Getting acquainted with Caleb Williams seems like the smart bet at this point for Chicago Bears fans. Almost everybody believes he is the best prospect in this draft class and one of the best to come around in years. Maybe that's pre-draft hype getting carried away. Still, there is no denying the young man is talented. Everybody has done scouting reports on him. So, instead of delving further into that, here is a fun twist to help illustrate why the USC star is the heavy favorite to go #1 overall.
Here are some wild stats about his college tenure that you probably won't believe are real. Don't be alarmed if you suspect some of them came from video game sessions.
In two years at USC, he never lost when his defense allowed 33 points or fewer.
For all the criticism Williams gets for not winning enough, it is important to remind everybody that football is a team sport. There are times when the quarterbacks and the offense scored lots of points and it doesn't matter because the defense can't stop anybody. The 2000 St. Louis Rams put up 540 points that season but only went 10-6 because their defense gave up 471. This is the nightmare Williams ran into. He went 24-10 in his college career but was an astonishing 19-0 when his defense allowed 33 points or fewer in a game. In other words, if USC even produced an average performance on defense, the odds were high they'd win. That is what great quarterback play can do.
He had more games with five touchdown passes than games with no touchdown passes.
Caleb Williams was quite prolific across his three seasons in college. To help illustrate how much so, he had six games in which he threw five or more touchdown passes. He had two additional games where he had five touchdowns total. By contrast, he had only two games as a starter where he didn't throw a single touchdown pass. He did score a rushing touchdown in both. There is no question that this helps prove Williams isn't somebody that great for stretches. He was on almost all the time. The great far outweighed the mediocre-to-bad.
He was intercepted only one time in the red zone across three years.
Across three seasons in college, Williams threw a total of 178 passes in the red zone. That is the area of the field between the 20-yard line and the end zone. Only one of those passes was intercepted. For context on this, Jayden Daniels had three and Drake Maye had two (and probably should've had more). While Williams is no stranger to making some reckless decisions from time to time, it is evident he does an excellent job keeping the football out of harm's way when scoring points is at stake.
Caleb Williams finished in the top 75 in punt net average last season.
People who happened to watch his pro day noticed that Williams decided to end things with a punt. It ended up travelling 43 yards. He probably just got lucky, right? Nope. This is something he's been able to do for years. In 2022, he hit two punts during actual game action, averaging 42 yards per punt. That was good enough to tie for 75th in the country with actual everyday punters. Keep in mind Hall of Famer John Elway did some regular punting for the Broncos in his career. He averaged 36.1. Danny White, who was Dallas' actual punter before taking over as starting quarterback, averaged 40.2.
