Chicago Bears

Josh Allen has some advice for Caleb Williams

During an appearance on The Facility on FS1, the Buffalo Bills quarterback said that Williams needs to "just keep playing football" and that a rough start can be overcome.

"If the first couple of games in your NFL career don't go your way, it doesn't mean it will define your career," Allen said. "I think he's got to just keep working hard and playing football the way he knows how to play the game."

Williams was the No. 1 pick in the 2024 NFL Draft after an elite college career at Oklahoma and USC. He won the 2023 Heisman Trophy and threw for 10,082 yards and 93 touchdowns in his career.

His NFL tenure has been much less successful so far, although it has barely started. He won his first start for the Chicago Bears but his performance was not a big reason why as he only threw for 93 yards and had a completion percentage under 50 percent.

In his second game against the Houston Texans, he went 23-37 for 174 yards but threw two interceptions in a 19-13 loss.

He has plenty of time to improve but the warning bells appear to be sounding. However, Allen may be the best example of how a player can overcome a slow start.

Allen went 5-6 in his rookie season while throwing for 2,074 yards with 10 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. Since then, he has led Buffalo to five consecutive playoff appearances, four consecutive division titles and has been named to two Pro Bowls. He is among the best quarterbacks in the league and is the caliber of player Chicago hopes Williams can develop into.

While the ride has been a bit bumpy, Williams still has plenty of time to develop into the player Allen knows he can be.

Chicago Bears rookie quarterback Caleb Williams was not pleased with his two interceptions during Sunday's 19-13 loss against the Houston Texans.

"Obviously I had the two stupid mistakes that won't happen again," he told reporters Wednesday. "But I think rhythm, pass game, getting the ball to receivers, I think I got better with getting the ball out of my hands, trying to stay in the right range of timing, the offensive linemen, myself, and the routes, I think those are the few spots I've gotten better at."

Williams has struggled through two games, throwing for 267 yards, no touchdowns and two interceptions while taking nine sacks and completing just 56.1 percent of his passes.

Some of that is to be expected for a rookie, though the Bears came into the season with high hopes after selecting him with the top overall pick—alongside adding players like Keenan Allen, D'Andre Swift and Rome Odunze around him—and the offense has yet to live up to those expectations.

Williams remains confident in his ability to turn things around, however.

"Play your game, play within the way that we need to play, the way that I need to play for the offense, be efficient and make less mistakes each week," he said Wednesday. "Don't make the same mistake over and over."

Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Justin Fields is confident that Caleb Williams, his replacement on the Chicago Bears, is "going to be fine" amid a tough start to his NFL career.

"Of course, it's just not him, but he's going to get most of the blame just because of the position he's in," Fields said to Fox News Digital's Chantz Martin. "But just as a whole … the guys over there I know … they want to be better, and I think they're going to be better. So, I'm hoping that they start getting [the things] done on offense that they need to do.

"[Caleb] played two pretty good defenses coming out, so I think he'll be fine."

Williams is certainly getting his fair share of criticism. Through two games, he has 267 passing yards and two touchdowns along with 59 rushing yards on 10 carries.

The concerns about whether the No. 1 overall pick might try to improvise too much have been well-founded so far. He's learning the hard way that extending plays for too long in the NFL can have disastrous outcomes.

Amid the discourse around Williams, however, is an acknowledgement that he's not solely to blame for the struggles of the passing game. When some of the same problems that hampered Fields in Chicago are carrying over to this year, clearly the quarterback isn't the sole source.

Overreactions are a hallmark of the first few weeks in any given NFL season, and rookie quarterbacks, once offered a reasonable level of leeway in terms of their performance, are expected to hit the ground running now.

In the case of Williams, some of his flaws should be ironed out as he gains more and more experience. In particular, he'll better understand what he can and can't get away with as a playmaker.

But some of the issues affecting the Bears offense require solutions from much higher up in the organization.

C.J. Stroud may be in just his second season in the NFL, but he is an established superstar and one of the best quarterbacks in the league.

There are far worse people for a rookie signal-caller to receive advice from, and that is exactly what happened for Caleb Williams after Stroud's Houston Texans defeated his Chicago Bears on Sunday.

"Stop taking those hits," Stroud told Williams after the game. "Learn from those mistakes. Everything that you got, bro, is in you already, bro. You're going to be a hell of a player in this league."

