The Chicago Bears are collectively breathing a sigh of relief as an organization and fanbase as it seems Caleb Williams has avoided the worst. While a timeline for the quarterback's return remains unclear, it is incredibly telling that he isn't yet ruled out for Week 3. Now that the worst case scenarios appear to be off the table it is fair to look back at Sunday's ugly loss and consider how it felt to lose the quarterback and what it means moving forward.
Second-year receiver Luther Burden captured the feeling perfectly captured the gut punch losing Williams was offering the following quote: It hurts, man…he’s the heart, soul, and engine of this team. Hopefully he’s okay and gets back out there.” As simple as the sentiment might this is exactly how Chicago fans were feeling seeing the quarterback go down and fearing it was a season-ending injury.
There was early speculation as to where it could be an ACL tear or something far worse than the hamstring injury it proved to be. Chicago's season isn't over, but that was the fear the moment that Williams went down and there was fear that it could impact not only this season, but next one as well.
Burden offering that the quarterback is the "heart and soul" of the team points to why the loss in Week 2 shouldn't be held against Chicago even in the fashion that it happened. As ugly as the game was fans felt as if a Williams comeback and late win was simply a matter of time and appeared to be in motion on the play that Williams was injured.
Luther Burden perfectly captures how Bears fans were feeling when Caleb Williams went down
The air was let out of the team and it showed on the sideline and in the huddle and Tyson Bagent still had two late chances to win the game with a deep throw. Chicago getting the news that Williams is going to make a return far quicker than expected helps wipe this away and allow Bears fans to better appreciate the sentiment from Burden.
What was complete frustration and despair now feels like simply a bump in the road in what can still be an incredibly impressive season. Williams is still going to have a chance to make a comeback and push this roster to the heights expected coming out of Week 1.
No question, the Bears are avoided what the players and fanbase clearly greatly feared as Burden was far from the only one to speak on the injury. It will be interesting to watch how quickly Williams can return and if Chicago is able to once again find the form that had the franchise considered the best team in the league a week ago.
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