Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show
How do you view Caleb Williams after the 2025 season? (Hour 4)
22 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: What improvements does Caleb Williams want to make for the next season?
being able to go back and look at, you know, things I could have done better. Was I too far forward? Was I too far back? You know, did I, you know, was I not consistent enough with my footwork? And, you know, did I lean off and fall off the mound is what we call it and things like that.
So it's just, you know, super small things to be able to be more consistent for the guys, for the team, be able to keep the offense on the field, you know, as long as possible and, you know, be as efficient as possible.
That's Caleb Williams talking about what he wants to improve upon. This is Rahimi Harrison-Grody on 670 The Score. We spent a lot of time earlier today talking about the Coach of the Year candidates, for which Ben Johnson is up. The MVP candidates, which are four quarterbacks and Christian McCaffrey.
And it is time to delve into a little bit more of what not just Caleb Williams had to say, both on Sunday and then Monday. after the Bears game in the locker cleanout, but then also what his supervisors had to say. Head Coach Ben Johnson and Ryan Poles over at Hallis Hall. Mark Grody, you were there. We sussed it out a little bit.
Chapter 2: How do Caleb Williams' coaches evaluate his performance?
What were your takeaways surrounding the discussion that you heard both with locker cleanout and then just in your own impressions and then while being at Hallis Hall listening to Ryan and Ben?
Yeah, if I had to come up, aggregate one sort of evaluation of Caleb Williams from both Ryan Poles and Ben Johnson, it would sound something like, wow, this guy did some spectacular, great things, and we've got our quarterback. but there are still things that need to be cleaned up.
He needs to continue on the path that he has been on for the last five or six games, and even some of the things that Caleb was just talking about, footwork, and as he put it, I love that, falling off the mound, I love that.
And you even heard Ryan Pauls talking yesterday about almost like saying what he does is awkward, and I can't even begin to figure out how he gets out of some of the trouble that maybe he gets into. And we've been saying it all year. There's a box that has been checked. with Caleb Williams, and it's a huge box, and that is the ability to win games late. Now, just fill in the rest.
Fill in the first couple of quarters of the game. Fill in the consistency, the overthrows. And I know that his receivers have not been helpful to him this year. Way too many drops, and it reared its ugly head again in the playoff game against the Rams, Roma Dunze. But now you have the luxury of putting it together. And I would even say, and this is me talking now,
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Chapter 3: What were the standout moments from Caleb Williams' 2025 season?
Like Caleb Williams, like in terms of, I know, like I did learn the Bears have a quarterback. There is no doubt about it. Caleb, no problem saying that about Caleb Williams. What I don't know and what I don't think the Bears know based on what they said is how To what level do we go with Caleb Williams? Will Caleb become great? Will he become elite?
Right now I think Caleb is good, and I know that he's the Bears quarterback. That's where I put it right now with Caleb Williams. I don't know that I would stop at good. I think good is underselling it. I think Caleb already is great. He's not elite because of what you just talked about.
But the hardest thing to figure out if you're a quarterback in the NFL is can you get it done late and in the clutch? And he's shown repeatedly you can put the ball in his hands at the end of games and he can get it done. You understand there's a lot of pedestrian quarterbacks above average quarterbacks that can get it done.
And like you said, quarters one through three and kind of keep your game in it. or keep your team in it, game manage, if you will. But at the same time, Caleb Williams has already shown that he can do that. And I think what really we have discovered through The end of this season is the answer to one question, which is, do you have your quarterback?
Which is a question I've been trying to answer the entire time I've lived here over five years now. And so what I want to know is, can he clean up, like you said, the little stuff at the beginning and be more consistent? But as far as him being the quarterback for the future, I already told you, the Ben Johnson, Caleb Williams thing should be good to go for at least the next 10 years.
Yeah, I sit with it like this. Caleb Williams in the regular season threw for 3,942 yards on a 58.1% completion rate. If that rate gets slightly higher... Think about how many more yards he's throwing for. That was good enough for seventh in the league on its own with the yards. Seventh behind Matt Stafford, who I mentioned, Jared Goff. Stafford had a 65% completion rate.
Jared Goff was not at 70. He was at 68. Dak Prescott was 67.3. He threw for 4,552.
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Chapter 4: What challenges did Caleb face during the season?
Drake May had a 72% comp rate. He was 4,394. He, in his second year, is in conversation for MVP. Then it's Sam Darnold. Sam Darnold had 67.7, 4,048 yards. Trevor Lawrence had 4,007. He had a 60.9% comp. Caleb Williams has one stat that he needs to improve right now. That's it, in my opinion, just the one.
And it's the one that could take him from already the top 10 in the league to perhaps that top five.
Chapter 5: How does Caleb's performance compare to other quarterbacks in the league?
So when it comes down to just one variable like that for me, then already I consider him in the upper third of the NFL without question. And how are we talking about him? If he takes that completion rate to just 62%, how many yards are we discussing then? Is it 4,300? Is it 4,400?
So I'm at good. He said great. Where are you? Good, great, or elite?
I don't think he's at elite yet because I think the elites are in the 4,000-yard club, and they're probably throwing the ball at least 61.2%. Trevor Lawrence was at 60.9%. So I think he's an MVP candidate, and he's very, very good. I think Caleb Williams is at the very, very good standpoint of this, and he's on the edge of great. And I don't think it's going to take much to get him there.
