Bears quarterback Caleb Williams has been through a lot in the NFL, but it’s still early in his career. He’s barely past the halfway point of his second season, so plenty of new challenges lie ahead.
This week, in his first time facing the Steelers, he’ll take on a defensive genius in coach Mike Tomlin and one of the league’s scariest pass rushes, spearheaded by likely Hall of Famer T.J. Watt.
“They’ve got some werewolves on the outside,” Bears coach Ben Johnson warned Wednesday, specifically referencing Watt and veteran linebacker Alex Highsmith. “They have some of the best first steps you’ll see in this league.”
Williams is fresh off playing against a similarly talented Vikings defense under renowned coordinator Brian Flores, who blitzed on two-third of his passes. Williams avoided interceptions and took only two sacks, but he went 16-for-32 for 193 yards with no touchdown passes for a 68.9 passer rating.
When the Steelers come to town Sunday, it could look a lot like that.
They’re third in the NFL with 33 sacks and have gotten pressure on quarterbacks 23.3% of the time, ranking 11th. They’ve blitzed on 30.7% of pass plays, fourth-highest in the league.
Watt is fifth among active players with 114 sacks and will pass his brother J.J.’s career mark with one more. The Steelers have four players in the top 34 in the league in sacks this season with linebacker Nick Herbig (6½), Watt (six), Highsmith (5½) and nose tackle Keanu Benton (4½).
Moreover, they signed John Rhys Plumlee, a former quarterback, wide receiver and return man, to their practice squad to simulate Williams’ mobility in practice this week. Plumlee told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Wednesday he studied Williams’ film in preparation for the role.
So the defensive front is hungry. And ready.
“They just have playmakers on that side of the ball,” Williams said. “You see why they’ve been where they’ve been. … We’re excited to go out there and compete against them and be able to show who we are.”
Williams needs to show he can be an accurate passer amid such duress. Johnson set a goal going into the season for Williams to complete 70% of his passes, which is lofty but possible, and he’s well short at 59.7% through 10 games. Williams has said he’s having a particularly tough time with throws on the run, and there’s little doubt he’ll be scrambling Sunday.
He ranks 32nd out of 35 qualifying quarterbacks in completion percentage, and the most concerning part is that it has been declining. It’d be less troublesome if he’d struggled early and was digging himself out of that hole, but he completed a season-low 50% against the Vikings and has been under 60% in six of his last seven games.
He struggled as a rookie, too, completing just 62.5% of his passes (31st), and frequently has said it’s a mystifying problem given that accuracy had always been a hallmark of his game.
Eventually, though, the statistics tell the story. Williams is only in Chapter 2 of his career, so there’s still time to turn this around. But at the moment, he’s one of the least accurate passers in the league.
Pro Football Reference charted 68.2% of his passes as on target, second-worst in the NFL, though it also counted 17 incomplete passes from drops, the fourth-highest total.
Accuracy is an issue Williams and Johnson are attacking daily, and it’ll be a game-changer for the Bears if they figure it out. Against the Steelers’ defense, it’s a necessity.
