It’s unfair, but Bears QB Caleb Williams must excel against Lions to quiet the cacophony

The introduction of change was supposed to be the April/May 2025 Esquire cover. “The Making of a Next-Generation Quarterback” was the cover line. “Featuring Caleb Williams” followed it. The pensive Ben Weller photo let you know change gon’ come. Fresh “1A dark caesar” haircut as the indicator of a new him. Audemars Piguet watch, his “Year 2 NFL” grown-man flex.

Then last week hit.

The “same ol’ same ol’ ” returned. The “damn, what happened to growth?” The “here we go again” came back. All when it really shouldn’t. Because for a team that last season averaged 18.2 points (tied for 28th in the league) to put up 24 against the No. 12 team in the NFL.com power rankings entering this season that won 14 games in 2024, I’m not sure allowing three touchdowns in the fourth quarter of the “Monday Night Fail” is all on the QB.

Or how said QB (and his gray, loose-fit, Dri-FIT under-jersey undershirt) becomes the dominant narrative of local, regional and national discussion the next week, regardless of how “just like last season” he looked . . . in one game.

(And we wonder how three-part blog features such as Tyler Dunne’s “House of Dysfunction” targeting the Bears — with specific aim at said QB — gain legs and find life?)

But the “here and now,” Luther Vandross of it all has Williams at the first true crossroads of his career. Entering the game, after surviving the week, where the “forever” in how he’s going to be judged while in this city officially begins. It’s what’s called “the hard part.” Where the aphorism is: You’ll never know how strong you are until you have to lift something.

Heavy are the arms that lift the crown.

With the O-line “protection problem” seemingly gone and the coaching staff apparently more stable than it has been since he was in fourth grade, Williams has unfortunately and unfairly reached that “judged by 12 instead of carried by six” part of his NFL journey. Where cruelty becomes more rationale than reason and excuse. Where the Justin Fields narrative that he walked into when he got here is replaced. Where “Are his flaws correctable?” goes from question to indictment.

The dyslexia rumors won’t matter. The three head coaches and three offensive coordinators within his one-year and one-game NFL career will matter less than that. But his leading the NFL in incompletions because of overthrows (52, or 17 more than the next player over the same span) will be the introductory sentence every time his name is mentioned. The petulance and insubordination and suspect work ethic and all of the things said about Williams and his character will move from misdiagnosed fiction to sounding like fact.

The hatred toward him will harden, the “should have picked Jayden Daniels” that already exists will get profusely louder and deliberately more frequent, Johnson will begin to have to field Tyson Bagent questions. For Williams, his only escape to any of this is to simply not let this Sunday be last Monday.

Easier to ask than to execute.

Back to the new beginning. “I think those losses were pretty important for me and my growth,” he said in that Esquire article, speaking about what he learned last season. “To go on a losing streak, to be in this position and be at the helm of it was definitely important to me. Just being able to see how I need to be when the times are bad.” Ending with, “I’m going to work my tail off to never be in that situation again.”

Time has arrived to speak that truth to power. Times are bad.

Michael Penix Jr. is being talked about in a way Williams only wishes. Only four starts in and losing a winnable game last week against an opponent whom his team wasn’t supposed to really compete with (sound familiar?), Penix has head coaches saying, “I can’t say enough positive things about him,” teammates saying, “he’s just so calm and collected under pressure and just makes plays when his number is called,” the media saying, “he’s great in late-game situations” and the Falcons “quarterback is promising.”

Caleb’s narrative is leaning hard in the other direction. To the point that after last week’s win, J.J. McCarthy can be added to the list of QBs straight outta the Daniels/Bo Nix/Drake Maye/Penix ’24 class who have moved ahead of Williams on the leveling-up-to or exceeding-promise chart. Being the No. 1 selection in the draft continues to be his enemy.

The “perfect start, poor ending” can no longer be a headline going forward. The “he still has a lot to fix” can no longer exist. My colleague Jason Lieser wrote the dopest of lines: “On-field results are the only thing that will prevent patience from wearing thin.”

So damn true. For Williams, so damn unjust.

Karma has a way of taking form in many different ways, at many different and often the most unexpected times. But karma doesn’t happen unless you meet it halfway or force it into existence. For Williams to ever have karma enter into his kingdom while he’s in a Bears uniform, it has to start Sunday. Because at this point, his NFL life seems to be solely — not surely — dependent on it.