookie had yet to even master fundamentals.
While Johnson was expected to improve Williams and the Bears offense schematically and add innovation to the unit, he will have to go back to the basics with Williams as well.
Compared to the two most successful rookie quarterbacks of his class—the Washington Commanders' Jayden Daniels and Denver Broncos' Bo Nix, who both have strong head coaches in Dan Quinn and Sean Payton, respectively—it's clear that the Bears significantly mismanaged Williams as a rookie and did not have the right leadership around him. The Bears will hope they successfully correct course with the Johnson hiring.
