Depending on what you think of Drake Maye so far, Caleb Williams might be the fourth best rookie quarterback this season. He’s certainly not first.
Jayden Daniels is way ahead in that race. Bo Nix of the Denver Broncos has probably been better too. It’s not unusual for a rookie quarterback to struggle, but Williams’ issues have to be troubling for the Chicago Bears.
Williams, the first overall pick of this year’s draft, had another terrible game on Sunday, as the Bears lost 19-3 to Maye and the New England Patriots. Williams had 74 passing yards through three quarters. He finished 16-of-30 for 120 yards against a Patriots team that was 2-7 coming in. The week before losing to the Patriots, the Bears scored nine points. The week before that they struggled to get to 15. It’s the first time the Bears have failed to score a touchdown in consecutive games since 2004. That’s not what Chicago expected as their new era with Williams started. The offense was better last season with Justin Fields.
Chicago was lauded all offseason for how it set up Williams for immediate success, loading up at the skill positions. The issues on the offensive line were mostly ignored, but Chicago should still be much better on offense than it has shown. With Williams slumping badly, the organization has to ask what it needs to do to fix the situation.
A change at offensive coordinator might be coming. Shane Waldron hasn’t done enough to help Williams. A head coaching change also seems very likely unless Matt Eberflus has a big second half, like he did last season to save his job. The Bears have never fired a head coach during the season and seem proud of that, so it’s unlikely Eberflus gets fired soon. But most Bears fans would sign up for it, and would probably be in the right after the coaching fiascos that led to the Washington Commanders’ Hail Mary win a couple weeks ago.
Then there’s Williams’ role in his struggles. It seemed he was turning a corner before the Bears’ bye week, but facing some bad defenses now appears to be the biggest factor in that surge. Williams has regressed badly since then, trying to do too much and not making the throws when they do present themselves. Offensive line injuries didn’t help Williams on Sunday — he was sacked nine times. But he didn’t help himself either.
Williams hasn’t been good enough this season. Maybe that’s coaching, the offensive line or just being a rookie. Williams was a fantastic prospect and he has the talent to be a superstar. Nobody should be panicking. But the Bears need to be proactive in figuring out how to fix what’s wrong. Nobody wants to see Williams having prolonged struggles with a bad organization, and the Bears have almost no modern history of developing quarterbacks. Williams should be fine down the road. But something has to change, and soon.
Here are rest of the winners and losers from Week 10 of the NFL season:
WINNERS
Justin Herbert: Jim Harbaugh’s offensive vision is to run it often with the quarterback making plays when asked. That was a lot different for Herbert, who had been expected to do it all for previous Los Angeles Chargers regimes.
Doing less has turned Herbert into a much more efficient quarterback. Herbert continued his early season roll in the Chargers’ 27-17 win over the Tennessee Titans. Herbert has thrown just one interception this season, and that came more than 200 passes ago back in Week 2. He attempted just 18 passes Sunday but completed 14 of them for 164 yards.
The Chargers are playing well in all areas and looking like a playoff team. Herbert might not put up some of the stats that he has in the past, but he has taken a major step forward as a quarterback.
Kansas City Chiefs, barely again: The Chiefs followed up almost losing at home to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers by almost losing to the Denver Broncos at home.
And they could have lost to the Baltimore Ravens at home in Week 1. And they could have lost to the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 2.
The Chiefs’ 8-0 start to the season isn’t a fluke. When you have Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes, you’ll win plenty of close games. But they’re probably more vulnerable than their record would indicate.
The Chiefs had another close win Sunday. The Broncos were in position to win on a 35-yard field goal in the final seconds but the Chiefs blocked it. They escaped with a 16-14 win and are 9-0 to start the season. Kansas City deserves credit for getting a ton of penetration on the game-winning attempt, but they were also a bit lucky to win.
It probably doesn’t matter that the Chiefs are barely winning many weeks. They’ll be great in the postseason again. But other AFC contenders probably don’t view them as unbeatable this season.
Anthony Richardson: The Indianapolis Colts have a conundrum. When they benched Richardson, the thought was that Joe Flacco gave them a better shot to win now.
Richardson might get his job back soon. Flacco has not played well in his two starts since Richardson was benched, and he was the biggest reason the Colts lost 30-20 to the Buffalo Bills on Sunday. Flacco threw three horrific interceptions and has generally looked like a 39-year-old quarterback who was unsigned into November last year.
Richardson was benched because he wasn’t playing well enough. But Flacco has been even worse. It might be time for the Colts to reverse that much-discussed QB change, sooner than they’d hoped.
Jake Moody: The San Francisco 49ers kicker had to be happy for a shot at redemption.
Moody was coming back from a high ankle sprain and had a rough day. He missed three field goals, which was a reason the Tampa Bay Buccaneers had a shot to upset the 49ers. The third miss led to receiver Deebo Samuel Sr. and long snapper Taybor Pepper having an altercation on the sideline.
It turned out OK. The Buccaneers tied the game late after they were unable to punch in a touchdown to take the lead, and Brock Purdy drove the 49ers downfield in the final minute. On the last play Moody hit a 44-yard field goal, barely squeezing it inside the right upright, and the 49ers had a 23-20 win.
Moody won’t have too many days like Sunday. He’s lucky his misses didn’t lead to a bad loss.
