Bears fans and the national chatter machine latched onto one Caleb Williams incompletion from Chicago’s second preseason game against the Cincinnati Bengals, but the throw itself is being judged in the wrong way.
On a 1st-and-20 from the Bengals’ 27-yard-line, Williams dropped back and fired toward tight end Colston Loveland on a play that had real touchdown potential if Loveland could have gotten his body around in time to make the catch. At the same time, receiver Kaden Davis was sitting wide open a few yards past the line of scrimmage and, with his speed, had a chance to turn it into a bigger gain.
That open window is what got people talking. Fans immediately pointed to Davis, and head coach Ben Johnson did too after the game, saying he would have preferred Williams take that route instead. That only fueled the criticism of Williams for not choosing the easier throw.
Then the national media jumped in, and the play somehow became a talking point all over again. It even got airtime on ESPN’s morning show, “Get Up!” The reaction, though, missed the point.
This wasn’t a reckless decision or some glaring quarterback error. It was the kind of read you want a high-end quarterback to make.
Put Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen or Joe Burrow in that exact same spot and if one of them comes up short on the throw, nobody is making a scene about it. The conversation would be simple: that was nearly a huge play.
Instead, because it happened with Williams, because it happened with the Bears, and because that’s been an easy target for the national conversation for years, the miss got treated like something bigger than it was.
The truth is the throw to Loveland was a perfectly fine decision. It was the more aggressive play, sure, but it also had the chance to become the game’s biggest highlight. The connection was close enough that it should be viewed as a near-miss, not a mistake worth obsessing over.
And this isn’t just about one play. Williams and Loveland are still learning each other’s timing and tendencies, and the expectation is that those kinds of throws will start to hit more often as they get more comfortable. There was also a touchdown pass Williams delivered to Loveland in the back of the end zone during a joint practice, in traffic, that carried even more difficulty than the preseason incompletion.
That’s the part getting lost in all the noise. The focus shouldn’t be on Williams failing to dump it off to Davis.
It should be on how close the Bears were to a huge completion to Loveland - a true “what if?” moment.
It’s preseason, after all. And this is still just Year 2 of Johnson’s offense with Williams and Loveland continuing to grow together.
There’s even a world where those kinds of plays show up in a matter of weeks. Fantasy football buzz is already building around Loveland, with people talking about a season in which he could finish as the top fantasy tight end in football. That kind of outcome doesn’t happen without Williams playing at a high level.
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