How Bears QB Caleb Williams has ‘learned and caught up to speed in the NFL’

Ben Arthur

NFL Reporter

Editor’s note: This is the fifth installment of a season-long series on a breakout star from the past week of NFL action. The Week 5 winner: Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams

Winds played a factor in Sunday’s game between the Bears and Panthers in Chicago. They were so strong that Caleb Williams described them as “weird.”

Welcome to the Windy City.

During TV timeouts, the Bears quarterback would spray a water bottle to figure out how aggressive they were and what direction they were blowing, so he could adjust accordingly.

The wind impacted his first throw of the game — a target to Keenan Allen, who ran a speed out. A gust blew the ball behind the veteran receiver, resulting in a near interception.

“I don’t think I’ve had too many issues of dealing with that,” Williams said postgame, “but it was definitely a factor of understanding the wind and things like that.”

The No. 1 overall pick embraced it, though — and turned in the best and most efficient performance of his career to this point.

Williams completed 68.9% of his passes for 304 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions and a 126.2 passer rating in the Bears’ 36-10 rout of the Panthers. He became the first Bears rookie to have at least 300 passing yards, two passing touchdowns and no picks in a game, according to NFL research.

Chicago (3-2) had more than 400 yards of offense for the first time this season.

“We need to keep building, keep going,” Williams said. “Definitely not settled on this.”

But the performance was the latest testament to his rapid improvement.

Over the first 10 quarters of the season, the former Heisman Trophy winner completed just 57% of his throws for 5.2 yards per attempt, an 0-3 passing touchdowns to interception ratio and a 57.6 passer rating. But over the past 10 quarters, he’s up to a 70.1% completion rate, 7.9 yards per attempt, a 5-1 passing touchdowns to interception ratio and a 109.8 passer rating, according to Next Gen Stats.

Williams’ growth is also evident against the blitz.

Over the first three weeks, he completed just 41.9% of his passes for 99 yards, a touchdown, an interception and three “turnover-worthy” plays (a high chance of an interception or lost fumble) against the blitz, according to Pro Football Focus. But in the past two games, the ex-USC star has completed 89.4% of his passes for 189 yards and two touchdowns with no giveaways or turnover-worthy plays vs. the blitz.

“With Caleb growing and the pains that he went through already, you can see that he’s already learned and caught up to speed in the NFL,” receiver DJ Moore said.

Why Williams was successful in Week 5

His growing connection with Moore, for one.

The tandem connected for a pair of explosive pass plays — touchdowns of 30 and 34 yards in the first half. Entering Sunday, Williams had just one touchdown pass of eight yards to Moore, and the deep-passing game had generally been a slog.

In the first four games, Williams went 3-of-22 (13.6%) for 118 yards and three interceptions on passes that traveled at least 20 air yards, per PFF. But on Sunday, he went 3-of-4 (75%) for 89 yards and the two scores with no picks on deep shots.

“We always tell guys, you’ll see it on the practice field before you see it in the game, and we have seen those. And [Williams and Moore] have made some good connections over the last couple weeks and we were just waiting for it,” coach Matt Eberflus said. “Got the coverage we wanted and it worked out.”

Has Caleb Williams arrived?

What also seemed to help Williams was speeding up the game.

The Bears went no-huddle on 36.2% of plays against the Panthers, their highest rate in a game this season, according to Next Gen Stats.

The No. 1 pick has been most efficient in no-huddle, where he’s registered two touchdown passes against an interception for an 86.4 passer rating. He has three touchdowns and three picks with a 79.9 passer rating in huddle situations.

“I think the greatest benefit is you control the pace,” Eberflus said of going no-huddle. “You could get on the ball and snap it right away, you can get on the ball and look and see what the defense has given you in terms of the looks. You have time to change your call if you’d like to, so there’s a lot of benefit to it.

“He’s very comfortable [going no-huddle] because that’s what he did a lot in college,” Eberflus said of Williams, “and he’ll tell you that, too.”

Ben Arthur is an NFL reporter for FOX Sports. He previously worked for The Tennessean/USA TODAY Network, where he was the Titans beat writer for a year and a half. He covered the Seattle Seahawks for SeattlePI.com for three seasons (2018-20) prior to moving to Tennessee. You can follow Ben on Twitter at @benyarthur.

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