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ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler put out a list, ranking the top 10 QBs in the NFL.
He reportedly talked to a lot of coaches and personnel executives around the league which helped him compile this list.
I have no idea who he talked to, so it’s hard to know how the sausage was made on this list, but while I don’t care about lists or rankings (the only list or ranking that matters is which team is #1 at the end of the year, after winning the Super Bowl), I want to get into something related to Chicago Bears’ QB Caleb Williams.
He was ranked as the 10th-best QB in the NFL.
Some Bears fans and “fan-reporters” were outraged by this ranking.
I’m not sure he’s much better than the Jets QB, Geno Smith.
People might think that is insane, but if you put the hype on the side and look at the film, like Fox’s Mark Schlereth did, Williams has a lot of work to do.
“[Williams] is not yet a good quarterback,” Schlereth said on his podcast.
Why?
“His footwork is atrocious, absolutely atrocious,” Schlereth said. “Which, in the West Coast offense, offensive coordinators will tell you, and I’ve heard this my whole life, is you throw the ball with your feet. When your feet are not set, when your feet are not in rhythm, when you’re feet are not orchestrating, you can’t be accurate.”
Williams completed 58.1 percent of his passes last year for the Bears. That is not very good.
“Right after the season, from Ben Johnson (when) talking about Caleb Williams quarterbacking – we should be completing 70 percent of our passes,” Schlereth said.
What people don’t get, according to Schlereth, who played guard for 12 years in the NFL, is that while Williams will make some sensational highlight film plays, a lot of plays in between those Sportscenter clips are not great.
“When it comes to play-making ability outside the pocket, extending the play, when it comes to all those things, he’s phenomenal,” Schlereth said. “My point about Caleb Williams is not that he can’t be great at some point. He’s not great now. The point about Caleb Williams is that he’s got to do the quarterbacking things better; he’s got to do the boring better; he’s got to create those things on a more standard basis, a play-in, play-out basis. He’s got to be able to do those things before he’s going to be a good quarterback.
Schlereth says Williams stays on his first read too long.
“When the frontside is clearly not where you were supposed to throw the ball, you need to get off of that and go to the backside, Schlreth said. “And you see him hang on that stuff and he doesn’t get off of it. All of those things are part and parcel of growing as a quarterback.”
Too many fans just don’t get it when talking about this position according to Schlereth.
“The problem I get into with fans if they think playmaking and being dynamic is the standard of the NFL,” Schlereth said. “They think that wins championships. They are like ‘Oh my goodness, did you see the play he made against Green Bay?’ I’m telling you, I’m looking at the five or six plays that win the game that he doesn’t make that keep drives alive, that don’t put our offense in harm’s way. Those are the things I’m looking at that he’s not very good at.”
So this is why I made the statement that Williams is not much better than Smith.
Smith can actually do “boring stuff” from the pocket better than Williams right now and is more accurate.
Williams is obviously the more sensational play-maker, running around playing street yard ball, but that stuff can be a tad overrated in the grand scheme of things.
July 14, 2026
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