People are at a loss for what has happened to Caleb Williams. The young quarterback was playing terrific football before the bye week, throwing four TDs against Jacksonville. Now, he looks skittish, demoralized, inaccurate, and completely unwilling to take risks. It is hard to watch. However, this shouldn't be some grand mystery. The truth is we've seen this before. In case people forgot, the same thing was happening with Justin Fields. At multiple points during his run, he was completing barely half his passes, failed to crack 200 yards, and wasn't throwing touchdowns. Sound familiar?
Here's the thing. Fields had a rare moment of frustrated honesty during the height of those issues. In the middle of a presser, the quarterback admitted he was being "overcoached." It felt like he was playing robotically and was not allowed to be himself. He later retracted the statement, but anybody with common sense knew those comments weren't an accident.
Justin Fields was clearly talking about Matt Eberflus.
At the time, people assumed he was referencing Luke Getsy, the offensive coordinator. It made sense. He had the most say over how the quarterback played, right? Well, Getsy is gone, but the same thing is happening to Williams now. The only person left on the staff connecting the two quarterbacks is head coach Matt Eberflus. This shouldn't be a surprise. Eberflus is a defensive coach. Like most of them, he sees the game through defensive eyes, meaning his sole focus is forcing and avoiding turnovers. His mandate to Justin Fields was 200-2-0. That is 200 yards, two touchdowns, and zero turnovers.
It sounds nice in theory, but telling a quarterback to focus more on protecting the ball rather than scoring points makes them passive. They become afraid of taking risks, which inevitably leads to inaccuracy and taking way too many unnecessary hits. Fields recognized the issue last year. Nobody wanted to hear it. Maybe they'll listen now.
