Caleb Williams is averaging 4.93 yards per passing attempt the last three games for Chicago, a number so ghastly it seems impossible. Not surprisingly, the Bears lost all three, including a horrific 19-3 drubbing to lowly New England on Sunday.
Chicago is 4-5 because it has an excellent defense. The easy part of the season is over though. The remaining schedule is Green Bay, Minnesota, at Detroit, at San Francisco, at Minnesota, Detroit, Seattle and at Green Bay. Only Seattle (4-5) has a losing record.
It is not a stretch to wonder if the Bears can win another game this season.
This is a five-alarm fire in a city that knows about great fires. It’s not so much that the playoff dreams appear to be lost — the NFC North is just so competitive (Lions, Vikings and Packers are a combined 21-6 and 18-3 against non-division foes).
It’s that Williams appears lost and lacking confidence, tailspinning into a panicked pocket passer who holds onto the ball too long and too rarely uses his creative scrambling ability. He’s taken 18 sacks during this three-game skid. Again, unfathomable.
On Tuesday, the Bears fired offensive coordinator Shane Waldron — which may not change the trajectory of the season but suggests Chicago is aware of what the larger goal for this campaign should be.
Save Caleb Williams.
“After evaluating our entire operation, I decided that it is in the best interest of our team to move in a different direction with the leadership of our offense. This decision was well-thought-out, one that was conducted deliberately and respectfully,” head coach Matt Eberflus said.
Barring some unexpected reversal, Eberflus won’t last past Black Monday in January, so this is just the condemned doing some condemning. In hindsight — not that plenty of Bears fans didn’t see it coming — Eberflus should have never returned this season.
Williams was the No. 1 overall pick coming off of a Heisman-trophy winning career at USC. He was the product of a beautiful trade where the Bears landed a slew of Carolina draft selections (including what would be the first overall pick in 2024) for dropping eight spots in the 2023 draft.
Carolina took Bryce Young out of Alabama — rather than Offensive Rookie of the Year C.J. Stroud out of Ohio State — and has lived to regret it. Young had a brutal rookie season and was benched for a stretch this year before returning the last two weeks and showing little.
Now the Bears have Williams, who they took instead of Jayden Daniels out of LSU — the likely Offensive Rookie of the Year in Washington — and are desperate to avoid having the same story as Carolina unfold.
The Bears’ new offensive coordinator? Thomas Brown, who spent last year as the OC for … Carolina.
“Thomas is a bright offensive mind who has experience calling plays with a collaborative mindset,” Eburflus said.
Sometimes you learn a lot in failure. The Bears better hope so. The 2024 draft was supposed to be a reboot, a chance to finally find itself a franchise quarterback and end a long drought of futility.
Williams, so clearly talented as a collegian, represented that hope. The Bears willingly let go of their last QB savior, Justin Fields, and went all-in on Williams.
Halfway through the season it looks like a regression. He hasn’t thrown a touchdown in a month. The confident leader that wowed at Oklahoma and USC isn’t popping off the field. Perhaps he’s being let down by his receiving corps not creating space, but he’s also holding the ball until the pass rush overwhelms him. The rollouts and scrambles aren’t materializing.
Some veterans advocated for Williams to be benched, according to Mark Silverman of ESPN Chicago-1000.
The Bears can’t have Williams end this season as a broken prospect, as too often happens. Maybe it is Thomas who can right the ship and make some gains, even if the scoreboard doesn’t turn out for the team. Maybe it’s Eberflus who can simplify things so there is growth.
At least then there will be a potential difference-maker at QB for the next staff.
It couldn’t get much worse than a home loss to the previously two-win Patriots. The coaching firings have begun. A new voice, perhaps, brings some new results.
Caleb Williams is too valuable to go down with this ship.