TIME FOR CALEB WILLIAMS TO OVERCOME CHICAGO-ITIS AND MAKE DENZEL HAPPY
It’s hard to believe Williams was glorified by Oscar winners, Grammy winners, Snoop Dogg and LeBron James, but whatever happens in Chicago — blood and yuck — he must pursue “immortality” on his own
They know nothing about the most sinister streak of non-quarterbacking in the history of the NFL, college football, prep football, even backyard football. All Denzel Washington knows is that he took Caleb Williams to dinner at Steak 48. All John Legend knows is that he sang to Williams. All Snoop Dogg knows is that he snooped and dogged over him. All Jamie Foxx knows is that he adored him at the Bird Streets Club.
LeBron James loved him. Matthew Stafford loved him. These are men with Oscars, Grammys, TV network worship, NBA championships and a Super Bowl championship.
“Is Denzel who you’d want playing you in a movie?’’ a reporter asked last spring.
“He might do a good job,’’ Williams said.
They don’t care about the Bears in Los Angeles, other than the program known as “The Bear,” which features a team logo with a frown. No one is aware of how they’re strangling Williams in Chicago, which is what the franchise has done to quarterbacks since Jim McMahon fell apart and since — I’ve stopped saying who — won NFL titles in 1941 and 1946. The Bears are officially worse than the Cubs, who have won once in 116 years, and the White Sox, who have won once in 107 years because we don’t count the World Series they fixed in 1919. They’re almost uglier than the corruptive dolts in governmental ranks.
What Caleb Williams has done is fall into the bottomless chasm. He enraptured folks at USC and has become the latest symptom of failure with an endless mop-up that hasn’t won a championship since January 1986. The Bears have made the postseason only six times since 1995 and only twice in the last 13 years, losing both times. After nine games — and only a month since London, when he threw four touchdown passes with a 124.4 passer rating against Jacksonville — people are writing under headlines that say, “The Chicago Bears will ruin Caleb Williams if they’re not careful.”
In saner truth, starting this Sunday in a one-sided rivalry game with the Green Bay Packers, Williams needs to separate himself from the longstanding theory of slop. Matt Eberflus, the wrong man to be his head coach and eight games from being fired, has dismissed Shane Waldron as his offensive coordinator and replaced him with Thomas Brown. That means Caleb is 1-for-1 in getting a coach dumped while waiting for Eberflus to go, which means the McCaskeys have no choice among the board of directors — NO CHOICE for 101-year-old Virginia and 68-year-old George, not to mention 86-year-old Pat Ryan and Kevin Warren’s contributions as president and CEO, along with various other McCaskeys — than to stop being coaching-cheap this offseason.
Ben Johnson is the guy, turning Jared Goff from a Detroit washout into a Super Bowl hope. The only chance for Virginia and George in NFL life is by keeping Williams content — and making sure he and his father aren’t demanding trades next season — and focus on Johnson by outbidding several teams that want him. That will require a ton of money, as much as $15 million a year for an offensive coordinator, and they certainly have it with their $6.4 billion valuation breakdown. Once upon a time, I received word that former general manager Jerry Angelo flew south to land a new coach. Name: Nick Saban.
Too expensive for the McCaskeys. The Bears are old and stale mannequins, but they also have Caleb Williams and some sort of defense. Pay up, right? Why would Johnson go to the New York Giants, who have no quarterback, or the Cleveland Browns, who have no quarterback, or the Dallas Cowboys, who might want Bill Belichick? That way, an offense with productive weapons cannot possibly in hell’s reign go another 23 consecutive possessions without a touchdown and gain only 142 yards against the Patriots. Wouldn’t Johnson cure Williams of holding onto the ball too long, even with a broken-down line? Wouldn’t he spread out the offense and let Caleb complete simple short-range passes for lengthy drives? This is not the first team to have blocking disruptions. This is the first team to completely fall apart, left in the dumper with a helpless quarterback and, naturally, Tyrique Stevenson’s Hail Mary tumult.
Say hello to Brown. “Thomas is a bright offensive mind who has experience calling plays with a collaborative mindset,” Eberflus said in a statement. “I look forward to his leadership over our offensive coaching staff and his plan for our players.”
