FOX broadcaster Mark Schlereth, a former two-time Pro Bowl offensive lineman, ripped Bears quarterback Caleb Williams as “not a good quarterback” even as the team has celebrated his trajectory and his popularity is at an all-time high.
Schlereth’s criticism, which Williams saw on X and reposted, was that even though he’s a “dynamic athlete,” he doesn’t do the basics well.
“He makes big-time plays, but is he a good quarterback? No, he’s not a good quarterback because he doesn’t play on schedule,” Schlereth said on his podcast. “Watch how many times they get [late in games] and they’re down 21-7. Then he holds the ball, scrambles around, makes three big throws and all of a sudden they win 24-21.
“That’s not playing quarterback at an efficient level. That’s being a dynamic playmaker. So at this point, Caleb Williams isn’t a good quarterback.”
It was a harsher, more extreme version of something Bears coaches have been saying anyway: Williams needs to be a more accurate passer, be a little more clockwork and raise his completion percentage.
While he set the franchise record in passing yards and helped the Bears to their best season in 15 years, pulling off seven fourth-quarter comebacks along the way, he was last among qualifying quarterbacks in completion percentage at 58.1 Coach Ben Johnson has set the bar at 70%.
“We don’t have to work as hard for our money,” Barrett said in May. “There’s times where we could just work through our progression and get the ball out on time instead of having to create and extend plays.”
Barrett added, “You don’t necessarily have to put the cape on and make those crazy plays because you already were killing them in the first three quarters.”