Why NFL Defensive Coaches Are Talking About Caleb Williams Like The Boogeyman
Following the 2024 season, opinions on Caleb Williams from coaches around the league were what you’d expect. He’s still raw, too indecisive, holds the ball too, but wickedly talented. Maybe he’ll be good one day, but that could take a while. It’s crazy to think how much a narrative can change in a year. Williams finished the 2025 season with probably the best campaign a Bears quarterback has had in the Super Bowl era. He compiled over 4,000 total yards, including a team record 3,941 passing and 30 total touchdowns. Chicago went 11-6, won the division, and were an overtime away from the NFC Championship.
Yet that isn’t what has the coaching community inside the NFL buzzing, and a little nervous. Dan Wiederer and Kevin Fishbain of The Athletic spoke to several defensive coaches at the scouting combine in Indianapolis. They all kept referencing Williams’ ability to rally late in games.
“I never saw him flinch,” one personnel man said. “That’s what you respect most. You could feel that confidence that he is never out of a game. There aren’t a lot of quarterbacks who operate that way.”
With Williams, it’s not just the Bears who now understand that they are never out of a game. Opponents now feel it, too, adding a psychological component to every game the Bears play. Said one AFC exec: “With guys like him, you feel constant pressure to have a two-score lead. And even when you have that, you’re not comfortable.”
That discomfort is real and, at times, suffocating for an opponent. For the Bears, the belief in Williams can offer a stimulant.
“Even inside of a game where you’re not playing well and your offense isn’t doing anything, as soon as you get that one score, you can almost feel it from the other side: ‘Oh, f—. Here we go,’” the exec said.
You can just tell from how they speak that Williams has sent shockwaves through the league. If there is one thing defensive coordinators hate the most, it’s having to defend against quarterbacks who play their best late in games.
Caleb Williams is the worst kind of quarterback to defend.
It’s bad enough that he seems to possess the rare calm in the face of mounting pressure during games. His pulse never speeds up. What makes it worse is his ability to avoid pressure and make plays off-script. Defenses can’t focus on attacking him the same way every play because nobody knows what he’s going to do from snap to snap. All that scrambling drains opponents. The later it gets, the more gassed they become. By the final five minutes, their tanks are empty. That is when Williams often strikes the killing blow.
People forget, but that is why John Elway was so proficient at 4th-quarter comebacks throughout his career. Everybody remembers the cannon arm and calm under pressure. They forget how often he used his legs to buy time. Defenses hated facing him because of that. Williams is built the same way. The trick with Elway was ensuring he had an offense around him that didn’t always require those heroics. It took Denver over a decade to finally figure it out. Thankfully, the Bears seem to have gotten it right early with Ben Johnson.
| Player | Total 4QC (First 2 Seasons) | Team(s) | Years |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bo Nix | 8 | Denver Broncos | 2024–2025 |
| Caleb Williams | 8 | Chicago Bears | 2024–2025 |
| Peyton Manning | 7 | Indianapolis Colts | 1998–1999 |
| Jake Plummer | 7 | Arizona Cardinals | 1997–1998 |
| Josh Freeman | 7 | Tampa Bay Buccaneers | 2009–2010 |
| Andrew Luck | 7 | Indianapolis Colts | 2012–2013 |
| Jay Schroeder | 7 | Washington Redskins | 1985–1986 |
| Dak Prescott | 5 | Dallas Cowboys | 2016–2017 |
| Matthew Stafford | 5 | Detroit Lions | 2009–2010 |
The only thing Williams is missing is a defense.
Part of the reason Chicago constantly needed comebacks last year was the defense’s inability to hold leads. Four of them came after the opposing team had scored in the 4th quarter to go ahead. That is the price you pay for having the 29th-ranked defense in the league. Getting that fixed is a priority for Bears general manager Ryan Poles and defensive coordinator Dennis Allen. Caleb Williams has yet to play with a great defense in his football career. From high school through Oklahoma and USC, he constantly had to carry his teams with tons of points.
People give Tom Brady all the credit for seven Super Bowl rings. They often forget to point out that he played with 19 defenses that finished in the top 10 in the league during his career. It’s much easier to win championships under those conditions. Aaron Rodgers, his idol, only played with three. One of them was in 2010 when he won his only Super Bowl. That is the next step for Chicago. Get Williams a defense. Once the puzzle is put together, that elusive Lombardi trophy will be in sight.