When the Chicago Bears drafted Caleb Williams with the No. 1 overall pick, the expectation was that he’d usher in a new era of stability and offensive firepower at quarterback.
That didn’t happen. Instead, Williams’ rookie year was marked by inconsistency, growing pains and confusion in an offense that looked perpetually stuck in the mud. Now, a new report from Tyler Dunne of Go Long attempts to shed some light on why the transition was so difficult — and why the franchise’s next steps with new head coach Ben Johnson could be so pivotal.
Dunne frames his three-part inquiry as an insider autopsy of a season gone sideways, and he spoke to 32 “coaches, scouts, execs, players and staffers inside Halas Hall” last season.
According to his report, multiple Bears sources say they saw evidence Williams had a learning disability — and that GM Ryan Poles knew knew about the disability before the pick.
Tyler Dunne’s Report Suggests Caleb Williams Dealt With Dyslexia as a Rookie
Williams’ rookie stats weren’t bad. He threw 20 TDs against just six interceptions, and netted a franchise-best 4,030 total yards when you combine his passing and rushing totals. But he also took a whopping 68 sacks, the kind of attrition that wrecks timing and confidence. Many of those were because he held onto the ball too long.
According to Dunne, some of Williams’ struggles were likely exacerbated by a learning disability.
“That early, coaches could sense that he’d struggle with basic huddle calls and forget to motion players,” Dunne wrote. “And it wasn’t until later — right around that second-to-last game of the season — that coaches say they learned their quarterback had a learning disability. Multiple Bears sources tell Go Long they’ve seen evidence that Williams has dyslexia. They also believe that the GM, who has access to everything, was well aware of this condition before the Bears made the quarterback their first overall pick.”
There’s No Record of Williams Having a Learning Disability
To be clear, this is Dunne’s reporting, not an on-the-record medical disclosure from Williams or the Bears. Still, the picture it paints is a rather chaotic and confusing one.
Throughout his entire rookie year, Williams dealt with issues with his cadence and verbiage issues within the offense. His heavy reliance on a wristband to help with play-calling was also noted by some analysts.
But dyslexia (if present) doesn’t preclude high-level quarterbacking. Dyslexia is a language-based learning disability that affects decoding and speed/accuracy of word recognition; it has no relationship to intelligence, and adults often thrive with targeted support that change how information is delivered rather than how smart the learner is.
Caleb Has a Chance at a Fresh Start in Year 2
The addition of new head coach Ben Johnson should help the second-year signal-caller a great deal. With Johnson leading the offense, Chicago’s mandate will be to protect and simplify, reduce exposure to third-and-forever, get the ball out with defined first reads and use motion/formation to communicate before the snap.
Early-script efficiency, particularly, is a lever Johnson has pulled well in the past. He’ll likely do it again.
If Dunne’s reporting is true, an undiagnosed — or at least unaddressed — learning disability may have made dense huddle calls and rapid-fire adjustments harder than anyone realized for Williams last year. This year should be different in myriad ways, for Williams and for the Bears.
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