Caleb Williams has a real chance to get off a list no quarterback wants to see his name on.
The Bears still have plenty to prove, and so does their young passer. Williams has all the arm talent and improvisational juice that made him such a hyped prospect, but the conversation around him keeps circling back to the same issue: consistency. That uncertainty is a big reason he landed at No. 2 on Jason Reed of FanSided’s survey of the NFL’s nine “most overrated players.”
Reed’s rankings used a points system built from “every NFL Division Site Expert [ranking] their top three” candidates, and Williams drew more first-place votes than anyone except the Denver Broncos’ Bo Nix, who finished No. 1. That alone says plenty about how polarizing Williams remains.
Chicago’s 2025 run under head coach Ben Johnson gave the Bears something real to build on, and Williams was at the center of it. The team reached the NFC Divisional Round, and Williams helped fuel seven game-winning fourth-quarter comeback drives, including the Wild Card win over the Green Bay Packers. But the same volatile style that helped the Bears survive so many close games also fed the idea that they were living on the edge far too often.
As Reed put it, “Williams had some truly heroic moments akin to a true franchise quarterback last season,” Reed wrote. “He also had some pretty mediocre overall numbers. A lot of the Bears' success last season seemed flukey as well, which doesn't help the narrative.”
That tension is exactly why Williams keeps getting tagged this way. The flashes are obvious.
So are the dips. He showed off a 9.6 percent pressure-to-sack rate and a 5.4 percent big-time throw rate, both signs of a quarterback who can escape trouble and create explosive plays even when the pocket starts to collapse.
He did it while also dealing with 34 on-target passes dropped, the third-most in the league.
Still, the numbers that stick out most are the rough ones. Williams finished with a 57.3 completion percentage and an 86.8 passer rating, and he also trailed only Trevor Lawrence of the Jacksonville Jaguars with 17 batted attempts. Those are the kinds of stats that keep the questions coming, especially when the highs don’t show up on a steady enough basis.
The task in front of Williams is straightforward, even if it’s not easy: turn the volatility down and make his production more sustainable. He needs to be cleaner, more efficient, and more reliable if he wants to move out of the “overrated” conversation and into the league’s top tier.
Reed’s final point cuts to the heart of it. Williams is, as he wrote, “a victim of his own success both in college and in the pros.” The 2022 Heisman Trophy recipient now has to push beyond that label and back up the Bears’ postseason breakthrough with something even bigger: “MVP-caliber” play.
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Bears Suddenly Have A Backup Quarterback Question Behind Caleb Williams
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Chicago has not offered an official update on Bagents condition, and the absence only sharpens the question heading into the Bengals game. With the preseason schedule moving quickly, the Bears may need to lean on the next man up sooner than expected if Bagent cannot get back on the field in time. [Read more 🡒]