Marquez Valdes-Scantling: Show of hands, who knew Valdes-Scantling was on the New Orleans Saints’ roster before Sunday?
It’s OK if that fact slipped your mind. Valdes-Scantling, a seven-year veteran formerly of the Green Bay Packers and Kansas City Chiefs, had 31 yards on the season before Sunday. He had 26 of those yards with the Buffalo Bills, who cut him when they traded for Amari Cooper.
Maybe the Atlanta Falcons didn’t realize Valdes-Scantling was with the Saints either. Valdes-Scantling had three catches for 109 yards in the first half Sunday, tripling his season output, and two touchdowns as the Saints beat the Falcons 20-17 in Darren Rizzi’s first game as interim coach. The Saints are beat up at receiver, with Chris Olave and Rashid Shaheed on injured reserve, and Valdes-Scantling came through for the Saints when he had to.
Kirk Cousins couldn’t rally the Falcons late, throwing an interception at the two-minute warning, and Younghoe Koo’s two missed field goals and another blocked didn’t help Atlanta either.
Valdes-Scantling is the type of veteran who football fans know but can fall off the radar quickly. His big game out of nowhere on Sunday might buy him more time in the league.
LOSERS
Our Thanksgiving football plans: For many years, terrible Detroit Lions teams were a reason to complain on Thanksgiving. For three hours each Thanksgiving we were forced to suffer through bad football in Detroit. Now it’s the Dallas Cowboys’ turn to wreck one of our traditions.
If you didn’t know, the middle game of the Thanksgiving slate this year will be the New York Giants at the Dallas Cowboys. The Giants lost to the Carolina Panthers on Sunday to fall to 2-8. And the Cowboys were even worse than that.
Dallas is going to play some ugly football the rest of the season without Dak Prescott. Cooper Rush threw for just 45 yards and the Cowboys were wrecked 34-6 by the Philadelphia Eagles. Trey Lance finished out the game at quarterback and perhaps he’ll be the starter next week, not that it would help much. It was an unwatchable performance from a bad Cowboys team, and it’s not like it will get much better the rest of the season.
So if you’re making plans on when to eat for Thanksgiving, setting the table at about 4:30 p.m. Eastern time sounds right. You won’t miss much if you skip Giants-Cowboys.
The no-good New York Jets: The Jets have been fading out of view since early in the season, and Sunday was more proof that they won’t be relevant for the last couple months of this season.
The Jets looked terrible in a 31-6 loss to the Arizona Cardinals. The defense appeared disinterested from the opening kickoff. Aaron Rodgers had only 40 yards passing at halftime. The Jets fired their head coach, demoted their offensive coordinator and traded for Davante Adams since the start of the season like their season could be saved. Those moves are looking useless now.
Technically the Jets aren’t finished this season. If they win out, they would be 10-7 and that would probably be enough for a wild-card spot. But they’re far more likely to lose 10 games this season than miraculously get to 10 wins.
Washington Commanders: It’s hard to not look ahead when you have a big game on deck. The Commanders might have fallen victim to that.
The Commanders have a huge NFC East showdown on Thursday at the Philadelphia Eagles, and maybe they were caught thinking about that game on Sunday. The Commanders lost 28-27 to the Pittsburgh Steelers, a setback in their quest to win the division. Russell Wilson continued his amazing career resurgence with a huge 32-yard touchdown pass to newly acquired Mike Williams on third-and-9 late in the fourth quarter. Then the Commanders were barely short of a first down inside the two-minute warning on a fourth-and-9 pass that would have put them close to field-goal range. The Commanders had one chance to get the ball back but the Steelers’ hard count got the Commanders to jump offsides on fourth-and-1 and that was it for Washington.
The Steelers hung on and remain one of the best stories in the NFL. The Commanders are also a great story, but now Thursday night at Philadelphia is looking more important for their hopes of winning the division.
Sam Darnold: The Minnesota Vikings won on Sunday, so the heat won’t be too bad on Darnold. But he’s reverting to the turnover-prone quarterback he has been most of his NFL career.
Darnold wasn’t good on Sunday. It’s just that the Mac Jones-led Jacksonville Jaguars were much worse. Darnold threw three interceptions, a week after struggling with turnovers against the Colts. The Vikings did enough to win 12-7, but it wasn’t a pretty performance. They need to figure out why Darnold has gone from a great story early this season to backsliding when it comes to his turnover issues.
Tyrone Tracy Jr.: Tracy wasn’t the reason the New York Giants lost. But it had to be a long flight home for him.
On the first play of overtime in Germany, Tracy was stripped of the ball and the Carolina Panthers recovered the fumble. They were already in field-goal range and kicked it a few plays later for a 20-17 win. For as bad as the Panthers have looked at times this season, they’re 3-7. That’s better than the 2-8 Giants.
Tracy, who has been a nice find as a rookie for the Giants, had 103 yards rushing and a touchdown but also some critical mistakes. He mishandled a pass from Daniel Jones with the Giants in field-goal range and Panthers linebacker Josey Jewell picked it off. He had the fumble in overtime. The Giants’ offense as a whole is to blame for the loss — New York had no points and 110 yards at halftime against a bad Panthers defense — but Tracy will take the brunt of the blame on his shoulders.