Caleb Williams has thrown 255 passes without being intercepted, the longest streak ever by a rookie quarterback.
It’s not a streak worth preserving.
Not when the Bears average 288.5 yards per game, the fewest in the NFL. They also average 182.7 passing yards per game, the third-fewest in the league.
Not when the team is on a seven-game losing streak that has claimed Williams’ head coach, offensive coordinator and whatever sense of joy the Bears’ go-for-it season was supposed to provide.
And not when Williams ranks 32nd out of 41 qualifying quarterbacks in aggressiveness percentage, which NFL Next Gen Stats uses to measures how often a quarterback throws into tight coverage. Williams throws into tight coverage — defined as defenders being within one yard of receivers when the ball arrives — just 12.2 percent of the time.
He doesn’t throw the ball downfield often, either. His 4.9 completed air yards, which measures the length of the throw on completions, is 31st in the league.
Williams going two months without throwing an interception isn’t a feature of the Bears offense, then. It’s a bug.
This is the time for Williams to take risks and push the ball downfield. The Bears’ season is over — they figure to be eliminated from the playoffs this week — and the only thing remaining that matters is Williams’ development. If Williams gambles down the field and a safety jumps in front of a deep ball, so what?
“I’m not one that, I tend to throw interceptions,” Williams said this week. “I know in the beginning of the season I threw a couple early on, a couple stupid ones. I think protecting the ball is the most important thing.”
Williams has thrown five interceptions — none since Oct. 13 in London — and has fumbled the ball away three times, including Sunday in San Francisco when he tried to stop his throwing motion. The streak is commendable, but means little on a team that will spend the final four weeks thinking more about next season than this year. Williams will be better in 2025 if he spends the rest of this season figuring out what he can — and can’t — do.
“I touch the ball the most on the football team, so being able to protect in those ways helps us win games … I’m going to try and do that and keep doing that for the next four games,” he said.
Chris Beatty, who is Williams’ third different offensive coordinator this season, said coaches never talk to Williams about avoiding interceptions.
“It’s all about being calculated and, ‘Hey, we see a certain matchup that we like, let’s try to take advantage of it,'” he said. “There’s some things that we want to try to do a little bit more of. And then there’s some things that we might be missing because we’re seeing them for the first time in a game or full speed. So those are things we’re trying to get better at. ….
“I don’t think it’s a lack of aggressiveness as much as, [Williams] has got to be calculated when he wants to do those things and then understand there are times to do it: ‘You know, we’re 1-on-1, we need to take some shots.’”
Receiver DJ Moore said he didn’t want Williams trying to force things, though.
“If he doesn’t have interceptions, we’re doing something right,” Moore said. “I don’t want him to start having interceptions. He’s doing what he’s doing at a high level.”
Williams hasn’t been effective when he’s taken deep shots, though. Only four teams have fewer explosive passing plays — going for 20 yards or more — than the Bears. The team’s longest play this season has gone for 47 yards; only two other teams claim a shorter longest play.
There are 41 quarterbacks who have tried at least 14 passes of at least 20 yards. Williams’ Pro Football Focus score ranks 40th, ahead of only the Jaguars’ Mac Jones.
Then there are the plays in which Williams doesn’t have enough time to look deep. He’s already the most-sacked quarterback in Bears history and is on pace to finish in the top three in NFL history.
The same Vikings the Bears play Monday took advantage of Williams’ mistake on Nov. 24. Williams took a sack that lost 12 yards in overtime, leading to a punt and a 30-27 loss. That’s not the way Williams wants to play in pressure situations.
“Taking a sack in OT — a stupid sack,” Williams said. “We’ve messed up in multiple situations, including me. Being able to learn from whatever it was — me taking a sack or mismanagement … Being able to snap out of it right in that moment [and] make the right play at the right time is the next point.”
Figuring out the deep ball is something Williams can improve the next four games, too, particularly against a gambling Vikings defense that will give the Bears a chance at big gains.
“He’s not playing scared,” interim head coach Thomas Brown said. “He’s ripping some footballs into tight windows. I think it’s probably even more impressive. It’s not like he’s sitting back there not taking an opportunity. (He’s) taking chances down the field.
“We always talk about trying to find ways to be aggressive, not reckless. There is a fine line between the two of them.”