This wasn’t the warmest way to begin an interview, but nothing ever seems to rattle Bears quarterback Caleb Williams:
There’s a large segment of sports fans and media that wants to see him —
“Fail,” he interjected with a big smile, “which is all good with me.”
And so began a conversation that would’ve been uncomfortable for anyone else, but didn’t bother him: Why do so many people hate Caleb Williams?
“I do things differently — dress, play, all these different things, paint my nails or whatever,” he told the Sun-Times. “I do some things that don’t harm anybody else, but that other people don’t like and have strong opinions about.
“I’ve also been in some pretty cool positions in my life: starting quarterback for the Bears, I went No. 1, won the Heisman. So I’d rather have people talking about me than not.”
He doesn’t have to worry about that. Everyone’s always talking about him.
One season into his NFL career, after going first overall in the draft, he’s one of the league’s most polarizing players. There’s resounding support locally, where Bears fans hope he’s finally the answer. He’s popular nationally, too, but mostly as a punching bag.
Legitimate critiques are fine. When analysts, coaches and opponents hammer him for holding on to the ball too long and missing easy completions because he’s looking for big plays, that’s totally fair. Williams wouldn’t object to much of that.
Some of it, though, clearly comes from a different place.
ESPN analyst Sam Acho, a former Bear, said Williams was sloppy and a bad leader because his socks weren’t pulled all the way up in a preseason game. A social media account aptly named “Hater Report” posted a video of him throwing an ugly near-interception in practice with the caption, “Caleb Williams already in midseason form,” ignoring that Williams rarely threw interceptions as a rookie. The examples are easy to find.
Both sides got what they wanted last season as Williams completed 62.5% of his passes, averaged 208.3 yards per game and threw 20 touchdown passes and six interceptions for an 87.8 passer rating. It was one of the better statistical seasons in Bears history, but the team went 5-12 and he lagged behind No. 2 pick Jayden Daniels and others in the rookie class.
Everyone sees what they want to see. Williams needs to be more convincing on the field to quiet the debate.
He’s a people person, and he’d rather not be so divisive. Nonetheless, he accepts that it’s part of the deal for someone of his status and brushes off all the “false things that are blown up.” Plenty of online posts and TV segments have been locker room entertainment for him and his teammates.
“When you’re the No. 1 pick and you’re yourself, you are going to get a lot of hate,” wide receiver Rome Odunze said. “He gets a lot of hate… but he comes in, he works hard every single day and he’s himself, so I appreciate him for that.
“If you don’t think this guy is putting every single day into his craft and then to making this organization better, then I really have no conversation for you.”
Williams admitted, however, one part that gets to him. When people get so caught up in his stature, effervescence and eccentricities, they don’t take him seriously.
It fuels a misconception that he’s more concerned with being famous than great, that he’s not fully committed. Few insults could strike deeper than that for someone who used to get up at 4 a.m. to work out as a kid and sees his ambitious goals on the home screen of his phone every time he picks it up.
“I’ve been serious since I was 9,” Williams said, sharpening his tone. “People get distracted by some of those things and they think that the work was not put in over a consistent amount of time … That gets lost.”
He added that “hard work is everything,” and while he said it earnestly, he’s only beginning to understand what hard work in the NFL really is.
Williams thought he was working hard as a rookie, albeit with insufficient guidance from Matt Eberflus and Shane Waldron. He never got the clarity or correction he “craved,” and often there wasn’t a direct link from what he did behind the scenes to what happened in games. There was too much gray and too little accountability from coaches who acted as though he was their boss.
Enter Ben Johnson. That’s no longer an issue.
There is neither gray nor leniency with him. Williams asked to be coached harder and he’s getting his wish every day.
“I’m sure he doesn’t like what comes out of my mouth sometimes,” said Johnson, who called Williams extremely coachable, “but he knows to get where he wants to go as a player and for us as a team, it’s going to be the best thing for everybody.”
Williams confirmed that, calling Johnson “a smart, smart, smart coach” and saying he’s had “a lot more smiles” than last season.
The Bears’ second attempt at putting proper infrastructure in place for Williams seems to be working better.
Johnson puts feedback over feelings, and that runs through the entire staff. He and offensive coordinator Declan Doyle haven’t hesitated to call out Williams’ errors publicly, let alone in meetings. Quarterbacks coach J.T. Barrett, who has worked under Johnson since 2022, is at the forefront of making sure Williams understands the entirely new way he’s being coached after Johnson said there was little to no carryover from what Williams was taught by Eberflus and Waldron.
The Bears also added 14-year veteran quarterback Case Keenum, who is with Williams literally every step of the way. That’s much more instructive than what they tried last season with Ryan Griffin as an offensive assistant. Keenum has far more experience, and because he’s on the active roster, Williams can learn simply by watching everything he does.
“Last year, I didn’t know what I didn’t know,” Williams said. “The ‘working hard’ was a little more blind, it was a little more uncertain [whether] I was doing something right. The uncertainty doesn’t help with confidence that your hard work is actually paying off.
“Now this year, having a vet, I’m able to ask some questions, understand what worked for me last year, what didn’t. The hard work adds a little more comfort and confidence.”
The results of all that work were uneven throughout training camp and will be tested when the Bears open the season Sept. 8 at home against the Vikings on “Monday Night Football.”
It’ll be yet another moment of hope and expectation at Soldier Field, and, of course, there will be millions hate-watching Williams on TV. Again, he’d prefer it not be that way. But the only control he has over it is to raise his play to match the hype. Then the only thing people could hate is how talented he is, and that’d be a good problem.