Checking The Tape on Bears @ Bills
Caleb Williams led his Bears to a blowout in Buffalo — below are a few notes from what I saw from Chicago’s starters.
If you’d like a full recap of the weekend’s contest, check out the latest episode of Bear With Us below.
https://twitter.com/robertkschmitz/status/1822762254988931140
Andrew "That Dog" Billings, man. Some things never change.
Love sticking him at 3T on the frontside of heavy run looks — here, he beats a double-team to push the RB wide for a stop. Great use of Dexter's 1T versatility too. pic.twitter.com/5IElRoxHhq
— Robert Schmitz (@robertkschmitz) August 11, 2024
I liked what I saw from #Bears DT Gervon Dexter yesterday — you can tell he's worked on his hand usage, and that led to some quality pass-rush reps.
Looked stout vs the run too, which I loved seeing. It sounds like he's having a big camp too, so keep an eye on him. pic.twitter.com/6IjZS2rztV
— Robert Schmitz (@robertkschmitz) August 11, 2024
Many of the worst "Disaster Moments" Rookie QBs come on great defensive playcalls — the Bills plays the #Bears' 3-vert concept beautifully here & jam Everett hard. Options aren't great.
I love seeing Caleb stay poised — he works through his reads, avoids pressure, finds Rome… pic.twitter.com/fi6vM3JZGF
— Robert Schmitz (@robertkschmitz) August 11, 2024
Your Turn: What did you see in the Bears-Bills game?
A word to the wise: try not to get too wrapped up in the “results” of individual Training Camp practices. Learning is a process, and not a linear one.
Caleb Williams is a rookie QB, practice “results” will vary — especially since they’re running him & the rest of the #1 offense against the defensive starters, as opposed to the second-string. That’s always going to push a young QB, especially when his defense is reportedly doing nothing to make life easy for him, blitzing him often and challenging his understanding of coverages early.
It’s fun to talk about practice highlights, but Caleb’s growth was always going to be a process — and not a process that will finish by September 8th. I can personally attest to having agonized over each individual Mitch Trubisky and Justin Fields Training Camp pass attempt, and as much as I’d love to tell you that those Camp performances signaled anything about their upcoming seasons… they didn’t.
I could wax on about how Caleb’s bar for this season is set by lowly Bears records like “11 total passing TDs” and “2300 passing yards in a season”, but ultimately football is a results-based business. During Training Camp we bog ourselves down in the minutia of each individual rep, each individual handoff, each individual 1-on-1, and each individual 2-Minute-Drill, but the first number that truly matters in the early season is the number the Bears put on the Soldier Field scoreboard as of ~3PM CST on September 8th.
I love to dig deep into the nitty-gritty of football, I love to obsess over the details of every snap, and while I’d love to tell you that preseason results tell us anything about a young QB’s development… they don’t. CJ Stroud’s first two preseason starts saw him complete 9 of 16 passes for 72 yards, 0 TDs, and 1 INT — he didn’t throw a regular-season INT until Week 6.
All of this to say, enjoy the growth process and don’t let it get to you. Football is fun, after all! And above all else, Bear Down.
I love hearing that the #Bears are putting their offensive 1s vs their defensive 1s, but it creates a set of funny reactions as practice plays out.
Jaylon Johnson blanketing Keenan and DJ is great news — the Bears need a big season from him! I love hearing that the defense is…
— Robert Schmitz (@robertkschmitz) August 7, 2024
Your Turn: What are you looking for in Caleb’s first Preseason start?
Your Turn: What do you think about the recent offensive reports?
This weekend I had an awesome experience on Football Night in Chicago and figured I’d share it here — what do I expect from Caleb Williams in 2024? What do I think of Jaylon Johnson’s recent comments about Williams? What stories seem like they’ll be ones to watch coming up in camp? Find out here:
Also… is DBB moving up in the world? We’ll see!
The Bears have three rookies with a chance to play meaningful roles on offense or defense this year, so I want to take some time this week to look at what history can tell us about what to expect for those players, both in their rookie seasons and in their careers. We’ll start today with QB Caleb Williams, shift tomorrow to WR Rome Odunze, and end with a look at DE Austin Booker.
