It wasn’t the performance anybody hoped for. That includes Caleb Williams. He probably didn’t dream of going 14-of-29 for 93 yards in his first-ever NFL game. To his credit, the Chicago Bears rookie expressed that the stats didn’t matter as long as the team won, which it did. Despite the quiet box score, Williams made just enough contributions to help pull off that wild 17-point comeback. That said, he also knows he can’t bank on the defense and special teams to bail him out every Sunday.
That meant watching the film to see what went wrong so he could make the necessary corrections. On Wednesday, Williams stood in front of the media and was asked if there were any moments from the game that jumped out as ones he wished he could’ve had back. His answer was blunt and honest.
“I think it was around six throws that, if we would’ve hit those, everything would’ve seemed a lot different. Throws that we hit in practice all the time.”
He went on to elaborate about what went into those missed. One big problem he noticed after watching the film was his bad tendency to rush his drops after the snap.
“The drops. Sometimes I rush my drop a little bit, not needing to. One specific route that I can think of is Rome … a 10-yard route … I rushed my drop and tried to juice it in there a little bit and missed.”
Much of NFL passing games are geared around timing throws. That means a quarterback is expected to throw to a spot based on the timing of the play and the routes the wide receivers run. Being able to gauge all of that comes from his footwork. Each drop must follow a consistent cadence. Otherwise, he risks setting up either before or after the wide receiver has reached his break. This makes the quarterback feel either like he has to wait or feel rushed because he fell behind in the timing. It is something that goes back to the days of Bill Walsh with the San Francisco 49ers. The footwork could tell quarterbacks where and when to throw the ball, but only if they did it the right way.
It’s somewhat ironic. The common criticism of Justin Fields during his stint in Chicago was his drop-backs were too slow. By the time he reached his full depth, he was already behind schedule. That is why it always seemed like he didn’t know where his other reads were if the first one wasn’t available. Caleb Williams had the opposite problem. The fact he already recognizes it is a good sign. He’s a smart kid who clearly understands the importance of his feet in his offense. One can expect improvement in the coming weeks.