Chicago's defense played well enough to win in the 19-13 loss, but the offensive line's complete failure to protect Williams was the major storyline. The No. 1 overall pick of the 2024 NFL draft was sacked seven times and hit 11 times.

Kevin Patra of NFL.com noted Next Gen Stats revealed Chicago's five starting offensive linemen alone gave up 28 quarterback pressures, which is completely unsustainable with a rookie quarterback making his second career start against a potential Super Bowl contender.

"I'm a little bruised up," Williams told reporters. "I took a couple hits today. I'm going to get in ice tubs and do all the things I need to do to make sure my body is ready for tomorrow and practice other the other days and obviously next game."

The pressure got to him as the game progressed, as he started 12-of-15 for 91 yards and a 91.9 passer rating before halftime but went 11-of-22 for 83 yards, two interceptions and a 21.6 rating in the second half, per Patra.

Chicago didn't do him many favors either, as there were multiple false starts out of timeouts and two poor challenges from head coach Matt Eberflus that cost the visitors timeouts. Running back D'Andre Swift also finished with 18 yards on 14 carries and struggled to find holes behind the same porous offensive line.

Stroud was something of a best-case scenario for a rookie quarterback, as he won Offensive Rookie of the Year and led the Texans to an AFC South crown. He also won a playoff game.

Chicago surely envisioned something similar when it paired Williams with DJ Moore, Keenan Allen, Rome Odunze, Cole Kmet and Swift, but its offensive line will have to take drastic strides as the season progresses to make that a reality.

Amid protection issues for Caleb Williams through the first two games, Chicago Bears right guard Nate Davis is being put in the spotlight for his lack of involvement at practice.

On the latest episode of the Scoop City podcast (starts 42:00 mark), The Athletic's Adam Hoge noted the interior of the Bears are "frustrated" with Davis "not practicing" to the point the team was hoping to replace him with free-agent signee Ryan Bates before Bates suffered a shoulder injury:

"Since training camp started, it's been a disaster. Nate Davis is probably not a huge national story, but locally, it's been a big story for the last two years. He doesn't like to practice. The Bears are frustrated with him not practicing. And I think he was going to lose that starting job at right guard to Ryan Bates, but Ryan Bates got hurt. And last week, actually, Ryan Bates out-snapped Nate Davis in the opener in a rotation, but then Ryan Bates suffered another injury this week in practice and he's now on IR. So Nate Davis is out there by default. They got nobody else there to put in, even though I don't think they want to play him. The interior of the offensive line is probably the least sexy thing to talk about when it comes to football, but right now for the Bears, it's their biggest problem."

Williams was under duress throughout the Bears' loss to the Houston Texans in Week 2. He was sacked seven times and pressured 23 times on 48 dropbacks, per NFL's Next Gen Stats.

Pro Football Focus (h/t Josh Schrock of NBC Sports Chicago) credited Davis with allowing four pressures and one sack. Darnell Wright, who plays tackle next to Davis on the right side of the line, allowed five pressures and two sacks.

Quinten Krzysko of Bears on Tap did note Davis was "excellent" in the first half against the Texans, but the wheels fell off with "mental errors, tripping over teammates, and struggling to sustain his anchor" in the second half.

The Bears' second-half offense was virtually non-existent. Four of their eight drives ended in three plays or fewer (three punts, one interception). Two other drives lasted five plays (one punt, one turnover on downs). The one sustained drive they had gained 61 yards on 12 plays, ending with a 54-yard field goal by Cairo Santos.

Davis, who signed a three-year, $30 million contract with the Bears as a free agent in March 2023, was actually asked about fan response to his practice habits during training camp in August.

"My focus is just on the building, on the players and our coaching staff and whatever they ask me to do," Davis told reporters on Aug. 15. He wasn't practicing at the time due to an undisclosed injury.

Davis hasn't been on the injury report in the first two weeks of the regular season. He only played 18 snaps in Week 1 against the Tennessee Titans, but was on the field for every offensive snap against the Texans.

The Bears have scored just one offensive touchdown through their first two games. Williams is 37-of-66 (56.1 percent) for 267 yards with no touchdowns and two interceptions. He's been sacked nine times, tied with Gardner Minshew II for most in the NFL through two weeks.

Chicago Bears running back Roschon Johnson apparently exercised a lot of restraint when he was punched by Houston Texans linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair in Sunday's 19-13 defeat.

