Has Caleb Williams finally broken the Bears' 75-year quarterback curse? | Chicago Bears

ohOn a flight from Chicago to London for Sunday's game against the Jacksonville Jaguars, Bears quarterback Caleb Williams carried the full fan base — not to mention the burden of a 75-year curse unmatched in pro football history.

Apparently, Williams left no luggage on the plane. In the Jaguars' 35-16 dominance, the first overall pick in the 2024 draft completed 23 of 29 passes for 226 yards, four touchdowns, one interception, a 124.4 passer rating, a completion rate above +12.5% ​​(only Lamar Jackson was better at +14.1 on Sunday), and a +14.6 ( Behind Jared Goff and Jordan) passing EPA Love).

Not bad for a rookie starting his sixth NFL game with a franchise that has systematically destroyed quarterbacks. After World War II, the Bears were the last to have what you might call a legitimate franchise quarterback. Sid Luckman was winding down his Hall of Fame career. Since then, it's been a history of near-misses, could-have-beens and massive whiffs at football's most important stage – perhaps the most consequential stage in any sport.

It was the franchise that flipped the coin for the fourth overall pick in the 1944 draft with the Detroit Lions, who used Otto Graham, who never played for the Lions but went on to Hall of Fame success with the Cleveland Browns. . And there was: Bobby Lane, the third overall pick in the 1948 draft, was soon traded to the Bears. But Lane refused to return to the team after a year playing behind Luckman and Johnny Ludjac. Lane later became a Hall of Fame quarterback with the Lions and Pittsburgh Steelers. The Bears selected George Planta in the 12th round of the 1949 draft, but owner and head coach George Halas insisted that Planta was more of a kicker than a quarterback. Planta responded by defecting to the American Football League in 1960 after a one-year layoff and, yes, piecing together his own Hall of Fame career.

In 1979, Bears scout Bill Tobin had a first-round grade on a certain Notre Dame star, but general manager Jim Finks was happy with mediocre quarterback Bob Avelini. The Notre Dame quarterback? Joe Montana.

Since the start of the AFL-NFL common draft in 1967, the Bears have made seven first-round selections on quarterbacks – Jim McMahon in 1982, Jim Harbaugh in 1987, Kate McNown in 1999, Rex Grossman in 2003, Mitch Trubisky in 2017, Justin Fields in 2021 and Justin Fields in 2024. In Williams.

Chicago teams of the mid-1980s had none of those top six picks except for McMahon, who played some of the best defenses football has ever seen.

That's how much time you've gone since one of the NFL's original teams began in 1920 without a quarterback throwing for 4,000 yards or 30 touchdowns in a season. Improvements in the passing game, a surprising drought. And a curse of the owner's own making.

In the first four weeks of Williams' NFL career, it looked like the curse might actually be a thing. Williams completed 87 of 141 passes (61.7%) behind 786 yards (5.6 yards per attempt), three touchdowns, four interceptions, a 72.0 (second-worst in the league among qualified quarterbacks) and 16 sacks. Attack line.

But in the last two games, against the Carolina Panthers and Jacksonville Jaguars (admittedly two bad defenses), the light has changed. In those games, Williams completed 43 of 58 passes (74.1%) for 530 yards (9.1 yards per attempt), six touchdowns, one interception and a league-best passer rating of 129.2.

When grading a quarterback's progress, whether it comes against a big defense or not, you're looking for universal qualities that include great play at the position. Especially against the Jaguars in London, Williams showed those universal qualities across the continent.

Two of Williams' four touchdown passes against the Jaguars went to senior receiver Keenan Allen, while the others went to Cole Gmet, a Chicago commit. Emergency long-snapper in the game. The first TD pass for Kmet came off a nifty design. Allen went into orbital motion, and Williams' double-fake flat route passes set Jacksonville's defense on edge, leaving Kmet wide open in the middle of the field.

On Kmet's second touchdown, Williams saw the defense in the back of the end zone as the quarterback wanted to move to the defense. There are veteran quarterbacks who don't know how to do this.

The first touchdown pass to Allen was a dart into a tight window in which Williams put the ball over Allen's right shoulder – where only Allen could catch it. Now, Williams showed senior command.

Williams' second touchdown to Allen early in the fourth quarter may have been the best throw of the quarterback's young career. He had to fire the ball over the outstretched arms of two Jacksonville defenders before Allen could get out of bounds, and into a small window by the cornerback who was covering Allen tightly. That's no problem.

Williams also ran four times for 56 yards, but these weren't the random scrambles of an overachieving rookie — like everything else, there was a clear plan.

Postgame, Williams said he was “pissed off” after his negative play — a first-half T.J. A pass intercepted by Moore. Maybe that was the spark he needed.

“It was a pass I didn't miss, you don't want to miss, make something like that,” Williams said. “Yeah, I got a little angry after that, I guess [to] Resetting me is key. But what's still in my mind is, you know, it won't happen again, let's go out here and score.

Since then, that's all Williams has done.

The question now is whether Williams can maintain her winning streak. The ramp-up took a few games. The Bears' schedule will be very tough. Chicago's NFC North is the first division since the NFL merged with the American Football League in 1970 to have every team with at least four wins through the first six games of a season. And the Bears had the second-easiest slate to date in terms of opponent-adjusted efficiency, per FTN analyst Aaron Schatz, and neither team has been very imposing in other ways.

Williams will undoubtedly suffer more – as no young quarterback can avoid it entirely. But based on the show thus far, the Bears may have finally, mercifully, hit upon the solution they've sought more vainly than any other pro football franchise.