Chicago Bears fans are under no illusion that the season has been anything but elite thus far from Caleb Williams, with one notable exception. Last week's four interception performance was undeniably a rough look for one of the league's better starters and has many pundits and opposing fans leaping off the bandwagon based on the turnover struggles. What this ignores is the fact the larger sample size tells us that Williams doesn't turn the ball over. Last season the starter finished with 27 touchdowns to only eight interceptions.
Fast forward to this season and those looking to discredit Williams are pointing to the eight touchdowns thrown compared to five interceptions. This on its face isn't great, but it ignores the context of what the Chicago offense has needed and how productive the quarterback has been when needed.
D'Andre Swift has been elite at getting the ball into the endzone and this has allowed the quarterback's touchdown numbers to dip slightly. Baked into this as well is the fact that Williams missed extensive time early in the season with Case Keenum and Tyson Bagent both earning starts in 2026. No question, the touchdown to interception ratio doesn't tell the story of the great season the quarterback is obviously having.
It is lazy stat picking that leans on creating a narrative instead of allowing the story of the season to tell itself. Williams was undeniably awful throwing four picks and making mistakes that deserve heat. However, in every way since Ben Johnson has taken over this game was an outlier and not something that is going to define the team moving forward.
Caleb Williams yet again becoming unfair target during Bears' bye week
Williams taking an unfair level of heat is not anything new for a team that is starting to understand that the starter is going to attract media attention in both directions. This speaks to the stardom of Williams as well as the fact portions of the league media and its fans remain behind when it comes to embracing a different style of leadership or players who refuse to fit a specific mold.
For Williams, this should in many ways work in the quarterback's favor leaving room for endless motivation. There is no question that there is a bit of Jordan or Brady in the quarterback in how he deals with the noise and we are going to see this moving forward.
Chicago remains in a great position and stands to benefit from the next week of NFC North matchups. As long as Williams shows up as expected the Bears are in a great position to take control of the division and remind the league of why they were a trendy Super Bowl pick only two weeks ago.
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