LAKE FOREST, Ill. (670 The Score) — Bears rookie quarterback Caleb Williams on Wednesday offered a strong defense of his embattled offensive line, calling the perception of the unit's struggles “stupid.”
Williams made the comments amid scrutiny for the Bears’ offensive line this season. He has been sacked 67 times, the fourth-most of any quarterback during a single season in NFL history. The record is 76 sacks taken by David Carr of the Texans back in 2002.
“There’s been a stupid – excuse my language – but a stupid idea behind my offensive linemen,” Williams said at Halas Hall. “I will say that there’s been – yes, everybody gives up sacks, everybody messes up, everybody misses a block, everybody drops a pass. Everybody throws a pick. I got six (interceptions), and I got a couple fumbles and things like that. So, you know, the connotation behind my offensive line has been annoying and frustrating because they work their tail off to be able to go out there and the guys that, whether guys are fighting injuries, whether guys can’t play and we got other guys stepping up or whether guys have been playing the whole season.
“They come in here and work their butt off each day and each week. I’ve taken sacks, yes. And you know a good amount have been on me, whether it’s small things of getting the ball out of my hands and just maybe dirting it, maybe not trying to find the perfect route, perfect play, all of that for that situation. Maybe, it’s just throwing it out of bounds, dirting it, finding the check-down faster and then the other one is just not trying to make plays all the time and understanding that.
“The stupid connotation behind my offensive line being bad is not the truth.”
Williams, 23, has thrown for 3,393 yards, 16 touchdowns and six interceptions in 16 starts this season.
The No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, Williams is leading the Bears through a difficult season in which head coach Matt Eberflus was fired in late November and the team is riding an ongoing 10-game losing streak.
The Bears (4-12) will look to snap that skip when they visit the rival Green Bay Packers (11-5) on Sunday in their season finale.
"It’s been tough and challenging," Williams said. "When you have to come in here and learn a whole new type of system and all these different things and then you have a multitude of different things that happen, whether it’s coaches being fired or coaches being promoted, a bunch of different things, so I think being able to go through this and being able to have this dysfunctional year in a sense of coaches and all of that, not winning as much as we wanted to, I think it’s going to be better for myself and better for us, but I wouldn’t say this is exactly what I was looking at or looking for or anything like that.”
Chris Emma covers the Bears, Chicago’s sports scene and more for 670TheScore.com. Follow him on X @CEmma670.