The Jordan Love-Caleb Williams debate is going to keep circling this rivalry, but the real separator isn’t flash. It’s trust.
Green Bay is trying to climb back to the top of the NFC North next season and make a serious playoff push, and Chicago is standing right in the way after beating the Packers twice to close out a disappointing 2025 season. That alone gives this matchup plenty of bite. But the quarterback fight - Love against Williams - is the one that could define where this rivalry goes next.
Williams just nudged Love for the 10th and final spot in ESPN’s survey of executives, coaches and scouts, and FS1’s Danny Parkins backed the choice by pointing straight to the eye test. on Wednesday’s edition of First Things First. “The 90-second highlight tape, the four-minute highlight tape of Caleb Williams is arguably as impressive as any player in football. He does not do it as consistently.
“He is not as statistically productive over 17 games, but when we show a montage of Caleb Williams’s best, and then I send it to a coach, a GM, a scout and I’m like ‘How many other guys could have a highlight tape like this? What’s the list?
[Patrick] Mahomes, [Josh] Allen, and Caleb. End of list.
So I think some of this is projection, and some of it is just not wanting to feel silly, because his talent is so clearly 99th percentile.”
That’s the kind of argument Williams can win all day. He’s electric when the tape is rolling.
Strip away the uniforms and plenty of Packers fans would admit he’s one of the league’s most entertaining quarterbacks to watch. But if the question is who gives a team the steadier hand heading into 2026, Love has the stronger case.
There was a time when Love was the raw, waiting-in-the-wings quarterback too, stuck behind Aaron Rodgers and trying to smooth out the rough edges. His first nine starts in 2023 were uneven: 58.7 percent completions, 2,009 yards, 14 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. Since then, though, he’s settled in and stacked up production - 66.1 percent completions, 8,920 yards, 66 touchdowns and 18 interceptions over his last 38 regular season starts.
That’s the difference. Love isn’t flawless, but Green Bay knows what it’s getting. Over those last 38 starts, he’s had only three multi-interception games, and he’s been on time with the ball, which matters when you’re trying to get the most out of your skill talent.
Williams has shown enough to keep the Bears hopeful, but there are still stretches where the process lags behind the talent. Even with Chicago going 11-6 and knocking Green Bay out in the Wild Card round, his completion rate slipped from 62.5 percent to 58.1 percent. He can clean that up in his second season under Ben Johnson, and he can absolutely add more jaw-dropping clips to the reel Parkins was raving about.
But Fowler’s ranking wasn’t about future ceilings or best-case projections. It was about who belongs there right now. That’s why the top of the list is packed with quarterbacks like Allen and Mahomes - guys who don’t just flash, they deliver it over and over again.
Love has been doing that as a starter for three years. Williams has won games, and he’s got the kind of talent that keeps people leaning forward.
The debate is still open, and that’s what makes it matter. As both quarterbacks head toward the 2026 season, the next chapter of this rivalry is going to be about more than the big throws.
It’s going to be about who can do it every week.
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