To get a baseline for Caleb Williams, I looked at the last 10 QBs drafted 1st overall, going back to Sam Bradford in 2010. I only wanted to look at QBs drafted 1st overall because they are significantly different than other highly drafted QBs in a few notable ways:
QBs are by far the most valuable players in the NFL, and so any QB who is widely regarded as a top-level prospect is going to get drafted #1 overall. Accordingly, I want to compare Williams directly to his peers, not to others who might get drafted highly out of desperation.
With that setup in mind, let’s take a look at how these 10 QBs fared as rookies. Full data can be seen here, but the average stat line for these players was 504 pass attempts, 60% completion, 6.7 yards/attempt, 17 TD, 13 INT, and an 80.2 passer rating.
Next week, coverage returns!
Traditionally, the Bear With Us podcast is a grounded, analysis-focused take on the Chicago Bears.
That’s great for the middle of the season, but right now it’s June. Theoretically we could always talk more about OTAs, or maybe talk about the Haason Reddick and Aaron Rodgers drama, but now that we’re into the dead of the offseason I had a better idea — for one week, Nick and I allowed ourselves to be as recklessly positive as we felt like. The episode that resulted is an absolute firecracker.
Tune into this week’s episode for:
Your Turn: How are you feeling about the 2024 Chicago Bears?
Twitter embeds aren’t working on the site today, and I have no idea why. We’ll just have to make do.
Over the weekend, Caleb Williams walked into a Chicago bar and led a ‘Green Bay Sucks’ chant. Coming off of glowing OTA reports last weekend, it seems the young QB is quickly embracing what it means to paly for the Bears.
Is it a bit corny? Sure, especially given the team’s recent record against the Packers. But is it fun? Absolutely.
What is star quality? How does one quantify it? Richard Zanuck, one of the producers of Jaws (and countless other non-shark films) tried to sum it, saying, “Star quality is one of the most difficult things to describe. It emanates from the person, and he may not even understand it himself. It’s a quality that separates the star from the rest of us.”
Star quality, when it comes to sports, is perhaps even more difficult to define than it is in Hollywood, but there are correlations. Michael Shannon and Campbell Scott and Cherry Jones are brilliant actors, but are they stars? Of course not. “I’m going to see the new Cherry Jones film” is a sentence that has never been uttered outside of my apartment. D.J. Moore and Jaylon Johnson are a brilliant wide receiver/corner combo, but how many tickets do you think the two players are responsible for selling? I would argue very, very few. If Jaylon Johnson walked into my local bar for trivia night, there’s a chance I wouldn’t even recognize him.
Brilliance does not equal stardom in sports, but it is a requirement, because stardom without brilliance is mere celebrity. The Kelce brothers are stars in the NFL not just because of pop star girlfriends, shirtless beer guzzling and a top podcast. That helps, and their personalities enable those things, but they are stars in the NFL because they complement those personalities with two of the greatest careers seen at their respective positions.
Baker Mayfield has the personality, but not the game. Justin Jefferson has the game, but not the personality. The list of those who combine both attributes is a short one and that’s what makes a Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes, Mike Singletary, Ray Lewis, Deion Sanders, Reggie White, Lawrence Taylor, Randy Moss, etc. so unique. Hell, Aaron Rodgers might three clubs (or more) short of a full golf bag but his stardom, and the attention it receives, are undeniable. (Joe Burrow and Cam Newton always struck me as fake stars. Great players who put on funny outfits to gain the attention they believe accompanies stardom.)
Cade McNown could have been the greatest QB to ever play but that “personality” was never going to breed stardom. Same with Rex Grossman and Mitch Trubisky. Jay Cutler had a remarkably unique personality, but he polarized the cities in which he played to such a degree that transcendent stardom seemed an impossibility. Justin Fields had electric moments on the field but offered very little elsewhere. Could you imagine Fields in these State Farm commercials Mahomes does?
Caleb already does the commercials. Dr. Pepper. Wendy’s. You name it.
