When quarterback Mitch Trubisky was a Bears rookie in 2017, general manager Ryan Pace wouldn’t even entertain the question of what might happen if the No. 2 overall pick in the draft outplayed Pace’s chosen starter, veteran Mike Glennon, in the preseason.
“[We’re] not dealing with hypotheticals,” Pace said in his press conference at Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais to open training camp that year. “Glennon’s here for a reason. We evaluated him over the years. We’re very confident in him. This thing is going to have to play out. But Mike Glennon is our starting quarterback and I don’t think now is the time to deal in hypotheticals going forward.”
Fast forward to 2021 and Bears coach Matt Nagy was at least willing to contemplate the possibility that Justin Fields — the No. 11 pick in the draft — might outplay starter Andy Dalton and backup Nick Foles in the preseason: “That would be awesome.”
But asked if that might change things, and Nagy wasn’t about to go there. “For Justin, for Andy, for Nick — their job is [to] dominate,” Nagy said at Halas Hall when training camp opened that year. “And then for all of us, to make it as hard as hard as you possibly can at every position.
“So we don’t even get into that part of it. We just say, ‘Listen — go play ball, be the best you can be.’ Trust me, just like everybody in here and in our city, I want Justin to be electric. That’s what we all want. But for us, we’re worried about today.”
On Friday, Bears general manager Ryan Poles and coach Matt Eberflus did not have to answer those hypothetical questions about rookie quarterback Caleb Williams at their press conference to open training camp at Halas Hall. They designated Williams as the Bears’ starting quarterback virtually the moment they drafted him No. 1 overall on April 25. And it wasn’t a very difficult decision.
Until further notice, that already puts Poles, Eberflus, offensive coordinator Shane Waldron and the Bears organization a step ahead of where they were the last two times the Bears drafted a potential franchise quarterback. No debate over which quarterback should start. No questions about the rookie getting first-team reps.
And there’s no veteran to be annoyed by having to answer more questions about the backup than himself — and getting treated like a place-holder when he thinks this is his big chance (Glennon) or an opportunity to re-establish himself (Dalton). And no teammates having to tip-toe around loaded questions about the rookie everybody wants to see vs. the veteran nobody wants to see.
Asked about the process that led to that decision — as opposed to bringing in a veteran to compete with Williams — Poles deferred to Eberflus.
“For me, it’s just believing in Caleb — putting him in there and let’s go,” Eberflus said. “The expectation is for him to be the starter. He is the starter when we drafted him and we put him in the position to do that. And we’re going to do a great job of supporting him to get him ready for the first game.”
The opportunity to draft Williams, and give him a strong supporting cast are the two biggest factors in the Bears’ decision to hand Williams the job. Williams was the clear No. 1 prospect in a quarterback-heavy class — considered one of the best prospects since Andrew Luck in 2012. And by trading for wide receiver Keenan Allen and drafting wide receiver Rome Odunze to go with DJ Moore, Poles has given Williams an arsenal of weapons that a quarterback chosen No. 1 overall has rarely if ever had.
The history is clear that starting a rookie quarterback is almost always dicey. The nine quarterbacks taken No. 1 overall since 2009 who have started Week 1 are a combined 44-87-2 in their first season.
But with a strong supporting cast that includes Moore, Allen, Odunze, tight end Cole Kmet and running back D’Andre Swift, plus a defense that expects to finish in the top-10 or top-5 in points allowed, Poles feels he has given Williams a comfort zone, with miss room, that many touted rookie quarterbacks don’t get.
“[The expectation is] really just to maximize his ability,” Poles said. “I want to see [him] just leaning on the talent around him as well. I think it’s got to be comforting to know you don’t have to do everything on your own, which makes it a pretty good situation for a young quarterback.”
Indeed it is. And while the apprenticeship plan that worked for Patrick Mahomes in Kansas City and seems to have worked for Jordan Love in Green Bay has obvious merit, it’s a tack that mostly works when the rookie is sitting behind a productive quarterback in a proven system. In a developing offense, there’s not much for the rookie to learn. So Caleb Williams might be better off making his own mistakes.
“Some guys really benefit from being able to sit a year,” Kmet said. “That being said, you can’t replace reps. So I get both sides of that argument.
“I think the beauty of [Williams’] situation — [there’s] no doubt here. He’s the guy going forward. There’s none of this question of when he’s going to get in — ‘Are we going to see him this year?’ You’re going to see him this year. He’s going to be in. He’s going to be getting a lot of reps. And I think that’s good for him. Maybe, there’s peace of mind in that aspect.”
