Caleb Williams' post-bye skid continued in the Chicago Bears' 19-3 loss to the New England Patriots on Sunday. It was the Bears' third loss in a row, causing the blame game to be played in the Windy City as it appears changes to the team's offense could be on the horizon.
The No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 draft completed just 16 of 30 passes for 120 yards in Sunday's loss. What was arguably more concerning, though, was that Williams was sacked nine times by a Patriots defense that only had 16 total sacks entering the game.
Williams has struggled during Chicago's three-game slide. He's completed 50.5% of his passes for 468 yards and zero touchdowns while getting sacked 18 times in that span, a far cry from his four-touchdown performance against the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 6.
Two of those three losses came against the quarterbacks who were selected right after Williams: the Washington Commanders' Jayden Daniels and the Patriots' Drake Maye. Colin Cowherd believes those teams are doing something right with their rookie quarterbacks while the Bears are failing Williams.
"Drake Maye's comp was Justin Herbert, but not as polished out of college," Cowherd said on "The Herd."
"All of a sudden, last two weeks, I'm like, ‘Oh, I see it. He's getting better.' [Broncos rookie QB] Bo Nix today from a month and a half ago, ‘Oh, you see it? I see it.' Everybody sees it. He's getting better. Jayden Daniels may have lost [on Sunday], but he's better than he was in the opener.
"Caleb Williams is going backwards. When you have talented players, they're young and they're getting worse — that's a coaching thing."
Cowherd raised concern over Williams' completion percentage above all else, citing that he's completed less than 54% of his passes in each of the last three games. He believes that's the biggest indicator that the coaches are letting Williams down, while he credited the rookie for how he's handled adversity.
"This is a team that can't scheme layups," Cowherd said. "You got to give the kids six, seven, maybe eight, nine, give them easy ones, and then ask him to make 12 tough NFL throws. They can't do that. And Caleb did what leaders do after the loss. He defended the coach.
"If you can't scheme six or seven easy completions, they don't even use his mobility," Cowherd added. "I mean, Caleb may not be great, I don't know how it turns out, but it's not this. This is not what it should look like."
Former NFL quarterback Matt Hasselbeck pushed back on the notion that Williams is blameless during an appearance on "The Herd." As Williams was sacked over and over again in Sunday's game, Hasselbeck said that at least 90% of all sacks are typically the quarterback's fault.
"Caleb, he's a young quarterback, so I'm not trying to throw stones at him because of the mistakes," Hasselbeck said. "I'm not surprised by the mistakes. Expectations are going to be higher because you do have guys like Jayden Daniels playing such good football. Bo Nix is playing good football. Drake Maye is even playing good football. So, I think the boo birds are going to be out with Caleb.
"But to sit there and to say that it's, you know, there aren't places to go with the ball, or there aren't ways to avoid sacks [is misleading]."
Still, Hasselbeck also laid some of the blame on the Bears, too.
"Clearly, the confidence is not there," Hasselbeck said. "I think there are some things that they could do to help him."
The Bears might be making some changes soon to possibly help Williams. Bears head coach Matt Eberflus told reporters Monday that the team is "going through" the process of shaking things up, which might include moving on from offensive coordinator Shane Waldron. Chicago's offense is 30th in yards and 24th in scoring after Sunday.
Former Bears quarterback Chase Daniel thinks that Waldron isn't the only one at fault, though.
"The Chicago Bears offense is broken, and it starts with Caleb Williams," Daniel said on "The Facility."
"It ends with that offensive coordinator, and in between somewhere, it's that offensive line who gave up nine sacks."
Even though Williams is just nine games into his NFL career, Sunday's performance and the three-game losing streak have caused concern in Chicago. Daniel understands that frustration among Bears fans considering how things have gone with the Commanders, who took Daniels with the second overall pick.
"Quite honestly, you should be going through it because [the Bears] have not scored a touchdown in 23 straight drives, two straight games," Daniel said. "The last time that happened was 2004 and when you see the success of Jayden Daniels and the Commanders with [OC] Kliff Kingsbury, you could have had both of them. You decided not to do it."
Daniels has become the runaway favorite to win NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year, leading the Commanders to a 7-3 start. But the success of rookie quarterbacks goes beyond Daniels. No. 12 overall pick Nix has led the Denver Broncos to a 5-5 record and threw two touchdowns in a strong performance against a top-notch Kansas City Chiefs defense on Sunday. No. 3 pick Maye, meanwhile, has scored eight total touchdowns and has helped New England go 2-3 in the five games he's started, injecting a lifeless Patriots offense with much-needed energy.
James Jones believes Williams is currently the worst first-round rookie quarterback in the league at the moment.
"Caleb Williams looked bad out there," Jones said. "However we want to slice it, however we want to dice it, however many plays we want to show of receivers not getting open, there's a lot of plays we can show where receivers are getting open. My man has not seen what he's supposed to see. My man is taking sacks sometimes that he's not supposed to take. O-line is getting beat cleanly, sometimes to where ain't nothing he can do.
"But when it is something for him to do, make these simple throws, whether it's outside the pocket, whether it's inside the pocket, he's not making them."
Unfortunately for Williams and the Bears, the immediate road ahead doesn't look easier. They next play three straight NFC North opponents — the Packers, Vikings and Lions — who all have winning records.
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