Talking about Caleb Williams as a quarterback tends to center around certain aspects of his game. People love his mobility and improvisational skills. He has a rare knack for changing the speeds on his throws, showing excellent touch and accuracy. Also, like a baseball player, he can change the angles of his arm to fit the situation. Yet not enough people talk about the most obvious thing: Williams has a cannon. For all the hype around Drake Maye and his arm strength, Williams can sling the rock with astounding velocity when he wants to.
While there are plenty of highlights showcasing this going back to his high school days, nothing will top the story told by his former offensive coordinator at Gonzaga. According to Courtney Cronin of ESPN, Williams had such a fastball, even at 16 years old, that he managed to break the guy’s wedding ring while playing catch.
About halfway through a practice in 2018, Danny Schaechter, who was Gonzaga’s offensive coordinator, noticed his left hand started to throb and there was blood dripping from his ring finger.
“I’m like, ‘What the heck did I do?’ And then I realized, ‘Oh crap — my wedding ring is split in half,'” Schaechter said.
Williams had whipped a pass so hard that it splintered the metal of Schaechter’s ring and cut his finger. When the OC relayed the story to his wife, her anger quickly turned to disbelief over the velocity of the throw that came from a 16-year-old sophomore’s arm.
After getting his ring soldered back together, Schaechter began to loop the gold band onto a chain around his neck before he stepped on the field.
“Because of Caleb, I take my wedding ring off anytime I’m going to go do some football stuff,” Schaechter said. “I don’t want anybody to break my wedding ring, but he was the only one who actually did it.”
It would take at least 50 kilograms of pressure to bend a ring of that makeup. Williams’ throw was so hard it snapped the band, which should tell you how much force he was generating. The average high school quarterback can throw around 45-50 miles per hour, but this had to have been well in excess of that.
His arm strength might not be what gets most of the attention, but you’d be making a big mistake ignoring it. He can strike anywhere on the field. Just because not every throw is a heater doesn’t mean it’s not in his bag. Bears receivers will have to keep that in mind. When Williams feels the necessity to hit a tight window, that ball will come in screaming. They better keep their heads on a swivel. This is where adding Keenan Allen and Rome Odunze made so much sense. Allen caught passes from Justin Herbert, who has one of the strongest arms in the NFL. Odunze had some of the best hands in college football.
A strong arm isn’t required to succeed in the NFL, but it makes life a lot easier. That is especially true in Chicago with those winds coming off Lake Michigan. It isn’t a coincidence that Jay Cutler and Jim McMahon were two of the most successful quarterbacks on this team. Both had great arms. Caleb Williams is in that same category. He also has that same self-confidence bordering on arrogance those two had. That should give Bears fans plenty of hope for what is to come.
