For the first time in his professional career, Caleb Williams will lead his team, the Chicago Bears, back to the state that made him a star for a Week 14 showdown against the San Francisco 49ers.
Facing off against a 49ers team that has severely underperformed expectations in 2024, sitting in last place in the NFC West with just one more win than the Bears, Williams has a chance to step onto the turf at Levi Stadium and make a serious statement against one of the best head coaches in the NFL. Now granted, statement wins don’t usually come against 5-7 teams, especially ones who are without many of their top players, but considering this is Thomas Brown’s first game as a head coach, the motivation is there for the Bears to pull out all the spots to leave California the victors in Week 14.
Discussing what he’s seen from Williams so far in 2024, Shanahan celebrated his gifts, noting that the tools-y signal-caller has been getting better as the year has gone on.
“As talented as there is. The stuff that you saw in college, you can see in the NFL,” Shanahan told reporters. “As good of a thrower as there is, born to play the position, got the athletic ability to do whatever, he’s got the speed to do whatever. He’s gotten a lot of playing time, he’s getting better as this year goes, I think he’s getting a lot more consistent. I think he’s been playing his best ball probably here the last few weeks. He’s put them in a chance to win here in these last few games there.”
Goodness, if Shanahan is going to talk that kindly about Purdy, it’s no wonder NFL personalities like Nick Wright has suggested that the Bears should trade a first-round pick for the head coach in order to set the USC product up for success moving forward. Considering Shanahan also likes the Bears’ defense, that might actually be less farfetched than some may assume.
Kyle Shanahan is impressed with the Bears defense too
Discussing the other side of the ball in Chicago, Shanahan complimented how the Bears are defending, too, noting that he’s impressed with what the team has accomplished so far this year.
“I think they’re a real good defense. I think, how good they are in the redzone, I think they’re ranked number two in the redzone. I think they’re top five at getting turnovers. I think they’re top five on third down. When they’re top five in getting turnovers and their offense, I think, is number one at not giving up turnovers, it’s usually a really good formula for winning,” Shanahan told reporters.
“You look at their team as a whole, they started out 4-2, they went on a bye, they lost the next game on a Hail Mary versus a good team in Washington, so you’d like to say they should have been 5-2 and the next five games after that, they got blown out two after that, but these last three games, they played as good as any team in the league playing Minnesota, Green Bay and Detroit, losing by a total of seven points. So I see a defense that is capable of being a playoff defense. They’ve played like it all year. They’ve just come up short here in these last five games.”
While Shanahan likely wants the Bears losing streak to continue for at least one more week, as that would mean the first win of the Brown era came at his expense, that proposition is easier said than done, especially if defensive coordinator Eric Washington can keep up the same standards as his former head coach, Matt Eberflus.
