Ryan Poles gets brutally honest on what went wrong with Caleb Williams in Bears QB's rookie season
The first season of Caleb Williams in the NFL fell short of the expectations. The Chicago Bears quarterback arrived as the first overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, bringing much hope to a franchise whose results have not impressed over the past two decades.
The vibes were good, but the on-field product wasn't. After an impressive 4-2 start, the Bears lost to the Washington Commanders in the famous Hail Mary play from Jayden Daniels, and they never recovered. Head coach Matt Eberflus was fired (the first coach to be fired midseason in Bears' history), and the team limped to a 5-12 finish.
A new dawn has come, with Ben Johnson, the hottest head coach prospect of the 2025 cycle, joining the team instead of Eberflus and with the mission to fix Caleb after a poor rookie season. General manager Ryan Poles spoke with ESPN Chicago about what went wrong with the young quarterback in 2024:
Caleb, 37 starts in his career. One offense, one coach. [In] This game, the playbook is a completely different animal. The responsibilities of a quarterback in the pros is different, and that takes a lot of adjusting to. How you set up the foundation is really important. And I think, at some point, there were some steps skipped to get into game day, and we need to go back.
Poles also spoke about Caleb Williams being upset with his own performance, and how he takes ownership for his poor play.
Why are Chicago Bears fans excited about Caleb Williams' partnership with Ben Johnson?
For the past three seasons, Johnson was the offensive coordinator of the Detroit Lions, the Bears' rivals in the NFC North. His offense improved yearly, until it was the best of the NFL in 2024, with the highest average of points per game (32.9).
Johnson's excellent job taking the best out of Jared Goff was already impressive, but Williams will now work with a head coach with an offensive background, instead of Matt Eberflus, who was previously a head coach.
Since Johnson became the Lions' offensive coordinator, in 2022, the Lions won five out of six games against the Bears. They know about his potential and are excited to see Williams blossoming into their much-hoped franchise quarterback.