What the Bears need from QB Caleb Williams in his rookie season

Carmen Vitali

NFC North Reporter

We’ve heard a lot about what expectations should be for rookie quarterback Caleb Williams and the 2024 Chicago Bears.

The NFC North is stacked, with two playoff teams sitting at the top — the Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions, the latter of whom went to the NFC title game last year.

The Bears have a whole lot of new, especially offensively — which is a good thing. It feels like this is the final stage of a multi-season rebuild that general manager Ryan Poles started back in 2022. He’s spent the past few offseasons curating a landing spot to drop in a rookie quarterback and start building.

Chicago didn’t just get a rookie quarterback, it got the rookie quarterback with the first pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. And Williams now has an embarrassment of riches to work with.

In fact, ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky recently ranked the receiving corps of the NFC North, including tight ends, and there’s a case to be made for each of the four teams to have the top spot.

The Bears’ top three receivers are now DJ Moore, Keenan Allen and ninth-overall pick Rome Odunze. Tight end Cole Kmet factors in for the purposes of this argument, and so does veteran TE Gerald Everett, who was with new offensive coordinator Shane Waldron in Seattle. Waldron loves using his tight ends. Judging from the first preseason game, he also likes using multiple running backs and even — wait for it — a fullback. 

With all this in place, and with all that in mind, let me switch up the conversation.

We shouldn’t be talking about what Williams should do this season. Instead, we should be asking what he needs to do.

The answer, in my humble opinion, isn’t much.

To break the Bears’ rookie quarterback records, Williams would need to record just 2,300 passing yards and 12 touchdowns. He could conceivably do that by Halloween.

To break the Bears’ all-time single-season quarterback records, he would need to reach 4,000 yards and 30…

Source link : https://www.foxsports.com/stories/nfl/what-bears-need-from-qb-caleb-williams-his-rookie-season

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Publish date : 2024-08-14 20:16:57

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