Somehow, we're already a quarter of the way through the season. Time flies when you're having fun! And through the first four games of Caleb Williams' career, Bears fans are having fun. Right? Fine, Bears fans are having something that closely relates to fun.
Winning both home games, and losing both road games, through the first month of the Williams era feels about right for this team. They're definitely better than they've been in years past, but there's been an undeniable sense of underachieving that's plagued them so far. But Awards SZN waits for no one, and there are Made Up Blog Awards to be handed out. You only go through one quarter of a season four times per year! There's no time to waste. Here are the 25% mark winners, and one 25% mark loser.Bears' First Quarter Awards are somewhat predictable (sorry)
1. MVP: Jaylon Johnson
He is far and away the best player on the team; I don't even think it's particularly close right now. Through the first four weeks of games, Pro Football Focus has Johnson ranked as the 7th best cornerback in football, out of 97 corners with enough snaps to qualify. The Bears have eight defensive players who have palyed at least 200 snaps so far, and Johnson's overall defensive grade (78.8) is by far the highest – only Kevin Byard comes kinda close (74.3). Of qualified corners league-wide, Johnson ranks 2nd in interceptions, 3rd in NFL passer rating against, and 15th in Rec%. He's the only player on the Bears playing at an All-Pro level right now.
2. LVP: Gerald Everett
Nothing against Everett personally, but why is he on the Bears? The signing didn't make a ton of sense at the time – Cole Kmet is in the prime of his career, and it's not like the Bears were desperate for pass-catchers. So far, the Everett Experiment is going a lot like literally everyone who is not named Shane Waldron thought it would: as of Week 5, he currently has three catches on five targets for zero (0) yards. That's right, zero yards. He also currently has the 2nd worst PFF run-blocking grade of his career, so you kinda get a sense of how things are going. He's not taking away as many snaps from Kmet now as he was at the beginning of the year, so that's good!
3. MIP: Caleb Williams
Williams hasn't burst onto the scene the way that some had hoped – or the way that Jayden Daniels has – but his week-over-week improvement has been, quite literally, linear. Both the underlying data and the eye test agree that Williams is looking better each and every week, and his efficient performance in the Bears' Week 4 win against the Rams may have been his best game yet. The Bears have some winnable games over the next month (Panthers, Jaguars, Cardinals), which means that Williams is going to have more than a few chances for the proverbial breakout performance. The bad news is that it hasn't happened yet, but the good news is that it feels more like a matter of when, not if. After everything they've been through, Bears fans will take that after four games.
