BREAKING: USC QB Caleb Williams has DECLINED to medical examinations with teams at the Combine and did not sign off on having his medical records shared with all teams.
Williams is believed to be the first combine invitee ever to decline an examination, per CBS. pic.twitter.com/ipHqfxNBYJ
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut:
He looked like a guy who's won on talent in the past.
Happens to every position out there; guys who used to beat up on mediocre opponents in college and now suddenly the worst team they'll play is full of guys that are better than anyone they've played in the past.
He tried to play the same way he played at USC and just didn't have the raw talent advantage he thought he did.
Gonna be a learning curve for him. Still a fair amount of talent but with his...uh...mercurial personality, is he willing to put in the work? Because that's what would allow him to use his talent.
He may have something more akin to a Josh Allen learning curve than the Mahomes curve. It took Allen until his 3rd season to look like a premier player.
May just take the Bears a little longer to turn the corner than they'd hoped.
Mentioned this yesterday. The league is a lot different now than when Mahomes started in 2018.
For the most part QB play was generally down again league wide, at least stat wise, especially passing. Only 2 QB’s threw for 300 or more yards and one of them got to 300 bc of Tyreek’s YAC. Only 2 QB’s threw 3 or more TD’s and one of those QB’s was playing the god awful Panthers.
Fangio’s cover 2 shell is working really well at cutting off the deep ball and making QB’s work for points. That’s exactly what happened to Caleb yesterday. And you see teams copying SF’s SB defensive plan of keeping the QB in the pocket at all costs through DL manipulation while also removing the deep shot.
This ain’t the PAC 12 anymore. Those WR’s aren’t gonna be running free and you’re gonna have to be better with technique and accuracy if you’re gonna build the drives needed to score points. [Reply]
Originally Posted by RunKC:
Mentioned this yesterday. The league is a lot different now than when Mahomes started in 2018.
For the most part QB play was generally down again league wide, at least stat wise, especially passing. Only 2 QB’s threw for 300 or more yards and one of them got to 300 bc of Tyreek’s YAC. Only 2 QB’s threw 3 or more TD’s and one of those QB’s was playing the god awful Panthers.
Fangio’s cover 2 shell is working really well at cutting off the deep ball and making QB’s work for points. That’s exactly what happened to Caleb yesterday. And you see teams copying SF’s SB defense of keeping the QB in the pocket at all costs while removing the deep shot.
This ain’t the PAC 12 anymore. Those WR’s aren’t gonna be running free and you’re gonna have to be better with technique and accuracy if you’re gonna build the drives needed to score points.
He's gotta know the offense.
He's seen Patrick Mahomes do Patrick Mahomes things and thought "Hell, I can throw sidearmed - how hard can this be?"
Notice how many times he tried Mahomes Stuff Sunday? Lots. He tried dropping his arm slot. He tried the scramble and throw against his body stuff. He tried the things he's seen Mahomes do and he's convinced himself it ain't that hard and he can do it.
It failed. Every time.
Detox said it well - he looked like a guy who convinced himself he'd done the work when he really hadn't. He was going to take the league by storm because he convinced himself he can do the things Mahomes does. And never understood the amount of preparation that Mahomes does to make all those things work.
You ever watch movies with water-skiiers or snow skiiers that are 'out of control' and you realize how insanely good at skiing those stunt-men are? It's harder to look like you're out of control when you're not than it is to just look technically perfect.
Patrick Mahomes is that insane stunt man that looks 'out of control' when he's actually completely composed because he's THAT good.
Meanwhile Caleb Williams is a 12 year old bombing down a black because he saw his older brother do it and 'it didn't look that hard...' [Reply]
Caleb Williams looked like every Bears QB since Sid Luckman… under 100 yards passing and reliant on the defense/special teams to carry him to a win. [Reply]
Originally Posted by ThaVirus:
I won’t disagree, but it’s not like the whole squad is loaded.
Rookies shouldn’t be expected to light it up in their first start given almost any circumstances.
That’s hilarious. Turns out playing QB is hard.
IMO evaluating a rookies first game isn't necessarily about looking at the raw numbers but looking at how they respond to NFL defenses on tape...And it didn't look good for party-boy. He's slower than Mahomes (slower three-cone drill times) and doesn't have elite body control like Mahomes and yet he tries to play like Pat. Whoever runs the Bears should make it their lifes mission to separate Williams from his crony's and toxic family so as to hammer it home that he's no Mahomes (or even Russel Wilson). He's got elite NFL accuracy married to elite NFL arm talent and some illusiveness. He should be comping himself to Kurt Warner or some other traditional QB's or old gamers like Plunkett. I doubt that happens because this kids' ego is in the stratosphere. And when pampered QB egos get bruised and defalated you wind up with Ryan Leaf and Jeff George. [Reply]
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut:
He's gotta know the offense.
He's seen Patrick Mahomes do Patrick Mahomes things and thought "Hell, I can throw sidearmed - how hard can this be?"
Notice how many times he tried Mahomes Stuff Sunday? Lots. He tried dropping his arm slot. He tried the scramble and throw against his body stuff. He tried the things he's seen Mahomes do and he's convinced himself it ain't that hard and he can do it.
It failed. Every time.
Detox said it well - he looked like a guy who convinced himself he'd done the work when he really hadn't. He was going to take the league by storm because he convinced himself he can do the things Mahomes does. And never understood the amount of preparation that Mahomes does to make all those things work.
You ever watch movies with water-skiiers or snow skiiers that are 'out of control' and you realize how insanely good at skiing those stunt-men are? It's harder to look like you're out of control when you're not than it is to just look technically perfect.
Patrick Mahomes is that insane stunt man that looks 'out of control' when he's actually completely composed because he's THAT good.
Meanwhile Caleb Williams is a 12 year old bombing down a black because he saw his older brother do it and 'it didn't look that hard...'
Like I said. Most likely he is a bust than the next great QB. [Reply]
Originally Posted by ToxSocks:
People always want to go, "it's one game, it's one game! It's just his first season, he's still growing! It's just his second season, he's still growing"
I get it, people wanna stay objective. And yeah, one game is premature to use as a predicator for a career...
But i will say this, excellence usually shows itself pretty damn early in the process. If you don't see it early, it doesn't mean a player wont be good.
But GREAT? GREAT players usually show up on scene right away and then grow and maintain greatness from there.
Pat's first game of course was against Von Miller and co on the road in snowy conditions. Pat was forced to play with backups and still looked a million times better than Caleb did yesterday.
The thing is people got high off a few scramble plays in preseason when the sneaky issue was he failed to operate in structure in both games. Especially against the Bengals second string.
The hype he has means defenses are gonna give him serious attention and he had no clue how to deal with it yesterday. To the point where his ability to process quickly will be questioned if it continues. Because he held onto the ball way too long. [Reply]
