The Chicago Bears are excited to see what the No. 1 pick in the draft can do when training camp starts for rookies on July 16. While the Bears are getting used to life with a quarterback who will have high expectations from people all over the league, USC head coach Lincoln Riley is about to prepare his team, specifically his offense, to be led by a quarterback stepping into the Heisman winner’s shadow.
Riley thinks that can be a good thing.
Caleb Williams has had to relearn how to play QB this spring
Williams had an 18-8 record during his two seasons with USC. He went 735-1099 passing for 93 touchdowns and 14 interceptions during his three seasons with Riley at Oklahoma and USC.
Williams’s transition into the Bears’ offense hasn’t been smooth, especially given that he’s still learning the cadence after being in USC’s system, which used a clap cadence out of their shotgun offense. But he’s shown flashes of promise that gave the Bears defense some worry during practice this spring.
USC HC thinks losing Williams can be a ‘positive’
One would think losing Williams’ skillset would keep Riley up at night. However, in an interview on Big Ten Football, Riley said that losing Williams could be a “positive” for USC.
“It honestly can be a positive,” Riley said. “Tennessee won their first championship here in the modern era the year after Peyton Manning left. A lot gets made of it because when you do have a player that wins some awards or does some of the great things like others that we’ve had have done, and like Caleb did for us, there becomes from the outside so much attention on that one player.
“But it’s still a team game, and it’s still the other 21 guys that are starting on either side of the ball, the special teams, I mean the depth of your roster — all of those things are ultimately what wins.”
The Chicago Bears hope Williams isn’t replaceable
Tennessee replaced Peyton Manning with Tee Martin, who would lead Tennessee to the 1998 BCS National Championship. Martin was selected in the fifth round of the 2000 NFL Draft by the Pittsburgh Steelers before having a more successful professional career in NFL Europe.
College football is much different than the NFL for several reasons (looking at you, hash marks), and elite quarterback play being a driving factor on a champion team is one of them. Having an elite quarterback like Joe Burrow on LSU can help. But loaded teams like Georgia can win multiple titles with Stetson Bennett.
In the NFL, teams that win multiple Super Bowls have great quarterbacks like Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes, and Peyton Manning. The Bears need Williams to become a great quarterback–one that Miller Moss can’t replace.
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