I'm listening too, Marshall. It's, to me, evaluating this quarterback. Of course, it literally is a fluid situation because we just watched him play in 17 games. And by the way, I shouldn't even just breeze past that. The durability has been excellent with Caleb Williams this year. There was a time in the middle of the season, maybe even a little bit earlier, that I was like, ugh.
I'm not seeing the things I need to see out of this quarterback. But then guess what? I started seeing the things I needed to see out of this quarterback over the last five or six games of the season. And what I am trying to really take in, Marshall, is what you said about how maybe I'm not giving enough credit to what he does.
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Chapter 6: What role did injuries play in the Bears' season?
in the fourth quarter. Because you made a really good point about how there are quarterbacks who could play great for three quarters, and then they choke it away and can't do anything in the fourth quarter. So maybe I need to give more points than I already am to what he does in the fourth quarter. I think the biggest reminder is understanding how much he had to process
whether you want to call it unlearning all the bad stuff that happened to him in year one, to realizing this is his first year in an offense, first year with a head coach, and how much progress we saw over the course of his second season. How can you look at, let's say, the last six to seven weeks?
And not say that this guy is not exactly where you want him to be as far as just on a not finished product, but as far as development. He did everything I asked him to do in year two. In fact, he exceeded those expectations. So I don't want us to have some kind of revisionist history like, well, he's not good enough. I never expect him to be good enough after year two.
I'm really looking at year three, beginning of year four for more of a finished product.
Here's the thing. If I told you that Caleb Williams was going to have more yards than Justin Herbert, Baker Mayfield, Josh Allen, and Patrick Mahomes, what would you say?
I'd say what? I would say, was that because... Does it please you? No, I would say, is that because they were behind and they just had to throw, throw, throw, and their rushing attack is 15th or below in the league? And then you would tell me, no, no, they had a top three rushing attack.
And I said, oh, Ben Johnson's done his job in year one as a head coach, and now Caleb Williams just continues to get better. That's why I say he already is great, because I've seen him do enough great things. He will need to get more consistent, but he's already done enough great things for me to understand...
he's the best quarterback to play the position for the chicago bears yeah i mean i just i look at it like you you give it you try to give a context because that's what we try to do but i think even if at the beginning of the season i'd ask that question we'd all be shocked i don't know how many of us would have said like specifically justin herbert for example don't doubt or even a
How far away did that seem at the time? That's the point of, number one, the course of an NFL season and why the Bears are understanding that these playoff appearances are not guaranteed. But at the same time, it shows his progress.
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Chapter 7: What insights does Kalyn Kahler provide about the NFL playoffs?
Yeah, I mean, go back and just listen to our visits with Tim Jenkins, which were always stellar. There was a time where he was kind of biting his lip and his tongue trying to say, remember when he was talking about repeating plays, like how he had never seen a coach repeat plays for a quarterback?
And there was some real legitimate concern, not just from me, but the people who really delve into the tape. I love some of these text messages. This is a great one here from the 917. He's not elite, but he makes elite plays. That's true. And that's where it gets cloudy and difficult for the people who are like, dude, he's great. What are you talking about, Grody? You're not calling him elite.
How dare you? Because he does make elite plays. He does spectacular things. And then there's the part where, okay, you can put that together, and it feels very doable to put together the first two quarters of the game. You might have a great-to-elite quarterback for the next 10 years.
Well, and like 773 makes a good distinction. Like, I have a second item he needs to improve on passing from the pocket. Yeah, there are aspects of the game. I'm just saying if I'm looking from numbers to numbers, like stats to stats, and accuracy and completion rate goes into that passing from the pocket point.
that if that improves slightly because of the elite plays he makes, you're talking about an exponential increase for those little completions in yards. You're talking about a very few amount of completions that need to be made to get him even farther ahead.
And what I'll also say to that texter is, did you not see the last few games where... In my opinion, he stayed in that pocket too much and did not use his legs. And it was almost the opposite.
As he got closer to what Ben Johnson wanted him to do, be more of a pure pocket passer because it's a timing-based offense, that, I'm not going to say eliminated the special because we saw several examples of that, but he relied less on the arm talent itself and more on running Ben Johnson's offense the way it was designed to be run.
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Chapter 8: How does the Bears' coaching staff plan for the future?
And that's a good thing. To the point where in one of my silly little videos that I did on my walks to Soldier Field, it was the Green Bay game. I was like, hey, man, Caleb, we'd like to see him just burst out, run. You see that opening? Instead of going downfield, run for 27 yards. And here's another really good text here. You'll like this.
Just the eye test alone, Caleb over everything was a resounding success. It really was. It truly was.
And 8-1-5 and everybody who's chimed in on this. Caleb has to do more work to be elite. His wide receivers also need to make the catches they are paid to make. And Roman Dunzay falls into that category. Colson Loveling didn't have his best game on Sunday. That will happen. So, yeah, that's been a problem. And when Ben Johnson illustrated when asked about what he wanted to improve upon...
Catch the ball.
Catch the doggone ball. I'm using doggone because, you know, I like to use proper language here on Rahimi Harris and Grody as we discuss Caleb Williams' season and the success that he had and whether or not he's, I don't know, good, better, best. I have him at better. Grody has him at good. Layla's somewhere in between. The good and better? She's sneaky.
She did a very good. I'm definitely above. I'm very, very good. Like he's knocking on the door of being one of the best in the league.
So better then. You're in the better category for going to the better best.
Very, very good is better than better. You can't just say best because that implies like three people.
But we know what he's saying. There's one level, there's a second level, there's a third level. I'm just saying there's three levels. One, two, or three levels. And you're on the second level until you get to the third level.
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