On and off the field, Caleb Williams has the right touch

For a guy who was rumored to be too into himself, his brand and his feelings, Caleb Williams seems to go out of his way to not make it about him.

Actually, he doesn’t go out of his way. On the contrary, whether it’s sharing credit, taking the blame or keeping his role as franchise quarterback with the weight of the Bears’ dubious quarterback history on his back in perspective, the Bears’ rookie never seems to look like he’s trying too hard.

“What have I learned by playing? That our defense is really good,” Williams said after his second and likely final preseason game Saturday, a 27-3 victory over the Bengals at Soldier Field, “because I go against them every day.

“They’ve done a great job helping me, preparing me. Defensive guys talking to me about things I can do and get better at. We have our [offensive unit] meetings, but the defensive guys speaking up, telling me what they see from their lens, it’s only made me better.”

Williams’ acknowledgement of the defense came off as more of a sincere appreciation than some gratuitous gesture to make him look like a team guy. In his eight losses in two seasons at USC, Williams and the USC offense averaged 30.8 points, but the Trojans’ defense allowed 40.1 — 34 or more in each game.

Compared to the heavy lifting he had to do at USC, playing for the 2024 Bears is like playing with the wind at his back. The last time Williams went punt-punt-punt on the first three series of the game before Saturday, USC trailed Arizona 17-0 last season. Against the Bengals on Saturday, it was still 0-0.

It surely helped that Joe Burrow and the Bengals’ starting offense sat out the game. But the Bears defense isn’t a myth. It led the NFL in fewest points allowed over the final eight games of last season, with every starter 28 or younger except safety Eddie Jackson (30). At full strength, the defense is a better bet to finish in the top 10 in scoring than the offense — at this point.

Williams created an unusual amount of buzz for a quarterback who had a mundane 64.6 passer rating against the Bengals on Saturday — he completed 6 of 13 passes for 75 yards, no touchdowns and no interceptions.

Four splash plays trumped the three three-and-outs — a 45-yard pass to rookie wide receiver Rome Odunze; a downfield pass to wide receiver Tyler Scott that drew a 43-yard pass interference penalty; an athletic, on-the-run throw to Odunze in the corner of the end zone that was an incompletion instead of a seven-yard touchdown because Odunze failed to get two feet inbounds; and an entertaining scramble for a seven-yard touchdown run, in which he stepped up, eluded tackles, wheeled around and — while looking to throw — found a lane to score untouched.

“Grading the flashes” of a Bears quarterback’s preseason performance can be a faulty process, because those flashes often overshadow fatal flaws. But Williams’ flashes aren’t your normal highlight plays — at least not in these parts.

Including Williams’ 26-yard pass to Cole Kmet and his shot-put screen pass to D’Andre Swift for a 42-yard gain against the Bills, all of Williams’ big plays except the touchdown run are plays that Fields either was less likely to make or could not make. And even on the scramble, Williams’ mentality of looking to throw first until the last second illustrates the upgrade the Bears were looking for, and appear to have gotten.

And let the record show that Williams did not let those three-and-outs slide. When Williams was asked about Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill comparing Williams favorably to Patrick Mahomes on Twitter during the game, he could have said he didn’t see it and left it at that. Instead, he processed the information and quickly put the compliment in the proper perspective.

“It’s cool. It’s great. I always say it’s respect,” Williams said. “But we were our best today. We started slow. We can’t do that in the National Football League. Myself included. We’re going to keep growing. We’re going to have a lot of fun doing it — winning these games, playing as one. We’re excited.

“To your question, it’s respect. It’s cool and all, but I”m Caleb Williams. Patrick Mahomes is Patrick Mahomes. Tyreek Hill is Tyreek Hill. Much love to them. … But we’re here to win games for the Chicago Bears.”

There’s a long way to go, and Williams still has a lot to prove — you can’t emphasize that enough when getting excited about a quarterback at Halas Hall. But Williams’ ability to think quickly and rationally and make the right moves, say the right things and manage a pressure-packed, potentially suffocating, responsibility off the field as well as on the field lends credence to the growing possibility that what we are witnessing — the development of a quarterback who tilts the field in the Bears’ favor — is real.