Schrock: As Caleb Williams rises, make sure to enjoy the ride

When I walked into Halas Hall in May 2022, I felt like the Bears’ new regime, and I were in a similar spot.

We were both relative unknowns starting from the ground up who would need to prove ourselves over time. I knew there would be questions when I got hired.

Why should anyone read or listen to a guy from Oregon that they’ve never heard of?

The questions were valid. Answering those was part of the work I had ahead.

After all, unlike everyone on the beat save one (shoutout to Pat Finley), I wasn’t a born-and-bred Chicagoan. But my connection to Chicago and the Bears always ran deeper than the surface-level bullet points found on a Twitter bio.

My dad loved the Bears. He loved all Chicago sports, but he especially loved the Bears and Cubs. That happens when you’re born in Wyoming and grow up in a time before mass broadcasts, cable, RSNs, the internet, etc.

I spent countless Sundays with my dad watching Bears football. Some good. Mostly bad.

I remember my dad’s elation when Devin Hester returned the opening kick-off of Super Bowl XLI and the subsequent despair as the rest of the game unfolded. I remember calling him from my college dorm on Jay Cutler day. The excitement was overwhelming and quickly turned to frustration as expectations went unmet. He was apoplectic when the Bears drafted Mitchell Trubisky and traded up to do so. In the majority of the pictures I have with my dad, he’s wearing a Bears hat or shirt or some sort of memorabilia that I bought him for Father’s Day, Christmas, etc.

When I think of the Bears, I think of my dad.

When the Bears Insider job opened at NBC Sports Chicago in 2022, it came at a point in my life where I was lost. At least, as lost as someone could be who spent their days watching Steph Curry set records and covered the San Francisco 49ers as they marched to Super Bowls and NFC title games. Sports reporting is a privilege. One I earned but have been lucky to do for 10 years.

But when my dad passed away in 2020, everything lost its luster. I’ve always loved doing this job, but I especially loved talking to my dad about it – about the people I talked to, the things I saw, and the games I witnessed. For the two years after he passed, I continued to do the job. I did it well. But the joy faded. I was adrift.

This job, covering this team, changed that. Being the Bears Insider for NBC Sports Chicago was a rare and special opportunity for several reasons.

First of all, the Bears beat is, for my money, the deepest and most talented beat in the NFL. The reporting and writing talent in the room is second to none, and it exists in a no-bullshit market. I wanted to be challenged and to grow. I wanted to measure myself and learn next to people whose work I admire. You have to bring your best every day as a member of this beat. It’s not the Chargers, Bengals, or Raiders (no offense). There are zero off days.

I appreciated that and welcomed the high bar I’d need to clear. I like to think I did, at least for the most part.

Covering the Bears was all-consuming. There were no offseasons, and the spigot of on-field and off-field news flowed from the day I arrived until Sunday.

It was exactly what I thought it would be from a career challenge standpoint. For that, I’m glad.

But the job also gave me what I really needed – peace.

Covering the Bears gave me a connection to my dad that I hadn’t felt since he passed.

Every day I left Halas Hall, I thought about calling my dad and telling him about the daily news surrounding his favorite team. Having that was like having a weight lifted off my chest. It allowed me to exhale.

The road leads ever on, but this is where the Bears and I depart.

As NBC Sports Chicago closes up Monday, I leave the Bears beat with a ton of gratitude for the time I had and for the people I worked with both on the beat and at NBCSCH.

There’s a voicemail from my dad that I listen to often when things don’t seem to be going my way. It’s from a time early in my career when I wasn’t getting the assignments I thought I’d earned in Boston.

“Don’t let it get you down. Things will turn around. Life is just like that sometimes. But it doesn’t last.”

I think that’s true in sports and most of life – the good and the bad.

It’s a constant ebb and flow. Dynasties rise and fall. Relationships spark and fizzle. Your career can inject you with energy and then cripple you. Skin wrinkles, and the color of your hair fades.

But life only moves forward. You have to play the hand you’re dealt and make the most of your opportunities.

That’s something I tried to do.

It's something this current Bears regime is working to maximize after receiving the rare gift of landing quarterback Caleb Williams.

The gravity of this moment has never been lost on general manager Ryan Poles.

“We’re super fortunate," Poles told me in March at the annual NFL league meetings before they drafted Williams but well after they decided they were going to do so. "What keeps me up at night is really reflecting on what – what would this look like if some of the things didn’t line up? If Houston doesn’t throw the Hail Mary to win that game when they really didn’t need to [in Week 18 of the 2022 season]. You know, Carolina coming up short in a few games that gives you the first overall pick back. Then, what we believe is a talented draft class to kind of match where our picks are. We’re really, really fortunate and things are lining up the right way.

"That’s going to be on paper. It’s got to all come together on the field and result in wins but it’s allowed us to do some really cool things and I don’t know what it would look like without some of those things happening the way that they did. Like, there’s so much work to do be done. There still is. But it would be double the amount of work to get this team to where it needs to be."

The Bears still have a lot of work to do.

They are 2-2 after Sunday’s 24-18 win vs. the Los Angeles Rams. You know I have severe questions about head coach Matt Eberflus. I appear to have been wrong about offensive coordinator Shane Waldron, but there's time for that to change.

But what I am pretty certain of is that the Bears got the quarterback right. Williams has developing to do, but he’s improving despite the chaos around him. You can’t deny the talent.

Sunday was his most efficient game, and while it wasn’t his most productive from a stats standpoint, I think it was the best start of his young career.

Williams went 17-for-23 for 157 yards and a touchdown in the win. He made quick, efficient decisions. He took the shots when they were there and quickly checked the ball down when it wasn’t. Most importantly, he didn’t turn the ball over. Sprinkle in the touchdown throw to DJ Moore that was a dart in the back of the end zone, and the throw to tight end Cole Kmet up the seam that led to what ended up being the game-deciding touchdown run by D’Andre Swift, and you have the makings of what can be a launching pad for what's to come.

“I mean, that was an NFL throw,” Kmet said after the win.

Williams has already put a number of those “wow” throws on tape through four games. They’ll continue to pile up as he gets more comfortable, and the Bears’ offense establishes the rhythm it started to find in the second half Sunday.

If the Bears can iron out the coaching issues and fill certain roster holes, Williams has everything needed to meet or exceed expectations.

Quarterbacks like Caleb Williams don’t come around often.

I expect Caleb Williams to rise and bring the Bears with him (if he can defeat whatever force haunts Halas Hall).

As he does, enjoy the ride. I did.

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