Everybody keeps comparing Caleb Williams to Patrick Mahomes when they watch many of the plays he makes during games. Everything from the ability to avoid pressure to throwing with pinpoint accuracy on the run reminds them of the three-time Super Bowl champion. However, Williams has never made that comparison himself. The player he has most often modeled his game after since he was a kid is Aaron Rodgers. Williams was in awe of the Green Bay Packers legend as a kid and has tried to emulate a lot of what made him great.
Fans following the Bears beat for long enough will know Dan Wiederer. He is a columnist for the Chicago Tribune, responsible for some impressive insider reports over the years. He also has a reputation for being one of the bigger pessimists surrounding the team. Even when things seem to be going well, he’s always one of the first to pinpoint concerns. One would think he’d roll his eyes at the comparison between Williams and Rodgers. Apparently, Wiederer has changed his tune. An interaction after the preseason win over Cincinnati last Saturday has convinced him the rookie is more like Rodgers than people think.
In describing the latter play, an on-the-move, across-his-body laser that fell perfectly into Odunze’s hands, Williams cited one of his QB role models — Aaron Rodgers — for inspiring him to add such tricks to his bag.
In the postgame news conference, Williams’ description of the deep shot to Scott also seemed Rodgersesque, another example of the way Williams sees, feels and explains the game. That’s no small deal.
So many times over Rodgers’ 15 seasons as the Green Bay Packers starter, he would torture the Bears with his playmaking precision and gusto, then sit calmly — almost diabolically — at his postgame news conference and recount, in vivid detail, how he had gutted the Bears defense…
…So often, Bears fans would live all that Rodgers mastery — the on-field surgery, the off-field aplomb — and sigh with envy.
Sure would be nice to have a QB like that one day.
On Saturday, Williams provided a glimpse into that side of his quarterback toolbox, expressing how much of a stickler for details he is and how he can feel and explain the game.
Arm strength, athleticism, and accuracy are all great for quarterbacks. More often, the ones who can think the game through have the most success. Drew Brees wasn’t the biggest. He wasn’t mobile at all. Yet his obsession with details and ability to process information allowed him to slice defenses up for close to two decades. The same was true of Joe Montana and Tom Brady. They often won games by playing the chess match rather than making stupefying athletic feats. Rodgers became that way, as well.
This is something previous Bears quarterbacks never seemed to grasp. Jim McMahon was the last one who seemed to see the game at that level. Caleb Williams might be the first to do the same in 40 years. Make no mistake. He isn’t trying to be Rodgers. The rookie made it clear he is Caleb Williams. That is who he must be to have success. Himself. Still, to see a prominent Bears skeptical point out the obvious similarities is hard to ignore.
