Advice for Bears’ Caleb Williams: ‘Closed ears, open eyes,’ says former NFL superstar

The best, most prolific quarterback in Philadelphia Eagles history led the team to the playoffs eight times in 11 seasons, won five division titles, reached five NFC Championship Games and a Super Bowl and received six Pro Bowl nods.

Not too shabby, wouldn’t you agree?

Donovan McNabb did his hometown proud in the pros. In a dream scenario, he would have done it with his hometown team instead, but the Bears — who needed a quarterback in the first round in 1999 — stood pat with the No. 12 pick and watched four QBs be selected, including Syracuse’s McNabb at No. 2, before settling for UCLA’s Cade McNown.

Oh, what might have been.

“Would’ve been awesome,” McNabb said.

Alas, the South Sider and Mount Carmel legend has bled Philly green ever since.

“That ship sailed when the Bears didn’t move up to get me,” he said.

But we didn’t sidle up to McNabb before his appearance at Lurie’s Children’s Hospital the other day to play make-believe about a career spent at Soldier Field instead of Veterans Stadium and Lincoln Financial Field.

No, we wanted to know if the finest QB to come out of our city thinks the Bears finally have, in Caleb Williams, their first true, asterisk-free, 100% legit, long-term star at the position since Sid Luckman.

Or, for all of us too young to hark back to the 1940s, since dang well ever.

“That’s the big question,” said McNabb, 49. “Caleb is starting to get comfortable a little bit more in this offense and this culture, but I think it’s very important the way this started for him. There were high expectations, but the [Matt Eberflus-led] coaching staff may not have been a good fit for him.

“I think what Ben Johnson has brought is a little bit of stability and more of a résumé. Offensively, they have enough weapons. It’s just really about Caleb and his development and progression, where that leads to.”

McNabb, who has kept tabs on the Bears all season from his home in Phoenix, is betting on Williams getting his first taste of the playoffs next month.

“And then what does that look like?” he said. “I think going into next year, he gets better and better.”

All these years since his own playing days, McNabb — who recently partnered with the Ace Hardware Foundation to raise funds for the Children’s Miracle Network and Lurie’s — remembers what it was like to be doubted, dissected and criticized in regard to accuracy, pocket presence, working through progressions and the like.

“I still hear it,” he said, smiling and shaking his head.

If Bears watchers seem as hung up on Williams’ shortcomings as they are on his successes, it’s because many of them are. But McNabb caught far more heat as a young passer, even while he was piling up 11 wins and leading the Eagles in both passing and rushing as a second-year pro.

Last Sunday, McNabb watched as Williams battled accuracy issues early and left his final throw disastrously short in the Bears’ close loss in Green Bay. In between, though, there were signs of “continuous improvement,” a trend McNabb says has been visible from Week 1 on.

If he could offer one piece of advice to Williams, it would be this:

“Closed ears, open eyes,” he said. “Continue to see each and every thing that you’re doing, positive or negative, and learn from it and be able to make the adjustment quickly as you continue to go along.”

And there’s another thing, because — like many of us — McNabb sometimes sees Williams spin out of the pocket, race for one sideline or the other and whip the ball downfield on the run, to no avail, and thinks: Why?

A lot of young QBs do too much operating outside the hashmarks and, as a result, see only half the field, according to a guy who would know because he has been there.

“As you continue to spend more time getting your reps and understanding a little bit more of your passing game and the coverages that you see, now it begins to open up,” McNabb said.

So we should be patient with Williams, in other words?

“I think a lot of fans are [wanting to see] what the next two years looks like right now,” McNabb said.

Sheesh, it’s almost like he knows us.

Then again, he’s one of us.