To be the next Russell Wilson (or better), Caleb Williams must build on 4th-quarter wizardry

Five years ago, Bears general manager Ryan Pace famously tried to trade three first-round picks to the Seahawks for quarterback Russell Wilson.

The Bears might have ended up with their own version of Wilson anyway.

That’s the comparison that Titans coach Robert Saleh made when asked about Bears quarterback Caleb Williams at the NFL annual meeting last week.

“He reminds me a little of — and I’m trying to put a ceiling on him because he could be better — Russell Wilson,” he said.

The most myopic Bears fans might wrinkle their nose and wonder if Williams could be better. Wilson, though, is a future Pro Football Hall of Famer who would be, hands down, the greatest quarterback in Bears history. He reached nine Pro Bowls and two Super Bowls —winning one — in his first 10 years in the NFL. His Seahawks teams won two-thirds of their regular season games and nine of 16 playoff games before he was traded to the Broncos and started a series of underwhelming stints with teams across the league. He’s currently jobless.

There’s a natural comparison between the size of the two quarterbacks — in a world of giants, Williams is listed at 6-1 and Wilson at 5-11. But most importantly, Saleh said, is what they both can do in the fourth quarter. Wilson ranks second among active quarterbacks with 32 fourth-quarter comebacks and 40 game-winning drives.

“It didn’t matter how the game started,” Saleh said. “You knew as the moment got bigger and bigger and bigger, he was going to become more and more dangerous. It proved in his fourth-quarter heroics.

“[With Williams], the game is never over, I don’t care what the score is. I don’t care what the situation is. I think the throw he made in the playoff game proves that.”

Saleh wasn’t wowed simply by Williams’ game-tying, back-pedaling touchdown pass to tight end Cole Kmet in the playoff game they’d eventually lose to the Rams in overtime. Before the Titans named him head coach in January, he was the defensive coordinator of the 49ers. In Week 17, Williams threw for 330 yards and a 100.3 passer rating in a 42-38 loss in the Bay Area.

“Special young man,” Saleh said. “Special talent.”

Now the Bears need him to play that well throughout the season — starting in quarters 1-3.

Head coach Ben Johnson has made it one of his offseason priorities to try to make the rest of the game as impressive as the end.

The Bears scored more points in the fourth quarter last year than any other frame. Toward the end of the season, though, it got ridiculous. In the Bears’ last eight games — six regular season plus two in the playoffs — the Bears scored 95 of their 200 points in the fourth quarter. In two postseason games, they totaled 32 fourth-quarter points — and 16 the rest of the time.

“That wasn't the case in the first half of the season,” Johnson said. “So we've got to figure out why we started the second half of the season so slow on offense. And that's a big mission of mine.

"We don't want to put ourselves behind the 8 ball each and every week. That's not a formula for sustained success. We're better than that. We have too much talent on our offensive side of the ball for us to start off so slow and to dig ourselves in holes like that.”

For Williams to become Wilson — or be even better — he needs to dominate throughout the game, not just in the fourth quarter. And then he has to continue to play well at the end of games, too.

“I think that part needs to stay the same,” Johnson said. “In terms of when we need to be at our best in the fourth quarter.”

Williams had six fourth-quarter comebacks in the regular season last year. He posted one in the playoffs, too, when he rallied the Bears for 25 fourth-quarter points against the Bears' rivals.

“I just think what Caleb did at the end of the games and his ability to make off-schedule plays was incredible,” said Jeff Hafley, who was the Packers' defensive coordinator before being named the Dolphins’ head coach in January. "I mean, that’s just me being honest. At the end of the games, when he had to make off-schedule plays and somehow pull it off, he did.”

Hafley has spent his career shouting warnings about late-game comebacks into his headset, telling his defenders that games always come down to whether they can make a stop at the end.

Williams proved to be special at the end of their rivalry battles. Now the Bears want him to focusing on doing the same throughout each game.

“When you get guys that are really good like that,” Hafley said, “you have to make sure you’re on it.”