Former NFL quarterback just nailed the biggest truth about Caleb Williams that NFL fans continue to ignore
Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams has plenty of doubters and naysayers that like to nitpick him going into his third NFL season. Former NFL QB Matt Hasselbeck is no longer one of those people.
Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams was ranked as a Top-10 quarterback in the NFL according to league executives, coaches, and scouts. The result of that ranking sparked a ton of discourse on social media and a lot of people are missing the big picture.
Former NFL quarterback Matt Hasselbeck, who has openly criticized Caleb Williams in the past, just had the perfect explanation for why Williams deserved that ranking and why he deserves to be mentioned among the top quarterbacks entering the 2026 season.
“He was the most improved quarterback in the NFL last year,” Hasselbeck explained on the Herd with Colin Cowherd. “His jump from Year 1 to Year 2 was incredible. The job that Ben Johnson did with him is remarkable, both for the quarterback and for the coach. I thought they were excellent.”
Improvement was clear in two specific areas
Hasselbeck is spot on that Williams was one of the most improved players of the 2025 season when you look back to his 2024 season. It still wasn’t perfect, and it never will be, but people are honestly ignoring the tangible signs of improvement Williams made.
For example, after his rookie season, Williams was terrible at two specific areas that the majority of his doubters always pointed to: Sack Avoidance and Deep Ball Passing.
Let’s start with sack avoidance. In 2024, Williams led the NFL with 68 sacks taken and 17 pressures allowed by the quarterback, which means he was running into sacks more often than not. That was priority No. 1 when Ben Johnson got to town, which included rebuilding the offensive front. Last season, Williams cut his number of sacks down to 24 and his sack evasion was among the best in the entire league.
As for deep ball passing, Williams had a 31.1 completion percentage on passes of 20+ air yards with five touchdowns and four interceptions on such passes. Last season, his deep ball completion percentage improved to 42.4 while throwing 10 touchdowns and two interceptions on such passes.
Misconceptions about his two biggest issues going into 2026
Now the two issues people criticize Williams on the most going into the 2026 season is his overall accuracy and his ability to play within the structure of the offense. Williams and Johnson have been the first to admit those are indeed the next areas to improve.
There’s also some misconceptions about those two issues. Williams’ 58.1 completion percentage last year ranked last among 26 quarterbacks with 300+ attempts. At the same time, Williams led the NFL with 42 throw aways to help avoid negative plays. The Bears also had the third-highest percentage of receiver error causing incompletions, per Warren Sharp. It’s the reason Johnson also called out Chicago’s pass catchers after the season, because it’s not all Williams’ fault.
As for playing within the structure of the offense, Williams was actually a worse quarterback when he was forced to play backyard hero ball on scramble drills than people would expect. Inside the pocket, his EPA per play was seventh in the NFL. Where he can improve is actually being more efficient when playing out of the structure of the offense.
Three elite traits Caleb Williams continues to show
Between both seasons, Williams showed three elite traits that make him one of the top quarterbacks in the league: Availability, Ball Safety, and Clutch Ability. Those are the same three traits every elite quarterback needs to be able to consistently show and Williams been able to do that.
“Every coach will tell you the best ability is availability, that is true” Hasselbeck said. “And then not turning the ball over, it’s incredible. It’s the reason that Aaron Rodgers is one of the best quarterbacks that’s still playing in the game, he doesn’t turn the ball over. I think those are real things. He protected the team by not taking sacks – a lot’s being talked about his competition percentage and all of that stuff – that’s minor compared to protecting the football.”
Williams has started all 34 regular season games for the Bears since being drafted and only thrown 13 interceptions (including playoffs for those who want to bring up that argument). His 1.2 interception percentage in 2025 actually led the NFL among quarterbacks with 300 attempts.
As for the clutch trait, there’s no denying that. Williams led a league-high six fourth quarter comebacks and had six game-winning drives last season alone.
“The best thing I could say about Caleb Williams is he has a clutch gene that is really hard to find,” Hasselbeck added. “You can do all the great practicing and all the great, you know, 7-on-7 and all the whatever. But the elite quarterbacks, the elite playmakers, they have that clutch gene, and he absolutely showed that he has that.”
Once Williams shows he can put all of those things together, there will be no debate about his ranking among the Top-10 quarterbacks in the NFL. And it’s something he could pull off as soon as this season.