Great quarterbacks are rare. There are typically four or five in the NFL at any given time. The rest are categorized anywhere from very good to terrible. Caleb Williams hopes to join that elite company starting this year. An interesting question that is always asked is this: What makes a great quarterback? There is no shortage of responses people would accept. His arm strength is crucial. They must be pinpoint accurate. Processing speed is the end-all, be-all of the great ones. All of those answers are acceptable to varying degrees. However, Williams was asked that same question in the latest episode of 1920 Football Drive.
His answer was more than a little telling about where his head is at.
That response tells you a few things. Williams is 100% confident in his own ability. Arm strength? Accuracy? Intelligence and processing speed? Most quarterbacks at this level have them all to some degree, including him. What makes or breaks them is the support structure they walk into. Protection, weapons, and coaching are all paramount to a successful quarterback. It's pretty clear Williams believes that, and is still a little bitter about what happened last season.
Caleb Williams seems to feel like he's finally positioned to succeed.
That was not the case last year. Every fact of the job was a failure by the Chicago Bears. They put him behind a makeshift and undermanned offensive line. The coaching was even worse, saddling him with a defensive head coach who'd hired a highly disliked offensive coordinator. The only area they handled properly was the weapons with D.J. Moore, Rome Odunze, Keenan Allen, and Cole Kmet. Caleb Williams endured 68 sacks last season and went 5-12. It was a miserable experience that left him mentally and physically exhausted.
It seems the Bears have corrected the two other problems in the past few months. They invested millions of dollars and two draft picks in the offensive line and hired decorated offensive mind Ben Johnson as the new head coach. Things finally look set up the right way, and Williams approves.