Bears players took exception to Al-Shaair's hit on Caleb Williams as the rookie quarterback was on his way out of bounds in the third quarter. Al-Shaair was surrounded by Chicago players when he returned to his feet and swung his right hand at Johnson, who hadn't been involved in the play.

Johnson addressed the sequence on social media and said that "it took every bit of my soul not to thrash that boy."

Al-Shaair offered his side after the game. He said the punch was "not my proudest moment," but contended players on the Bears sideline said some "crazy things" to him.

The referees missed the punch in the moment so Al-Shaair escaped without being penalized. The NFL league office is likely to weigh in, however, so the experienced defender could face some consequences in the coming days. A small fine is all but guaranteed and a suspension is possible.

Thanks to his discretion, Johnson won't be writing a check to the league.

Houston Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud imparted some wisdom to Chicago Bears rookie Caleb Williams after a 19-13 victory on Sunday night.

The two met on the field for the customary postgame handshakes, where Stroud advised Williams to "just keep going" and not lose his confidence.

After throwing for fewer than 100 yards in his debut, Williams had another game to forget. He finished 23-of-37 for 174 yards and two interceptions against the Texans. Houston also sacked him seven times

The 2024 No. 1 overall pick is still clearly adjusting to life in the NFL. His second interception was the kind of play he would've turned into an incredible highlight at USC thanks to his improvisational ability. Instead, he eluded the pass rush only to force a throw into triple coverage.

For the Bears, the far bigger concern is that they've seemingly done nothing to meaningfully improve the support system around a young franchise quarterback. Sunday's game was almost no different from any of the last two years with Justin Fields under center.

It's too early to have any big-picture conversations about what this means for Williams' development because we're only two games in. But it might be safe to start lowering the expectations surrounding the 2022 Heisman Trophy winner in his first year.

C.J. Stroud and the Houston Texans are 2-0 after taking down Caleb Williams and the Chicago Bears on Sunday 19-13.

Stroud had another strong game in the win, throwing for 260 passing yards and a touchdown on 23-of-36 passing. He connected well with wide receiver Nico Collins, who had 135 receiving yards and a touchdown, marking back-to-back games reaching the century mark to start the season.

Stroud has continued to impress in his second year after a phenomenal rookie year, and the quarterback once again drew rave reviews from NFL fans.

While one young quarterback continued to show promise as Stroud dazzled fans, the opposing young quarterback struggled. In his second game, Williams had 174 passing yards and two interceptions on 23-of-37 passing, certainly a game to forget in his second NFL contest.

It wasn't entirely Williams' fault, as his offensive line allowed him to take seven sacks, 11 total hits and plenty of pressure which led to the interceptions.

While there was concern regarding Williams' play, there was overall concern about the state of the Bears' offensive line.

Just two games into his NFL career, Williams still has some developing to do, but an offensive line that allows him to get hit seemingly every play won't make things any easier.

If the Bears want Williams to develop into the franchise quarterback they expect him to be, getting an offensive line that can protect him and give him time to get the ball out will be instrumental.

Pittsburgh Steelers could stick with Justin Fields as the starting quarterback regardless of Russell Wilson's status moving forward based on how Sunday's game against the Denver Broncos unfolds, according to NFL Network's Ian Rapoport.

Wilson's calf injury opened the door for Fields in Pittsburgh's opener and he went 17-of-23 for 156 yards through the air in an 18-13 win over the Atlanta Falcons. He also ran for 57 yards on 14 carries.

Wilson told reporters this week he's "getting closer and closer" to his return, but Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported Friday the team is expecting to start Fields on Sunday and for its Week 3 matchup with the Los Angeles Chargers.

Fields spent the first three seasons of his career with the Chicago Bears, and to say he didn't live up to his draft status would be an understatement.

He finished the 2023 campaign having completed 61.4 percent of his passes 2,562 yards and 16 touchdowns against nine interceptions in 13 games, in addition to rushing for 657 yards and four scores.

The Bears traded Fields to the Steelers ahead of the 2024 NFL Draft, in which they selected Caleb Williams with the No. 1 overall pick to be his replacement.

Head coach Mike Tomlin named Wilson the starter ahead of Fields in August, which was the order many expected when this quarterback room came together. At the same time, a midseason QB change looked plausible when Wilson is only a one-year stopgap and Fields could serve as a more permanent solution.