Greenberg: Caleb Williams’ moments have been magical. Who would you rather have with game on line?
Four months ago, few people, outside of Caleb Williams and his dad, Carl, were completely, positively, 100% sure what the Chicago Bears had in their second-year quarterback.
Was he the franchise savior? A budding star? A future bust? A hero? An OK quarterback? Or just another Bears QB to add to the rolls?
Being a No. 1 pick and a Heisman winner doesn’t guarantee NFL success, but because of his bona fides and just-OK rookie season, Williams was somewhere between a question mark and a target on the national stage going into his second season. More people were using the word “polarizing” than “generational.”
But now, going into his second playoff game this Sunday evening against the Los Angeles Rams in the divisional round, Williams is being recognized as, well, the kind of quarterback who won a Heisman and was the No. 1 pick in the draft.
He might not be the next Tom Brady. Or even the next Joe Burrow. But he is, right now, a bona fide star.
And certainly, no one is questioning if Williams has the “it factor” to play and win in the NFL.
In his first playoff game last Saturday, Williams continued his run of late-game magic, leading the Bears to 25 points in the fourth quarter and a 31-27 win over the hated Green Bay Packers. Of his record-setting (for the Bears, anyway) 361 passing yards, 184 came in the fourth, as well as both of his touchdown passes — led by his game-winner to DJ Moore — and a fourth-down throw to Rome Odunze that almost defied belief.
The Caleb narrative has shifted along with the results. And that’s how it should work. He came into the league with a lot of hype and some questions, and after a rocky rookie season marred by a coaching fiasco, the hope was that Ben Johnson could work with him and shape him into a franchise QB.
The work is ongoing, but what we’ve seen so far is that Williams gets better when the pressure is on. And that’s not a bad trait to build on.
“I think I’ve said it multiple times, I feel calm in those moments,” he said Wednesday in his midweek interview session. “I feel my conditioning is the best in those moments. I feel, that’s really it. I feel that I’m the best in those moments because of what I’ve prepared to be in those moments and things like that. So, you know, for myself, it’s just next play, next play, next play. And then when you have to go make a play, it’s, you know, it’s life or death in those moments.”
In Paul “Dr. Z” Zimmerman’s classic 1970 book, “A Thinking Man’s Guide to Pro Football,” he began his chapter on quarterbacks with a quote from his old high school coach, who said: “Never mind how many passes he throws and what his completion percentage looks like. My quarterback’s got to be the guy who takes you in in the last two minutes, when it’s getting dark and the fans are booing and the wind is blowing and there’s so much ice on the ball he can’t grip it.”
Zimmerman then admitted that, of course, there was more to quarterbacking, but “what it all comes down to is those last few minutes.” All the great ones, the late, great Zimmerman wrote, had that knack for being at their best in those moments. That passage reminded me of something Seth Wickersham wrote in his recent book, “American Kings,” which explored the history and modern state of NFL quarterbacking.
“Football teams are almost reverse-engineered to support their most valuable players, from scheme to psychology,” he wrote, “but at some point, quarterbacks are alone with a question: Can I do it? Can I make the throws when it matters most?”
Williams, who was one of the quarterbacks Wickersham focused on in the book, obviously can make those throws.
He has the arm, the vision, the athleticism and the confidence to make those “gotta have it” throws in desperate moments, particularly on the run. And despite what you might have read before the season, he does seem to be amenable to coaching. At least he does with his current coaches, Johnson, offensive coordinator Declan Doyle and the rest.
Johnson’s intense, tough-love approach was necessary, and by all accounts, Williams has been receptive. The coach wants more out of him, but late in the game, Johnson not only doesn’t have to micromanage his QB. He can actually trust him.
“There’s really not a lot you got to say to him on the sideline,” Johnson said Wednesday. “We just make sure we’re on the same page in terms of what the situation is, what we need to accomplish, and how quickly we need to accomplish it. But beyond that, it’s not like he needs a pep talk or a rah-rah or anything like that. He’s ready to go. I’ve been saying it all along, he rises to the occasion time and time again. It’s really impressive to see a young player like this be so clutch.”
Williams is always quick to remind us that he’s done this before. That he won big games in high school in Washington, D.C., and in college at Oklahoma and USC. It’s easy to wave that away — most quarterbacks have won somewhere before making it to the NFL — but I think it’s important. He was building up both his mental and muscle memory.
The physical gifts were never a question. But there were questions about Williams’ processing speed and his ability to thrive in the structure required of an NFL quarterback. And more than that, was he ready to lead a team of professionals?
The best way to lead is by example. On Wednesday, veteran running back D’Andre Swift, who played with Matthew Stafford and Jared Goff in Detroit and Jalen Hurts in Philadelphia, praised Williams’ poise late in the game.
“He’s been great, especially in got-to-have-it moments,” he said. “You hear his voice in the huddle a little bit more, which is great. It’s what you want to hear from a quarterback. Specifically, the one thing that comes to my mind, that last drive last week, he said something to us in the huddle where everything was put into perspective. We know we’ve got to go ahead and win this game. We’re in a position to go ahead and do so. He’s been great for us all year, and then in got-to-have-it moments, that shows up every single week, as y’all know.”
The magic Williams is making comes, in part, from the work he’s doing improve himself.
“Yeah, it definitely frees me, the confidence and belief going into games from my preparation and the growth from my preparation,” Williams said. “Being a year in it, it’s having Ben, it’s having these other coaches, and things like that have helped. And so being able to have the belief and faith in myself from my preparation going into games definitely helps. Especially late in games, especially leaning back on what you study, leaning back on your training and all those small things. So I’m gonna keep finding better ways to prepare, be more efficient in my preparing, so I can gain more knowledge to be able to help the team win.”
Williams isn’t done growing. He needs to be more efficient. He needs to process faster. The offense needs to get on track before the fourth quarter.
Sunday against the favored Rams, led by future Hall of Famer Stafford, would be a good place to start.
Who knows whether the Bears can beat the Rams. Their magic might run out. But if the game is somehow close and Williams has the ball in his hands, you will know that he’s giving the Bears a chance to win.
And that’s all Chicago has ever wanted from a quarterback.
© 2025 The Athletic Media Company. All Rights Reserved. Distributed by New York Times Licensing.