Bears QB Caleb Williams is making progress — and the Vikings' J.J. McCarthy is only getting started
Bears coaches tell quarterback Caleb Williams to picture he’s driving a car.
To get where he wants, he needs to look out the windshield at what’s ahead, not the side windows that show the day-to-day, quarter-by-quarter, snap-by-snap analysis of whether he’ll be the Bears’ franchise quarterback.
“Otherwise, you're going to end up swerving off and being off track,” offensive coordinator Declan Doyle said, “The biggest thing is, what can we control right now? What's right in front of me that I can go try to be the best in the world at? And then we'll worry about the next thing later.”
For the Bears, the next thing is exciting. They’re 6-3 entering Sunday’s game at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. They’re entering a second-half gauntlet but would make the playoffs were the season to end today.
Williams’ development seems as stable as it’s been at any point in his Bears career. He’s won seven of the last 10 games he’s started, dating to last year’s finale in Green Bay, and has led the Bears to fourth-quarter game-winning drives in five of those games. He’s on pace to be the first Bears quarterback ever to throw for at least 4,000 yards.
That’s the vision the Bears had in mind when they drafted Williams No. 1 overall pick last year. When the Vikings took J.J. McCarthy 10th in the same draft, it set up a natural rivalry between the former Heisman Trophy winner at USC and national champion at Michigan. Both were surrounded by veteran play-makers and, as of this offseason, offensive-minded head coaches.
Do well, and the two could be NFC North rivals for the next decade — something that can’t necessarily be said about the Packers’ Jordan Love, who is 27, or the Lions’ Jared Goff, who is 31.
The budding rivalry hasn’t bloomed through their first year-and-a-half in the league together. Williams is making progress, but McCarthy is just getting started. The La Grange Park native has played only four career games.
He rallied the Vikings to beat the Bears in Week 1 — and was named NFC Offensive Player of the Week — but has yet to show staying power. He missed all last season after hurting his knee in the preseason. Veteran Sam Darnold, who took his place, went 14-3, was named to the Pro Bowl and received down-ballot MVP votes. The Vikings let him leave this offseason in order to play McCarthy, only to watch him suffer a high-ankle sprain in Week 2. He returned seven weeks later.
He's posted four rollercoaster showings. In two wins, McCarthy has posted a passer rating of 82 or higher. In two losses, he’s posted a 55 or lower.
McCarthy’s inconsistencies have been enough to confound people — from pundits to fans to executives — impatient to find out whether he’s the Vikings' quarterback of the future. Fair or not, they want answers now, even with a tiny sample size.
Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell realized a long time ago how impatient the rest of the NFL was when it came to judging a young quarterback. This year, though, he’s living it.
“I think you're speaking in regards to not only the people in this room, but the people that fill seats in stadiums, the people that evaluate the quarterback position from many different landscapes,” O’Connell told Vikings reporters this week. “I think it's becoming more of a minute-to-minute, day-to-day reflection and final verdict that you're seeing.”
It’s all side windows, no windshields. That’s particularly complicated on a team that’s trying to develop a quarterback with a roster it believes can contend for a playoff berth.
“There’s really two worlds going on at the same time,” O’Connell said. “Quarterback development … as well as what’s best not only for our team that day, this season, but that play.”
The Bears were in that same position last year — and failed miserably. One year ago this week, the Bears fired offensive coordinator Shane Waldron in an attempt to fix a broken scheme. By the end of the month, head coach Matt Eberflus was fired, too.
Then came the offseason report, and Williams’ eventual admission, that he had his father entertained the notion of trying to force the Bears to not draft him No. 1 so Williams could go play for O’Connell, with whom he clicked in a pre-draft interview.
Williams “does a great job avoiding distraction,” coach Ben Johnson said, in part because he’s dealt with fame since a young age. Winning games, helps, too — and the Bears have more victories than they posted all last year.
Williams has played more consistently this season in part because of the steadying hand of his new head coach. Even some of his incompletions have been must-watch television — O’Connell finds himself rewinding film just to get another glimpse of Williams throwing on the run.
He’s far from a finished project, though — and the impatience from the outside is part of the job.
Williams is starting to settle into the role the Bears wanted for him. McCarthy hasn’t had enough time to get there. Sunday’s result will point one of the two in the direction they want.
"I’m very pleased with how [Williams] has been progressing," Johnson said. "But, yeah, I think that’s where we are as a league right now. Everybody wants instant gratification. You win a game and the next thing you know, you’re Super Bowl contenders. You lose a game and, next thing you know, you’re out of it. So, that’s the world we live in. And it certainly goes to quarterback play as well."