Although the Bears had already taken the field this year in the preseason, in the Hall of Fame game, we hadn’t seen the starters play yet. Although we’ve seen clips online, although we all watched the first episode of Hard Knocks, we still hadn’t seen Caleb Williams take a snap as the Bears QB… until Saturday afternoon. You know what they say about first impressions…
We already have our impressions of Caleb though, at least some of us do. We’ve seen him play in college. Although I was impressed, I wasn’t totally sold on him being the “next coming”. He didn’t perform well against the better teams in college, although it was true the team as a whole wasn’t very good. I was OK with giving Fields one more chance on this team; I was OK with drafting Caleb at the end of the day too. We’ve seen him with his painted finger nails; we saw the appearance of a “murse” in the first episode of Hard Knocks. We’ve heard about his unique contract demands. Many folks have formed an opinion about him already; it’s hard not to. This goes for every aspect of life… we are quick to judgment. In this case, let’s see it play out on the field. At this point, I don’t care what he did in college; I don’t care what he does to his nails. All I care about is how he performs for the Chicago Bears. On Saturday afternoon, we got our first taste, and let me tell you… it tastes good.
How many times have we watched a QB for our Bears and thought “this could be the guy”? We have many examples… many recent examples. If you’ve thought this at any point in most of the last 4 decades, as I have, you would have been wrong. We haven’t had THE guy since that short stint from the Punky QB; the number of years since we’ve had a franchise QB is longer than most of us have been alive. Watching Caleb Williams throw the ball during this “meaningless” preseason game against the Bills, gave me hope. He looks like an NFL QB; the only way I know what a real NFL QB looks like is by watching the other teams’ games. Let’s just start there. A couple of the throws he made were impressive; it doesn’t take much. I want to believe again… I do believe again.
I’m not stupid enough to think a small number of minutes in a preseason game has given me everything I’ve wanted in an NFL QB for my team, but I can be excited about what this is the start of. Next week he could look like crap, and then what? Well, you know… we’re on this ride for life; no getting off for this guy. We’re always Bearing Down… we’ve BEEN bearing down. Having a real NFL QB on our roster is the start; is Caleb a real NFL QB? If that answer is YES, then we’re on our way. I’m not saying “franchise QB” yet; I’m not comparing what he could be to Michael Jordan. All I’m asking for is a guy who can make those throws I see a dozen other QBs in the league make. I’m asking for a guy who we can trust to make a big play when we need it. Let’s just start there. Will Caleb be able to fill that role? If a small part of one preseason game is evidence enough, then yes; if you need to see more, then see you next week. Bear Down!
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