Luke Kuechly made his career stopping quarterbacks like Caleb Williams. But now that he’s retired, Kuechly has high hopes in the Chicago Bears quarterback for 2025.
Keyed by Ben Johnson’s play-action-heavy games that he enacted with the Detroit Lions, Williams has big potential in his second season, according to Kuechly.
Williams showed flashes of brilliance during his rookie season but ultimately was done in by an NFL-high 68 sacks. Williams finished with 3,541 yards and 20 touchdowns, with just six interceptions, and rushed for 489 yards.
Still, Kuechly, the longtime sideline-to-sideline middle linebacker for the Carolina Panthers has high hopes for Williams to go even bigger with Johnson.
Why Does Luke Kuechly Feel Caleb Williams Is Poised To Break Out in 2025?
Williams’ 562 attempts were more than Lions quarterback Jared Goff (539). But Goff attempted 203 play-action passes, far superior to Williams’ 85 in 2024.
“The amount of play-action pass that Detroit used last year with Jared Goff was top five in the league,” Kuechly said on “Up and Adams” recently. “When you look on the contrary with the Bears, not a ton of play-action passing from them last year.”
Kuechly also shared what Johnson’s infusion of the play-action game will do for a young QB like Williams.
“The play-action pass does a lot of things,” Kuechly said. “It provides an easy windows for the quarterback to throw the ball. There’s easy built-in checkdowns, guys in the flat, easy completions.
“It takes a lot of pressure off the offensive line because instead of playing pure drop-back pass where these defense linemen they can pin their ears back and rush. They’re taking a play-action run fake; they’re moving sideways, instead of moving vertically, they’re sideways and then vertical off the play-action pass.”
Again, Detroit’s dominant run game led to the play-action success — since Goff threw for 2,060 yards out of play-action plays. But with more play-action passing, plus a more system-based offense — as opposed to the freelancing Williams did in college — should benefit his comfort level.
“I’ve just got to imagine that Caleb’s going to be more comfortable going into Year 2,” Kuechly said. “I think one of the most difficult things as a defender is short completions and tackling guys in space, and you’ve got two really good guys.
“Luther Burden coming out of college — a big physical receiver that’s kind of built a little bit like a running back — and then my guy DJ Moore, when the ball is in his hand, you never know what’s going to happen.”
Will Caleb Williams Be Good In Play-Action Passing Game in 2025?
It is a wonder why Chicago’s array of offensive play callers did not take advantage of Williams’ success in the play-action game, since he was excellent on those plays in 2024.
According to fantasy-football writer Jacob Gibbs, Williams was 14th in highly accurate throw rate (53%) and 21st in catchable-ball rate (74%) on play-action in 2024 — not elite numbers, but solid enough for a rookie QB in a sub-standard offense.
Contrarily, Williams was dead last among 29 qualifying QBs in catchable ball rate (68%) and 20th in highly accurate throw rate, without play action, according to Gibbs.
That should mean a big breakout year for Williams.
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