It’s wild to think the Bears are on a three-game winning streak, have a 4-2 record and are tied for last place in the NFC North.
Don’t worry, it’ll change.
The 5-0 Vikings play the 4-1 Lions on Sunday. And the red-hot Texans play the 4-2 Packers, who are tied for last with the Bears in the division.
Meanwhile, the Bears — who are on a bye — can revel in the possibility they might have an actual, honest-to-God star quarterback at the helm.
Caleb Williams, 22, the first pick in the draft in April, might be that guy. The Bears have been seeking someone like him for three-quarters of a century. They’ve been looking for a man in the image of Sid Luckman, the only Bears quarterback elected to the Hall of Fame. (Purists will point out George Blanda is also in the Hall of Fame. But in his 10 seasons with the Bears, he started only 23 games. His fame was playing until he was 48. And, yes, Bobby Layne also is in the Hall of Fame. But he played only one season for the Bears.)
Luckman played from 1939 to 1950. If you remember him on the field, you’ll remember World War II and the invention of Velcro, too. But you also will remember Rudy Bukich, Gary Huff, Craig Krenzel, Rusty Lisch, Moses Moreno, Cade McNown, Kyle Orton, Caleb Hanie and other quarterback hopefuls as they marched down the Bears’ runway to failure.
Williams could be, might be — dare we hope — the answer to this quarterback question that has dogged the Bears like an itch that can’t be scratched.
On Sunday in London, he completed 23 of 29 passes for 226 yards and four touchdowns in a 35-16 beatdown of the Jaguars. His 124.4 passer rating was excellent. In his last two games, he has thrown for 530 yards and six touchdowns. Again, excellent.
For now, we won’t worry that he has looked good mostly against the Colts, Rams, Panthers and Jaguars, teams with a combined 6-17 record. Williams seems to be figuring out the pro game in general, seeing the big picture. It could be he has had that ‘‘aha’’ moment that enlightens the pursuit of any difficult chore, from complicated math to the piano keyboard.
‘‘Everybody else is great,’’ Williams said after the victory Sunday, then added: ‘‘Us believing in each other is what you credit it to.’’
Translated, that means the offense is making sense to him and the team understands its new leader.
In a basic numbers sense, Williams could launch the Bears into a new realm. The franchise record-holder for passing yardage and passing touchdowns in a season is Erik Kramer, who will turn 60 next month. Kramer set those records — 3,838 yards, 29 touchdown passes — in 1995. He, more than anyone, is amazed the records haven’t been shattered.
‘‘It really is hard to believe,’’ he said recently.
After six games, Williams has 1,317 passing yards and nine passing touchdowns. Projected for 17 games, that puts him on a tantalizing path of 3,732 yards and 26 touchdowns. It would be a pity to come up 106 yards and three touchdowns short of tying Kramer’s records. Or 107 yards and four touchdowns shy of breaking them.
But considering that Williams threw for only 93 and 174 yards in his first two games and for 363 and 304 in two of his last four, you know the arc is pointing up. All nine of his touchdown passes came in those last four games. At that rate, he’d finish with 38 passing touchdowns.
To see Williams join the ranks of elite young quarterbacks would be to see the Bears as a franchise change their essence. Gone would be the endless bruises of the old ‘‘black and blue’’ primal grunt work.
Onstage would come exciting play-calling, receiving and scoring. It might happen. There’s no reason, for instance, that tight end Cole Kmet can’t be as great as the Travis Kelces and George Kittles of the league. It just takes a great quarterback.
There are lots of star quarterbacks out there. The Texans’ C.J. Stroud is a young one. Older boys shine on, too. How about the Lions’ Jared Goff going 18-for-18 against the Seahawks and 18-for-25 against the Cowboys, totaling 607 yards, five touchdowns and passer ratings above 150?
Imagine the Bears as an exciting entertainment vehicle with Williams leading the way.
Just like other great teams. Wow.