Over the past few weeks, the NFL world has been exposed to rookie quarterback Caleb Williams in more ways than one.
We all knew that everyone would over analyze every throw and move Williams made during his first NFL preseason with the Chicago Bears. On Thursday, the evaluation of Williams' preseason debut reached an entirely new level coming from one of the best minds in NFL history.
Since parting ways with the New England Patriots, former head coach and future Hall of Famer Bill Belichick has been making his rounds in the media landscape. This week, Belichick made another TV appearance on the season premiere of NFL Network’s “Inside the NFL." During the show, Belichick was asked about his thoughts on Williams' preseason performance and didn't seem to be all too impressed by the top draft pick.
“Well, he wasn’t accurate, he was 10-for-20,” Belichick said. “There were a couple of highlight plays, but they weren’t that good.”
Belichick's assessment of Williams was a stark contrast from what everyone else has been praising over the last few weeks, but Belichick isn't wrong. Williams wasn't accurate stat-wise during his two games of preseason action and didn't even throw a single touchdown. The eye-catching plays were certainly there at times but overall, Williams' performance wasn't dominating. The good news is, it didn't have to be.
The criticism Belichick provided for Williams' performance is entirely narrow-minded and completely overlooks the bigger picture of what this preseason was supposed to look like for Williams.
No one in Chicago expected Williams to be perfect in his NFL debut. In fact, it was the opposite. The coaching staff in Chicago wanted to put Williams in a low-pressure situation to learn from mistakes on the field and see the field in a new way. While the stats weren't ideal, everyone in Chicago came away impressed from how their new quarterback handled his preseason opportunities.
"It's not always going to be rosy, you know, you're not going to make all your completions and make these big chunk places to start out," head coach Matt Eberflus explained. "I saw operation that was good before the snap, in and out of the huddle, communicating and cadence was good. I thought his flow of the game was really nice. I also thought that his disposition when he had a little adversity on the sideline was excellent."
During the offseason and the preseason, Williams wanted to get all of the reps he could possibly get to prepare for his first NFL season. He didn't want to light up the score board and be perfect, he wanted to learn and grow from his reps before things become real in Week 1.
"Every one of these reps, I think he's used as a learning opportunity and he keeps banking them," offensive coordinator Shane Waldron explained. "He's constantly learning and understanding. It's our job of putting him in the where can his eyes go fast so he can read it and play fast every single snap."
So yeah, Williams didn't look the best during the preseason based on his final stats. But the bigger picture is that he was able to be put in situations where he got some key experience when not everything is going right for a quarterback so that he can better handle those situations when they inevitably come back around in his career.
"Obviously there's going to be times when I struggle," Williams said. "When those times come, you know how to get back on track, you know how to react, and things like that in those moments."
At the end of the day, Belichick is a media man now and seeing the reaction from his comments is exactly what his goal was by making them. As one of the best evaluators in the history of the game, I'm sure Belichick feels a lot differently deep down about Williams compared to what he's going to say on TV.
