Do you remember at the end of Avengers Infinity War, when the mad titan Thanos triumphantly sat down after accomplishing his goal and watched the sun rise on a grateful universe? That’s exactly how Chicago Bears fans felt waking up on Monday morning.

ESPN’s latest Top-10 positional rankings released this morning, this time focusing on the quarterback position. Usually Bears fans avoid ESPN entirely when this specific ranking comes out every year. But, not today.

Bears fans, you can finally rejoice. You finally have a quarterback that is nationally viewed as a Top-10 quarterback in the entire NFL. Celebrate this news, because it’s already causing quite a stir on social media, even if it was the right call to make.

Caleb Williams recognized as a Top-10 quarterback heading into his third NFL season

Williams officially came in at No. 10 on Jeremy Fowler’s rankings with his highest rank being No. 6 in one ballot. To create the rankings, Fowler speaks with multiple NFL executives, coaches, and scouts. So, this is a telling placement for the Bears rising star.

But, it does come with some controversy. Fowler admitted that the No. 10 spot was too close to call between Williams, Jordan Love, Jayden Daniels, and Sam Darnold. To get a clear winner for the spot, he polled a few more general managers and executives, who gave enough votes for Williams to earn the final spot. The reasoning behind it was simple and based on traits few people care to bring up in this conversation.

“He’s the most dynamic of the group,” one GM said. “He’s got the arm talent and overall athleticism suited for today’s game.”

“He’s a closer,” an NFL personnel evaluator said. “End of games, he has shown that.”

“[He] has some of those ‘what is he doing?’ plays. But he also makes plays only he and Mahomes can make,” a veteran defensive coach explained. “[He] can throw from any angle, deceptively fast when forced to scramble and he’s got the ‘it’ factor in crunch time.”

Caleb Williams is only going to earn more and more respect from those inside the NFL

When looking at Williams’ stats and advanced stats from the 2025-26 season, critics are going to be incredibly frustrated by Williams’ ranking among the top quarterbacks, especially Green Bay Packers fans after seeing Jordan Love listed outside the Top-10.

You can look at whatever stats that you want. At the end of the day, people inside the NFL are putting the ball in Williams’ hands more than a lot of other quarterbacks when it matters most, and that carries significant weight.

Can he get better? Abso-freakingly-loutely. Williams will be the first one to tell you that. But, let’s remember that Williams is going into his third NFL season and the 2026 season will be his first year in NFL in which he isn’t entering the season under a new offense.

That same veteran defensive coach called Williams a “wildly erratic” quarterback who “doesn’t always take the layups and still needs to mature into the position.” While that’s true, Williams showed clear signs last season that he can make tangible improvement at his weaknesses.

After his rookie season, the conversation was that Williams couldn’t avoid pressure/sacks and couldn’t throw deep. Last year, Williams was one of the most elusive quarterbacks in the league and one of the best deep ball passers. Instead of praising his growth, the conversation became “oh well, he can’t take his layups and is wildly inaccurate.”

It’s not like Williams, or head coach Ben Johnson, doesn’t know that. Anytime either were asked how Williams could improve going into Year 3, those are the first two traits that are brought up.

I have full faith in Williams taking those steps forward. And if he does, we will be talking about this guy in the MVP conversation and he will have his name much higher in next year’s rankings.