The Chicago Bears have lost 10 games in a row and rookie quarterback Caleb Williams is taking an ungodly amount of punishment.
The Seattle Seahawks defense dropped Williams seven times on Thursday night, upping the QB’s total to a league-leading 67 sacks on the season while falling to 4-12 in the process.
Williams is on the cusp of team history as the first Bears quarterback to ever start 17 games in a season. However, Patrick Finley of the Chicago Sun Times recently asserted that the coaching staff should bench him instead and protect its franchise quarterback in the final week of a campaign that was over a month ago.
“Next week against the [Green Bay Packers], Caleb Williams can become the first [Bears] QB to start every game in a 17-game season. The better question is whether he should,” Finley posted to X Friday, December 27. “The Bears’ season is so lost, their offense so miserable, that it no longer seems smart.”
Caleb Williams, Bears Offensive Line Both Responsible for Punishment QB Has Taken in Rookie Year
GettyChicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams.
Part of the reasoning behind benching Williams is protecting him from a porous and broken offensive line, and part of it is protecting the quarterback from himself.
Starting left tackle Braxton Jones is out for the year with a broken ankle. Starting left guard Teven Jenkins has been banged up most of the season and didn’t play Thursday night. The team released Nate Davis, who began the season as the starting right tackle, in November after the Bears failed to deal him ahead of the trade deadline.
Chicago’s offensive line entered Week 17 as the 27th-ranked unit in the NFL, per Zoltán Buday of Pro Football Focus, and that was before the group surrendered 7 sacks during a game in which the offense scored a measly 3 total points.
“Week 16’s game was a nightmare for the Chicago offensive line,” Buday wrote on Christmas Day. “The unit lost arguably its two best players to injuries in Braxton Jones and Teven Jenkins. Larry Borom replaced Jones at left tackle, while Jake Curhan finished the game at left guard for the Bears.”
The offensive line has been problematic, but Williams is also responsible for some of the surrendered sacks due to holding onto the football too long.
“I’ll definitely take the heat for this one because of some of the situations that I put us in,” Williams said on Thursday night.
Tyson Bagent Will Start for Bears if Team Shelves Caleb Williams for Season
GettyChicago Bears quarterback Tyson Bagent.
Williams doesn’t have any pronounced injury concerns at the moment, or at least none that the team has made public.
However, several franchises around the league have begun shutting down top players now that the playoffs are off the table. The Dallas Cowboys sidelined star wide receiver CeeDee Lamb for their last two games, while the Carolina Panthers on Saturday shelved running back Chuba Hubbard for the remainder of the year.
Should the Bears choose to pull Williams from the lineup, backup QB Tyson Bagent will be the starter. Bagent started four games last season, going 2-2 and throwing for 859 yards, 3 TDs and 6 INTs. However, he has only attempted 2 passes across four appearances in 2024.
