When it comes to Caleb Williams, of course it’s all over the top. What is? Everything is.
Of course, the hype machine is out of control, a juggernauting, laser-trained spotlight based off overblown principles, given that we are talking about one player, on one (not particularly good) team. And one situation, where the player in question has not played a single pro regular season snap.
Of course, the level of attention is out of balance and beyond all sense of kilter, the reactions screeching and frenzied, the forecasts breathless, the expectations unrealistic, the sense of reason totally forgotten.
But that’s all part of the fun, isn’t it?
ADVERTISEMENT
Williams’ debut season isn’t a time for reasoned analysis, measured thinking, low-balled prognostics, reality-check reminders, or any of that kind of boring stuff, because where is the joy in that?
The USC product has everyone all a fluster because he is a singular talent who seems capable of doing special things at the highest level of all. That’s why the Bears didn’t hesitate for a moment before jettisoning Justin Fields and plumping down their No. 1 selection, tying their future to Williams’ Heisman-winning coattails.
Nothing gets football fandom hyperventilating quite like elite quarterbacking potential, that scarcest and most valuable of all gridiron commodities.
Williams’ best-case scenario has no limit, the upside essentially being a re-imagining of the franchise’s tortured recent history, making this among the juiciest plotlines of the upcoming NFL season, and certainly the freshest.
Ramping it all up further is the timing and logistics; caused by the annual starvation period known as the NFL offseason. America is a nation of football addicts, yet spends two-thirds of the year in a state of being perpetually denied its fix.
If you’ll permit, let’s get real for just a moment. Remember please, that Andrew Luck, the target of impossible over-hype circa 2012, had a bruising rookie season.
So did Trevor Lawrence, top pick in 2021. Peyton Manning, don’t forget, went 3-13 in his first year. Bryce Young went 2-15 and still hasn’t won a road game.
Nick Wright predicts the Bears to win the NFC North
Any significant improvement on those kind of examples, truthfully, would be a win of sorts. Chicago fans are lusting after a postseason appearance — a Justin Herbert-style rookie campaign (31 TDs, 10 INTs) might get them there. A C.J. Stroud 2023 replica? Champagne corks, please.
It is easy to forget as the Williams glorification train rumbles on, sparked by preseason cameo sparkle, but rookie QBs are almost magnetized to varying degrees of woeful struggle.
There is a good reason for that — they don’t know what they’re doing. They can’t know, because they’ve never done it and there is no good way of replicating it. They’re clueless newborns floundering around, and it’s all about how quickly they can learn and adapt in a brutal, ruthless environment where everything is dialed up to warp speed.
Some can. Most don’t. And when they don’t, the world moves on rapidly, all that hopefulness and all those predictions immediately forgotten, and never learned from.
What Williams really has in advance of the Bears’ Week 1 clash with the Tennessee Titans (1 p.m. ET on FOX), is the appearance, due to his ferocious arm and balletic feet, of a better chance than most.
There is receiving help in the form of DJ Moore, No. 9 pick Rome Odunze, trade acquisition Keenan Allen and free agent pickup D’Andre Swift. There is a more than serviceable offensive line and quite a nice little set up, potentially. And, absolutely no guarantees at all.
But who wants to be real? This is part of why the Williams phenomenon, is, well, a phenomenon. It is because of the possibilities of extreme grandeur, a new lease on life for the Bears and dreams of future playoff runs, not the probability that it will be something less, maybe far less, than that.
It is because what should be a statement of utter absurdity, that a player yet to take the field in a meaningful game could be the franchise’s best QB ever — already — might actually be true.
The Bears’ perennial misery is the true telling factor because the drama of any movie script correlates directly with the size of the task that must be overcome. Making the Bears good, or even decent, has been beyond names we remember and so many we’ve forgotten.
“He is already the best quarterback in Bears franchise history, and I am aware that he has played zero NFL games,” FS1’s Danny Parkins said, on “Breakfast Ball.” “This is the only franchise with no 4,000-yard passer, the only franchise with no 30-touchdown passer.
What would a successful season be for Caleb Williams?
“In order for my statement to be correct, we just all have to say, is he better than Eric Kramer? Is he better than Jay Cutler. If the answer is yes, he is the best QB in franchise history.”
Parkins comments came with a dose of tongue-in-cheek, but there’s actually no need to pour cold water on this thing until, you know, there’s actually a need to.
If we’re looking for some common sense, let’s look to Williams himself, who is making all the right noises about putting in the work and controlling the controllables and all that good, QB-centric stuff.
For everyone else, it is time to buckle up and enjoy the show. Fans didn’t become fans to be dispassionate analysts of the sport.
We get excited because, like so much in life, the energy that comes from the wondering, and anticipation has the power to get us going even more than what actually transpires.
Williams — and what happens with him and the Bears — is the gift of the 2024 campaign, and let’s hope it keeps on giving.
Word of warning: Rookies stink it up, not just often, but usually.
But he hasn’t yet, and there lurks the chance that he might not, which is where the delicious part comes in.
And why, if there is ever a time to go over the top and embrace the hype, it is right now.
Martin Rogers is a columnist for FOX Sports. Follow him on Twitter @MRogersFOX.
recommended
Get more from National Football League Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more
