Most football fans probably know the name Greg Cosell, at least in passing. He is the nephew of the late Howard Cosell, one of sports' greatest commentators. However, Greg has carved his own path in the business. He's a senior producer at NFL Films, putting together some excellent shows and segments to help enhance the game. Yet these days, he's better known for his detailed and unbiased evaluations of quarterbacks. If he is skeptical of you, there are valid reasons to be so. Cosell was notoriously cool on Mitch Trubisky and Justin Fields when they arrived in Chicago. The same was true of Caleb Williams.
While Cosell was impressed, like everybody else, with the pure talent of the Bears' young quarterback, he worried about a potentially fatal flaw. That was Williams' bad tendency to take too many sacks.
It is a perfectly valid concern. After taking 80 sacks in two years at USC, he took 68 as a rookie in 2024. There was no way Williams could survive that level of punishment long-term. Has Cosell's opinion changed at all in the past few months? Boy, has it. He expressed genuine excitement at how much the Bears QB has improved under the tutelage of Ben Johnson on the Ross Tucker Show.
Winning over Greg Cosell is a major triumph for Caleb Williams.
That isn't easy to do. The longtime analyst has always trusted his evaluation process and is generally accurate. His misgivings about Trubisky and Fields were obviously well-founded. It was hard to imagine he would suddenly reverse course on Williams. That should tell you how much the former #1 pick has improved. Cosell can suddenly see everything clicking in a way it hadn't before. That is especially true in the sack department. He's only taken 23 this year, just over a third of his rookie season. That improvement alone shows how much Williams has learned.
One thing about guys like Greg Cosell is that they always keep their opinions grounded in reality. He watched the tape and drew on what he had learned from the many knowledgeable people he had interacted with throughout his career. He also isn't afraid to admit when he's wrong. His doubts about Caleb Williams were justified, but ultimately misplaced. He can see what the Bears quarterback is becoming, and the excitement in his voice says it all.
