Virtually everything is wrong with the Bears’ offense, evidenced by them firing coordinator Shane Waldron this week after nine games, so blame goes in every direction. It’s certainly not all rookie quarterback Caleb Williams’ fault, but there are problems he can control.
Williams’ accuracy has been an issue all season, a surprise after precision was his hallmark at USC. And lately, another concern has popped up: He’s holding the ball too long.
That cost the Bears potential points against the Patriots when Williams took an eight-yard sack on third-and-seven at the New England 31-yard line and slipped out of field-goal range. The same thing happened two weeks earlier against the Commanders.
Meanwhile, his counterpart on the Patriots, fellow rookie Drake Maye was so mindful of avoiding lost yardage that he threw the ball away lefthanded once Sunday.
The offensive line is killing Williams, who has been sacked a league-high 38 times, but some of those are on him.
“These past couple weeks, I’ve probably been holding it a little bit longer than I’ve wanted,” Williams said. “I definitely can do a better job with that, just being a little bit more keyed in on making sure I handle the details and understanding the situation.”
And specifically on taking nine sacks against the Patriots, he added, “That stat goes on the offensive linemen as if they weren’t doing their job, but I took a few sacks that I shouldn’t have. Getting back to getting the ball out of my hands, being decisive is really important. That needs to start now.”
One of Williams’ best qualities is objectivity about his own flaws. There’s no denial or deflection.
It better start now, by the way, because the Packers are in town Sunday and get pressure on 24.5% of opponent pass plays, 13th in the NFL. The Bears play the Vikings next, and they’re first at 29.1%. The Lions, awaiting them on Thanksgiving, are eighth at 27.1%.
New offensive coordinator Thomas Brown, in concert with quarterbacks coach Kerry Joseph, is reemphasizing decisiveness this week.
They don’t want Williams to play cautiously, but they want him to take what’s available quickly. As Joseph explained Thursday, Williams should hit the first open player as he works through his progressions rather than bypassing decent options in the hope of making a bigger play.
“When we do that, those plays become ‘unsackable’ because the ball is out of our hands,” Joseph said.
As always, multiple threads are tangled up in this issue.
The offensive line has underperformed when healthy, and now it’s not healthy.
As an offshoot of that, the Bears’ ineffective running game is hurting Williams because it makes pass rushers’ jobs simpler. They’re averaging the fifth-fewest yards per carry (four) and ninth-fewest per game (110). If they were making more headway there, defenders would have a little more hesitation and give Williams an extra split-second or two.
Joseph also noted the various problems that have put Williams in vulnerable down-and-distance scenarios. One of the hardest things to do is pass in obvious passing situations.
The Bears lead the league in false starts according to Football Database, and their average distance to go on second down is 7.9 yards (16th in the league). On third down it’s 7.7 yards (27th).
That’s part of the equation in Williams being one of the NFL’s worst third-down quarterbacks this season. Of the 33 who have thrown at least 40 passes on third down, he ranks 31st in completion percentage (50.7), 30th in yards per pass (5.3) and 32nd in passer rating (58.5). He has been sacked on third down 17 times, second-most.
The Bears are last in the league with a 28.7 third-down conversion percentage.
Williams can’t fix all of that, but he can address his part of it. He must ensure he improves over the rest of the season regardless of what’s going on around him.