When Dolphins receiver Tyreek Hill hinted final offseason that Caleb Williams reminded him of Patrick Mahomes, the Bears quarterback took it in stride.
“It’s respect,” Williams mentioned a 12 months in the past. “It’s cool and all, however I’m Caleb Williams. Patrick Mahomes is Patrick Mahomes. Tyreek Hill is Tyreek Hill. A lot like to them. … However we’re right here to win video games for the Chicago Bears.”
Williams didn’t do a lot of that as a rookie, going 5-12 and watching as his offensive coordinator and head coach get fired midseason. The Bears are extra optimistic in his second 12 months after touchdown head coach Ben Johnson to be Williams’ play-caller. The franchise has been fooled earlier than, although.
The Bears are removed from the one staff within the NFL attempting to land their model of Mahomes, the Chiefs’ celebrity quarterback who will begin in opposition to them of their preseason finale Friday evening at Arrowhead Stadium. However the Bears are the one one who has tried, and whiffed, so usually.
Beginning with after they took Mitch Trubisky eight spots forward of Mahomes, the Bears have been the one staff to draft three quarterbacks within the high 11 since 2017 — Williams No. 1 in 2024, Trubisky No. 2 in 2017 and Justin Fields No. 11 in 2021.
13 NFL franchises haven’t drafted a single quarterback within the high 11 throughout that point. Solely two groups have even finished it twice — the Cardinals and Jets. Not surprisingly, the three have been within the backside quarter of the NFL since then. The Bears rank twenty fourth in wins. The Cardinals, who took Josh Rosen and Kyler Murray, are twenty eighth. The Jets, who drafted Zach Wilson and Sam Darnold, are thirty first.
The Chiefs? They drafted one quarterback — Mahomes — and have received a league-high 100 video games since 2017, in comparison with the Bears’ 54.
Williams was likened to Mahomes popping out of USC due to his varied arm angles, willingness to throw on the run and propensity for the spectacular. Not all noticed it that approach, although — the Broncos’ Sean Payton thought Williams logged too many sacks, interceptions and fumbles in school. Nonetheless, the comparability between the 2 will proceed, partially due to the truth that the Bears might have drafted Mahomes in 2017.
Mahomes mentioned two years in the past he was instructed by a 3rd occasion the Bears didn’t plan on drafting a quarterback — however that he was atop their listing if that had been to alter.
“It wasn’t that I assumed the Bears had been going to draft me,” Mahomes mentioned. “However I used to be instructed that in the event that they drafted a quarterback, I’d be the quarterback they drafted. That wasn’t directed from their individuals, however that was instructed to my camp.”
Mahomes, although, wished to go to the Chiefs. Matt Nagy, then a Chiefs assistant, met with him throughout his go to to Kansas Metropolis and instructed him what head coach Andy Reid would ask him about of their subsequent assembly. The Chiefs ultimately traded up from No. 27 to select him tenth.
The Bears took Trubisky, and ultimately went again on the quarterback carousel.
If Williams goes to succeed the place Fields and Trubisky failed, it’s going to take time. Williams is aware of enchancment is a multi-year course of.
“It’s been my mindset since I’ve been somewhat youngster, to continue to grow. …” Williams mentioned. “If that’s dealing with every little thing on the line, dealing with every little thing and taking issues off of different individuals’s plates, that’s what it’s. With the ability to do this constantly over the subsequent couple of years is necessary for me.”
He’ll take one last preseason step Friday evening — Johnson mentioned his starters will play, although he wouldn’t say for a way lengthy. Williams was sharp in his exhibition debut Sunday, going 6-for-10 for 107 yards, one landing and a 130 passer ranking. He led the Bears on a 92-yard landing drive on their first possession and a punt on their second.
Friday marks the fourth-straight 12 months the Bears have confronted the Chiefs, be it within the preseason or common season. It reads like a street map of false hopes.
Matt Eberflus coached his first-ever recreation within the 2022 preseason finale, which additionally served as a return to Soldier Subject for Nagy, the previous Bears head coach. Eberflus received all three preseason video games after which two of his first three regular-season contests earlier than shedding 13 of 14 to finish the season.
The Bears went to Arrowhead Stadium in Week 3 of the 2023 season driving a 12-game shedding streak and having watched defensive coordinator Alan Williams go away due to inappropriate exercise days earlier. Fields posted a 58.7 passer ranking — in comparison with Mahomes’ 127.3 — in a 41-10 loss. Tight finish Travis Kelce caught a landing in entrance of girlfriend Taylor Swift, who was attending her first Chiefs recreation.
Within the last week of the 2024 preseason, the Bears went to Kansas Metropolis with new hope — they’d drafted Williams and added coordinator Shane Waldron, working again D’Andre Swift and receivers Keenan Allen and Rome Odunze. Eberflus beat the Chiefs to complete the exhibition season 4-0. Three months later, the Bears would hearth Waldron, adopted by Eberflus, to start out over once more.
Now it’s time for the Williams and Johnson pairing to check themselves in opposition to one of the best — and be in comparison with a quarterback for whom there’s actually no comparability.
