Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, had a frustrating rookie season, and though he is still considered to be a natural talent, he has a lot of work to do.
He did a lot of ad-libbing in college at USC but had some trouble making fundamental plays with the Bears, and he ended up getting sacked 68 times, which was a league-high.
ESPN analyst Sam Acho recently compared top 2025 NFL Draft prospect Cam Ward to Williams, saying the Miami QB needs to avoid the pitfalls the Bears rookie encountered in his first season.
“The biggest issue with Cam Ward’s game … is how much he moves around in the pocket,” Acho said, via NFL on ESPN. “You cannot make these plays against NFL pros. … We saw Caleb Williams make plays like these in college, then got to the NFL and got sacked 68 times.”
“We saw Caleb Williams make plays like these in college, then got to the NFL and got sacked 68 times.”@thesamacho thinks Cam Ward’s pocket awareness could be an issue in the NFL 👀 pic.twitter.com/QDJhT7PauV
— NFL on ESPN (@ESPNNFL) February 18, 2025
While Williams had just six interceptions as a rookie, he committed 10 fumbles and completed just 62.5 percent of his pass attempts for a Chicago team that went 5-12 and fired Matt Eberflus as head coach during the season.
Williams showed a bit of improvement later in the season, but he still has lots of improvement to make if he is to live up to his potential.
Though Chicago’s offensive line wasn’t great, it wasn’t terrible either, and Williams had legitimate weapons to work with in wide receivers D.J. Moore, Keenan Allen and Rome Odunze.
The Bears have a new head coach in Ben Johnson, who was the Detroit Lions’ offensive coordinator the past three seasons and played a role in quarterback Jared Goff raising his game, and the hope is that he can work similar magic with Williams.
