{"id":2442,"date":"2025-09-15T21:52:49","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T21:52:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/?p=2442"},"modified":"2025-09-15T21:52:49","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T21:52:49","slug":"qb-caleb-williams-not-making-the-grade-in-categories-the-bears-value-most","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/?p=2442","title":{"rendered":"QB Caleb Williams not making the grade in categories the Bears value most"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Not long after the Lions were blown out by the Packers in their season opener, a statistic started making its way around social media \u2014 without Rams head coach Sean McVay or new Bears<\/a> head coach Ben Johnson calling plays for him, Lions quarterback Jared Goff was 3-17-1 in his career.<\/p>\n

Asked about it after Sunday\u2019s win, Goff coolly brushed the back of his head with his left hand.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/b>All it takes is one game, huh?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Goff followed a Week 1 misstep with the best performance of the weekend, throwing for five touchdowns, 334 yards and a 156 passer rating in Sunday\u2019s 52-21 win<\/a> against the Bears.<\/p>\n

Playing for Johnson doesn\u2019t guarantee success, as Bears quarterback Caleb Williams has shown in their first two weeks together. Want proof? Just use the measurements the Bears do.<\/p>\n

In March, Johnson declared that expected points added per dropback, and not the turnover battle, was most closely connected with winning. He was right: over the three previous seasons, teams that had a better EPA than their opponent won 77% of the time, while a team with more takeaways won 76% of them.<\/p>\n

Williams\u2019 report card in those categories, then, is essential reading. Through two weeks, it\u2019s not good.<\/p>\n

Entering Monday night\u2019s games, Williams ranked 24th<\/sup> in the NFL in completion percentage. Among the first-round picks in his rookie class, Williams trails Drake Maye, Bo Nix and Michael Penix but leads Jayden Daniels and J.J. McCarthy.<\/p>\n

Williams has completed 61.5% of his passes. He could complete his next 18 in a row and still not have a passer rating of 70.<\/p>\n

Williams\u2019 EPA per dropback, which measures how a quarterback\u2019s efficiency affects scoring, puts him in similar company as passer rating. At No. 22, he trails Maye, Penix and Nix and leads Daniels and McCarthy.<\/p>\n

At least Williams is healthy. Daniels sprained his knee Thursday and might miss Sunday\u2019s game. McCarthy, the Vikings quarterback who made his NFL debut in Week 1, hurt his ankle Sunday night and will miss a few weeks.<\/p>\n

Williams being healthy, though, might be the nicest thing one could say about his season. His performance Sunday in Detroit was more of the same \u2014 a few big-time throws weighed down by inconsistency. Against the Vikings, Williams started hot and went cold, completing his first 10 passes and then only nine of his next 21. Against the Lions, Williams got sloppy, whether it was getting stuffed on consecutive sneaks when the Bears needed just one yard or throwing an interception down the right sideline. Williams said it was a miscommunication with Olamide Zaccheaus while he was scrambling, though it was such a bad throw that it looked as though the quarterback might have been trying to simply throw the ball away.<\/p>\n

Johnson said he should have done exactly that. Williams bemoaned the team\u2019s lack of consistency \u2014 including from the quarterback himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t try to create any explosive plays,\u201d Williams said. \u201cDon\u2019t try to be Superman, and they\u2019ll come.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson claimed he saw growth in the quarterback Sunday \u2014 he liked Williams\u2019 footwork on plays in which he made it to his third or fourth option \u2014 but acknowledged it\u2019s still not good enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not perfect yet,\u201d he said Monday. \u201cThere\u2019s still a number of plays where our eyes aren\u2019t quite in the right position or we\u2019re holding onto the ball just a tick longer than what we\u2019re coaching.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson has seen the fruits of his coaching before \u2014 and saw it again Sunday. After torching the Bears, Goff moved into first place in the NFL in completion percentage and fourth in EPA per dropback, the two measuring sticks his former coach so values.<\/p>\n

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Johnson missed all of the preseason and Week 1 with the injury, then had a setback early in the game Sunday against the Lions.<\/p>\n

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