Bears general manager Ryan Poles and president Kevin Warren have a long list of qualities they’re looking for in the Bears’ next head coach. Here’s one that should be at the top of it: Find a coach who doesn’t just like Caleb Willams, but loves Caleb Williams. A coach who had Williams at the top of his list in the 2024 draft — not a guy who was sneaking Jayden Daniels or Drake Maye the questions to the pre-draft interview.
Whether it’s the head coach or an offensive coordinator for a defensive-side head coach, the Bears need to find a mentor who is all-in on Williams and is most likely to have that like-minded coach/quarterback bond that accelerates the developmental process.
Williams still is the best quarterback prospect the Bears have ever had, but his rookie season also made it clear that it will take a lot of expert coaching for him to become the championship-caliber quarterback the Bears think they have.
The coordinator who turned journeyman Geno Smith into a $25-million-a-year, two-time Pro Bowl starter flopped with Williams. Shane Waldron didn’t turn sour overnight. But the match has to be right, whether it’s Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson, who is expected to interview with the Bears on Saturday, Bills offensive coordinator Joe Brady or the offensive coordinator for Mike Vrabel, Pete Carroll or Brian Flores. Because while Williams has more potential than Mitch Trubisky and Justin Fields, he’s no sure thing.
Williams threw for 3,541 yards and 20 touchdowns with only six interceptions this season — pretty good by Bears standards. But like with Trubisky and Fields — and Jay Cutler, for that matter — the Bears are excited about the special throws and hoping the warts will disappear.
“I thought he did some really good things, but I also know there’s so much more left in him — in his game and his skill set,” Poles said at the Bears’ end-of-season press conference. “I loved the flashes that he showed. I loved the two-minute drills and his ability to put the team in a position to win games multiple times this season. That’s a championship-caliber trait.”
That’s all great, but Williams’ rookie season was a disappointment that led to an age-old lament at Halas Hall: Why is developing a quarterback here always like pulling teeth? Daniels and the Broncos’ Bo Nix are in the playoffs — the second and third rookie quarterbacks to make the playoffs in the last two seasons, after the Texans’ C.J. Stroud last year.
In fact, Williams’ 87.8 passer rating this season was fourth among rookie quarterbacks — behind Daniels (100.1), Nix (93.3) and the Patriots’ Maye (88.1). He had the fewest interceptions, but also the lowest completion percentage (62.5%) and the lowest yards per attempt (6.3).
So what went wrong? That was one of many questions at Tuesday’s press conference that put Poles on the spot. He seemed to acknowledge that retaining Matt Eberflus and hiring Waldron instead of pairing Williams with a new coach/coordinator after last season was an error in judgment.
“Obviously there’s some things when a staff’s in place,” Poles said. “When we went through the interview cycle with Shane, I think there’s some compatibility things. I think there’s some challenges with pairing a rookie quarterback that has a lot of growth.
“[Williams] had 37 starts in college. You like to have [a quarterback] in that 35-40 range, and there’s a lot of growth there. And there’s some compatibility to make sure it’s being taught the right way, and I think there’s some hiccups there. That’s part of the ownership piece that I’ve got to take.”
Bears fans are still expecting Williams to slingshot past Maye, Nix and Daniels in his second season — just like the Bengals’ Joe Burrow (89.8 rating as a rookie in 2020) passed the Chargers’ Justin Herbert (98.3) in his second season in 2021. But with acknowledged issues like accuracy and footwork among others, the Bears have to find the right coach to make it happen.