Yahoo Sports’ Jason Fitz, senior NFL reporter Charles Robinson, and senior NFL writer Frank Schwab discuss what’s missing from Chicago’s super-hyped rookie quarterback as the Bears lose their 10th straight game. Hear the full conversation on “Inside Coverage” – and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
I continue to see Caleb Williams hold the football rather than getting it out quickly.
Now, there are offensive line problems at times.
I don’t blame this entirely on him.
There was a Roma Doomsday touchdown that gets taken off the board because of a holding call.
Not everything’s on him, but there continues to be this plague of Caleb just not getting the ball out quickly, making decisions quickly.
And I, I feel like we’re now at the end of the season, and I don’t know how much that has really progressed.
And I, I, I watch and I sit there and I think, OK, they’re all in the Ben Johnson, right?
They want Ben Johnson, the Lions offensive coordinator.
They’re super hyped about this.
Let me tell you something about Ben Johnson.
He is all about rhythm, getting the ball out quickly, making your decisions, and let’s go.
Don’t screw around, don’t continue plays.
Let’s not do all this off schedule stuff.
Let’s have some confidence and let it go.
That’s what Jared Goff does.
Boom, boom, boom, snap, Goff knows what he’s doing.
He gets rid of the football.
Occasionally, he will stretch plays.
I think Ben Johnson might be a nightmare in this situation with Caleb Williams because he is nothing like how Jared Goff plays in Detroit, who absolutely suits Ben Johnson.
We get hypnotized, people get hypnotized by the, the, the splash play, right?
Like, Caleb Williams made a play yesterday on, I think it was 3rd down to DJ Moore, that was like, wow, there aren’t many dudes that can make that play, right?
But that’s not an NFL offense.
It’s great to make that once in a while, we see Mahomes do it here and there, we see, but Mahomes can also run Andy Reid’s offense.
I don’t know that Kyle Williams can run an offense right now.
Now, you, we can make, we, we can make the argument that the NFL offense or running is trash.
We can make the argument that the coaching staff is an absolute train wreck and you get somebody in there and maybe it changes, but I don’t know, man.
I, I, I, nobody wants to have this conversation because it’s early.
I get it, he’s been in a terrible situation.
I get it.
But you look around at the other rookie quarterbacks.
Jayden Daniels is light years ahead of Kaleb Williams.
Like, it’s not even a conversation.
Bo Nix has been better than Caleb Williams.
You can make a Drake May has been better than Caleb Williams.
There’s just this element of like, why is everything so difficult?
And yes, the offensive line is a huge part of this, but see, Rob, to your point, I think you’ve, they’ve got to get somebody in there that speaks Caleb Williams in a way that can break a bunch of tendencies.
that now because the Bears didn’t do the right thing and frankly, in my opinion, destroy the entire front office, the organization like get everybody out of the building and only put people in the building that speak Caleb Williams from the day he was drafted.
They didn’t do that.
So now that he has a year reinforced of the bad habits that were part of the problem at USC.
Like I just, I think this, yes, this lays at Caleb Williams, but this lays largely at the feet of the Chicago Bears organization for not being preemptive about this.