LAKE FOREST, Ill. -- All eyes will be on Bears quarterback Caleb Williams on Sunday when the No. 1 overall pick makes his official NFL debut against the Tennessee Titans at Soldier Field.
Expectations for the 2022 Heisman Trophy winner are stratospheric as he begins his NFL career and hopeful march toward stardom. Both Williams and the Bears know there will be adversity during his rookie season. Even the best rookie quarterbacks suffer body blows from NFL defenses. The key is understanding how to rebound when you get knocked back.
"Understanding that the situation I’m in, bad things are going to happen every once in a while," Williams said Wednesday at Halas Hall. "You’re going to throw a pick. You’re going to fumble. Whether it’s me, whether it’s the team, whether it’s we’re going to jump offsides, we’re going to do a bunch of things. When those moments of adversity strike, it’s more about encouraging, it’s more about understanding that we can get out of this situation and not bringing more negativity to the situation that comes up.
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"I think the communication and information part and also just understanding that there’s going to be a lot more times - obviously you can’t be doing it every single drive or every single play - but there’s going to be a lot more times throughout the games or practices where there’s going to be a lot more good than bad. You just can’t let the bad outweigh the good."
On Sunday, Williams will look to become the first quarterback drafted No. 1 overall to win a season opener since David Carr in 2002. Since Carr's win over the Dallas Cowboys, No. 1 overall picks are 0-8-1 in season-openers, with Kyler Murray and the Arizona Cardinals getting a tie in 2019.
Quarterbacks taken No. 1 overall are 0-14-1 in their first career starts since Carr won in 2002. That number includes the likes of Carson Palmer and Baker Mayfield who were drafted No. 1 overall but did not start the season-opener in their rookie year.
Palmer sat for his entire rookie campaign but lost his first career start in 2004. Mayfield started his rookie season behind Tyrod Taylor before eventually taking over as starter after Taylor suffered an injury. Mayfield entered in the middle of a Week 3 game against the New York Jets and led the Browns to a win. But his first-career start came one week later in a loss to the Oakland Raiders.
Per Josh Dubow of The AP, the only other No. 1 pick quarterbacks to win their season-openers as rookies were John Elway (1983) and Jim Plunkett (1971).
The Titans will present a unique challenge for Wiliams as he tries to snap that winless streak for No. 1 overall picks in season-openers.
Tennessee cleaned house over the offseason. The Titans moved on from head coach Mike Vrabel and hired Brian Callahan as their head coach. Callahan hired first-time defensive coordinator Dennard Wilson to call the Titans' defense.
Wilson has been an NFL coach for 12 years but has never been the man calling the plays. Last season, he was the defensive backs coach for the Baltimore Ravens, and he held the same position with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2022.
With no tendencies on tape, Williams and the Bears' offense will have to adjust on the fly Sunday once they get a look at Wilson's defensive plan.
"Something that we say, ‘we’re not hunting ghosts,'" Williams said. "So we’re not hunting ghosts of things that they may run, may not run. We’re kind of going off of things that we’ve seen, some of the base things that we do know."
"We have to be sound in our schemes," head coach Matt Eberflus said Wednesday. "We have to play fast. We have to be very good in our execution and that’s what you hold onto. And you have to have answers for things that they do."
CALEB WILLIAMS
With a talented supporting cast around him, the Bears are confident Williams will be able to hit the ground running Sunday. The rookie quarterback has shown the ability to learn quickly and adapt on the fly while facing the Bears' ascending defense on the back fields at Halas Hall.
Williams and the Bears' hard work will be put to the test Sunday against an opponent whose plan of attack remains a relative mystery.
"I’m excited to see him," Eberflus said of Williams' official debut. "And I’m excited [for him] to lean in and lean on his teammates. Because that’s what you have to do with a quarterback. He’s got guys around him that have played a lot of years. And again, he’s a rookie. So he’s just been leaning on those guys, and getting the ball to those guys and let them do their work."
Williams hasn't been shy about the big goals he has for himself and the Bears during what he expects to be a long and successful tenure. Those aspirations include breaking a long list of Bears' passing records that are so unimpressive it would be hard to find the bar Williams has to step over.
But when the lights come on Sunday, none of that matters. Williams isn't concerned about his role in the game plan. All that matters is doing what gives him the best chance to become the first quarterback taken No. 1 overall to win a season-opener since Carr.
Run the ball and win the game? That's it." Williams said Wednesday. "If we come out and decide that the offensive line is dominating and wide receivers are dominating blocks, we're extending runs and things like that, coach always talks about back side wins championships, front side wins games. So if we got guys out there giving that type of energy and we're handing the ball off and we're getting, I don't know, 5 (yards) a pop, I mean, it's hard to beat that.
"And so, one, you control the game, control the clock, all these different things, keeping their offense off the field and a bunch of different things. If that's the case, that's the case. As long as we get a win. Because last time I remembered, the wins are the most important thing. And so as long as we get that win, at the end of the day, 100 yards, 400, it all becomes the same."
Sunday's results won't dictate the direction Williams' career heads. Carr busted after that season-opening win, while Eli Manning, Andrew Luck, Matthew Stafford, and others brushed off early struggles to have storied careers.
Whether Williams leaves Soldier Field 1-0 or 0-1 on Sunday will have no impact on when or if his NFL star rises. But 1-0, no matter how it comes, would inject jet fuel into the growing belief that Williams -- armed with extraordinary talent and rare wiring -- is the agent of change a woebegone Bears franchise has desperately needed.