Caleb Williams isn’t at USC anymore: These two plays show realities of the NFL

Carmen Vitali

NFL Reporter

Caleb Williams isn’t at USC anymore.

The first–overall pick isn’t getting off to the start the Chicago Bears would have liked.

Williams isn’t getting off to the start he would like, either.

“Losing sucks,” he said after the Bears’ Week 2 loss to the Houston Texans.

The Bears are 1-1 through two games and have only scored one offensive touchdown. Chicago has just 449 yards of total offense on the season. With a new scheme, new weapons and new quarterback, things aren’t quite meshing right now in the early goings. Williams is responsible for… a lot in an offense that he clearly isn’t comfortable in yet. He’s thinking too much and isn’t playing his game.

Williams’ style of play in college was nothing short of superhuman at times. His scramble drills turned into touchdowns. Pressures and what looked like surefire sacks turned into Houdini-like escapes and 30-yard gains.

But as Williams is learning in real-time, those plays aren’t always going to work in the NFL.

He faced 36 pressures on Sunday night, which included one of the best pass-rushing tandems in the league coming after him in Danielle Hunter and Will Anderson. Williams was sacked seven times.

There were miscommunications all along the offensive line, but Williams was supposed to be able to get out of them. Just look at what he was able to do in college:

Now, Williams tries to do the same thing, but against the capabilities of NFL defenses… he’s swarmed. That clip results in a sack for Houston.

Another would-be escape later on in the game ended in worse: an interception.

On a scramble drill, receivers are taught to start running with/to the quarterback, which is exactly what tight end Cole Kmet does. He’s in position to catch the ball that’s thrown by Williams, but what Williams isn’t counting on is that defensive backs are taught to do the same thing as receivers and, well, they’re good at it as pros.

By the time the ball arrives, there are three Houston defenders in Kmet’s vicinity, one of which gets in front of him and picks off the ball. Williams might be able to keep his eyes up when he scrambles to look for receivers downfield but to be successful on such plays at the NFL level, he’s going to also have to be able to see which defenders have keyed in on his intentions.

It’s not an easy thing to do, to be sure. That’s why there’s only one Patrick Mahomes. It will also help to have more reps between Williams and his receivers. The more his receivers get to know him, the more they can anticipate those types of throws and where to be in position. More familiarity should also lessen the amount of scramble drills that are necessary as Williams gets more comfortable with his reads and options and nuances of each receiver’s skillset.

Williams’ play was a stark contrast to the totality of what we saw with the quarterback who was on the other side of the field in his rookie season last year. C.J. Stroud ended up leading his team to the playoffs in his first season. But it wasn’t all perfect. Stroud was able to put up yardage numbers early, but didn’t have the scoring production to match. Stroud also took 11 sacks in his first two games. But hindsight gives us the luxury of knowing everything worked out for Stroud. And make no mistake, Stroud is still the exception, not the rule.

Rookie quarterbacks need experience to play with the improvisation and anticipation Williams likes to do. Until that experience happens, it’s probably not going to look great but it’s all a part of the learning curve. Though it doesn’t seem like it, Williams did incrementally improve from Week 1 to Week 2. His time to throw went down. He led his first scoring drive. He got into triple-digit passing. As long as that continues, the Bears should be just fine.

Until then, how about that defense?

Carmen Vitali is an NFL Reporter for FOX Sports. Carmen had previous stops with The Draft Network and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. She spent six seasons with the Bucs, including 2020, which added the title of Super Bowl Champion (and boat-parade participant) to her résumé. You can follow Carmen on Twitter at @CarmieV.