Vikings @ Bears: Caleb Williams 2024 Week 12 Grade

Caleb Williams Week 12 Grade against the Vikings.

First off, would like to say these last two weeks have been an absolute pleasant surprise. Credit to Thomas Brown, Caleb Williams, and the offensive staff/players as a whole providing (overall) quality offensive football. Also, I know I said I would be doing a break down but I'm just too strapped for time with holiday plans, so sorry. Hope to get back to it for week 13. On to the notes for week 12:

-Starting with the overall score. 8.25 is technically his second highest score (Jacksonville game netted him a 9.50) but considering the quality of opponent I'm confident in saying this is Caleb's best game as a professional.

-The not so good, I charted 1 turnover worthy throw this week, his first since Jacksonville. (note I grade turnover worthy the same as drops, the player must have a reasonable chance to catch the ball), his seam throw to Odunze which was way underthrown and in all likelihood should have been picked. PFF had him at 3, the other 2 I'm assuming were the seam throw to Kmet that was overthrown (wasn't reasonable effort, fingertips on a fully extended defender) and a sideline throw to Allen (watching the play it's clear the defend was playing for a PBU, had no chance at a pick).

-3 sacks, 1 on coverage, 2 on Caleb. The most glaring one came in Overtime, and even though it seemed like either Kmet and Swift needed to release sooner, Caleb held on to the ball for 8.59 seconds. Either tuck and run or throw it away.

-2.65 Time to throw (2.57 per PFF) whichs marks 2 consecutive weeks the offense has made an effort to get the ball out of Caleb's hands on time. It's no secret Caleb is leading the league in sacks, this will help that greatly.

-On topic, the offensive line did a good job with handling a exotic defense, as did Caleb. A 35.85% pressure rate marks 2 weeks with a pressure rate under 40%.

-Drops were an issue this week, Kmet, Allen twice and Swift all dropped fairly easy throws, Kmet and Swift were the most egregious.

-3 elite throws on the day and 3 great throws (these would chart as "big time throws" in the PFF world) which ties his career high, set against the Colts. His throws to Swift on the rollout, the "incompletion" to Allen (fuck the NFL, there's no shot they can over turn that, then not use sideline came for a similar play) and the throw late to DJ to get into FG range.

Overall, just extremely encouraging progress from a rookie QB against 2 top 10 NFL defenses. In a stretch where most of us assumed some growing pains, Caleb is thriving. This game was a pleasure to re-watch. For the full season of tracking, please click here.