And Williams? “I just want to take the temperature of him, where he's at, where his confidence level is, which is high," Eberflus said. “We're 4-5 and we've lost three in a row, and again, it's about getting us on the right track.”
Under Eberflus and his struggling general manager, Ryan Poles, the locker room is set up the way some of my media operations have languished. Let’s put political goofs — DJ Moore seems to be one — who think Williams is a problem. Some players have suggested Tyson Bagent, who performed well in the preseason, should start. So this has become a drowning of the overall No. 1 draft choice? I’d ask who is coaching the team, but the Bears have no head coach — except one who has watched eight members of his staff either be fired or resign in the last 14 months. They need a new leader to help Williams, who has been sacked 38 times and 15 times in two games … and might break in half.
Let’s see if he adjusts somehow with Brown, the team’s 10th offensive coordinator in 15 years. Rather than employ Waldron, who helped Geno Smith resurrect his career in Seattle, the McCaskeys and Warren/Poles should have clutched onto Kliff Kingsbury, who went to Washington as OC and has helped Jayden Daniels become a rainmaker. Or Zac Robinson, who has meshed well with Kirk Cousins in Atlanta. Again, this is why I’m a different media person than most in Chicago. I go after the owners, every damned time, because they create a lose-lose culture year after year or decade after decade. So Warren and Poles are around. Tell them to get Johnson with huge finances. Or fire them.
Nah. The McCaskeys just sulk in a booth. They kept boss Ted Phillips forever, just as Jerry Reinsdorf keeps his ding-dongs around forever. The year is 2024. A football owner that can’t appease a quarterback shouldn’t be a football owner. Hey, would the McCaskeys like to sell the team? With Reinsdorf? On the very same day, when we send everyone home from work and have a holiday? Even Soldier Field KO artist Aaron Rodgers weighed in with support for Williams: “For a young player to come in like that and be drafted first overall with all the pressure, scrutiny and expectations, with the roster moves they made, and then you get rid of the guy calling the plays after nine games, that’s a tough deal for him. He’s strong enough mentally to get through this.”
As we watch his father’s social media feed — on Monday, Carl posted a coach’s wife discussing the job’s personal difficulties — Williams has kept his lid intact. He wants a chance to play for a champion, recalling what he said of the Bears on draft night: “The history since I've been alive hasn't been necessarily where they are winning big games and Super Bowls and things like that. To be the greatest or to be able to sit at the table, you put dreams and goals in front of you that you aren't able to reach within a year or two, and you try to go get ‘em. You have to consistently not get tired with consistency. Being able to be the same guy, being able to go in there and lead the guys and hold them accountable, and they hold me accountable to go get it. Having those team goals. The only way you can reach them.
“My last goal is immortality. The only way to reach that is winning championships. That's big for me and something that is the reason I play the game.”
Immortality? A person lives forever, correct? Already, Chicago is burying Williams when, as we know, Chicago should be buried in the sports landscape. Think he senses that as he drives around town and hears mopes? The news has been dreadful, with USC and coach Lincoln Riley placed on a one-year probation Tuesday after in-house violations. When Williams was the quarterback in 2022 and 2023, the Trojans had six coaches too many, according to the NCAA, which said: “Because Riley was not personally involved in the violations and demonstrated that he promoted an atmosphere of compliance and monitored his staff, Riley rebutted his presumed responsibility for the violations occurring before the rules change. For the same reasons, the parties also agreed that a suspension penalty for Riley was not appropriate.”
So what does Caleb say now about humanity? Isn’t it time to seek his own immortality as a scuffling mortal? He’s not receiving help in Lake Forest.
“Something I go by myself is that OK teams, nobody leads. Good teams, the coaches lead. And the great teams, the players lead,” Williams said. “We have to find ways to be better for ourselves. There were plays in that game where we have to execute. Whether my drop is wrong or the route depth is wrong or the hand placement or your helmet isn’t across the defender’s chest so we can get him moving and cut up. There are a lot of things that players, first and foremost, can correct. You always have to look at yourself before you start pointing fingers or doing anything like that and make sure you’re doing things right. From there, we’re going to keep having communication and we’re going to keep getting better between the coaches and us players.”
That was a week ago. He speaks Wednesday. Speak up, please.
Denzel might be listening.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.