Caleb Williams, Bears are in a sweet spot coming off the week

The Chicago Bears sit at 4-2 this season after their bye week. They are in sixth place in the league’s game differential. They only have three games after the bye before they begin the inevitable cannibalization of the divisional game.

Here is the sweet spot for the Bears, and they are right in the middle of it.

A big reason for that is the quickness of rookie quarterback Caleb Williams at the point for the Bears. He has taken a step forward every week since the start of the season.

Sure, it didn’t look good at first, but that was to be expected for an offense that had so much new at quarterback. There was Shane Waldron, the Bears’ new offensive coordinator. There was wide receiver Keenan Allen and rookie overall pick Rome Odunze. Waldron had to figure out how to use new running back D’Andre Swift and what that looked like with 2023 draft pick Roschon Johnson.

Now, everything works in tandem and Williams is in charge.

He is beginning to gain full command of the offensive scheme, while the offensive line has stepped up to help and the receivers have added to their relationship with him.

There is probably no better example than in the two throws intended for DJ Moore, one during the first week of the season that did not go away and the other against Carolina in Week 5 that went down.

It’s not exactly the same play, but on third-and-3 in the first half of Week 1, Moore runs a deep route to pull down the field. Against the Titans, it’s a deep miss as Williams breaks out of the pocket and is forced to try to bring the ball on the run.

On Williams’ second pass to Moore, the pack collapses as multiple linemen are hit and Williams escapes pressure to the left, running parallel to Moore, to himself. He fires the ball against his momentum, something he was able to do in college, but throws it too far past Moore. They weren’t on the same page.

Compare that to the Panthers.

On second-and-6, Moore is lined up inside the numbers, instead of outside, giving him less distance to go. He runs from the other side of the field, but the same route. This time – with good protection thanks to Swift for faking the handoff but instead of staying to block – Williams delivers.

Williams does a good job of looking outside the safety, keeping his eyes down the middle of the field before turning to Moore, who has reached the other end. Moore ends up taking it for a touchdown after shaking his defender.

It’s one game, but there’s a ton of incentive to take away from it. There were too many improvements in all the annoyingly many aspects for that one little game.

The route is good on Moore’s side. Protection is better. Williams is comfortable and can handle the defense. Time comes together and Williams delivers a superb ball, away from the defender, leading Moore – but not too much – and it all works.

It speaks to the tremendous evolution of the Bears offense, in particular.

Through the first three weeks of the season, Williams had the worst passer rating in the NFL at 58.6. He had the sixth worst finish rate. The Bears’ passing offense had the sixth-worst EPA per game.

In the next three weeks? Mabhele’s passing offense had a third-best EPA per play. Williams had third-best 71.7% completion rate. He had a sophomore average of 115.5. That’s not among the rookies. That’s across the league.

Overall, the Bears offense has the sixth-best EPA per game since Week 4. It puts them ahead of teams like the 49ers, Bengals, Packers and Texans during that time.

Yes, it’s played with teams that win one. But I’m old enough to remember when the Bears didn’t do what they should have done for struggling teams. I’m certainly old enough to remember when they didn’t do it the dominant way.

And no midseason entry would be complete without mentioning Chicago’s defense, which has been down since the start. In Week 1, the defense almost won the game against the Titans. The offense didn’t score, but the Bears put up 24 points anyway.

As of last week, Chicago’s defense was allowing the third-lowest EPA per game, had the lowest pass percentage at just 9%, according to PFF, and was in the top five in sacks and pass stops. The Bears are also +6 in turnovers, tied for the fourth-best mark in the league, and have the third-most takeaways of any defense with 13.

All in all, it led to the Bears entering the NFC North well, leading the league in point differential. Chicago is ranked third, behind only the Minnesota Vikings and Detroit Lions. The Bears are one spot ahead of the Green Bay Packers.

And that’s where that sweet field they’re in comes in. Up to this point, just two NFC North matchups have occurred: Vikings vs. Packers, and Vikings vs. Lions. This division has had the advantage of playing with other teams and accumulating more wins before entering the dogfight that will be the NFC North schedule.

That is why it is imperative that the Bears continue to use their position. He found out that this weekend they meet again, and it will be a battle between the first and second picks if he will take the Commanders (assuming that Jayden Daniels, who left week 7 with a rib injury, is healthy). After that, the Bears will host the 2-4 Arizona Cardinals and the 1-6 Patriots at home before their Week 11 game against the Packers at Soldier Field.

Williams and Co. they’re trending in the right direction to do so, and I think there’s little doubt about how this team is built and the decisions made by general manager Ryan Poles. It’s been a long rebuild since the Poles took over in 2022, but Bears fans are starting to see their patience pay off.

Carmen Vitali is an NFL reporter for FOX Sports. Carmen had previous stops with The Draft Network and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He spent six seasons with the Bucs, including 2020, adding the title of Super Bowl Champion (and showboating participant) to his resume. You can follow Carmen on Twitter at @CarmieV.

---

---