The Chicago Bears didn’t quite have the season some predicted they would have in 2024 after drafting former USC quarterback Caleb Williams with the No. 1 overall pick last April.
After trading Justin Fields to the Pittsburgh Steelers to take Williams with the top pick, Chicago actually regressed by two games from its 7-10 season in 2023. And though the team only won five games, Williams actually looked the part of a franchise QB.
The Bears surrounded Williams with better offensive weapons than Fields had—they added Pro Bowl receiver Keenan Allen via trade, drafted wideout Rome Odunze with the ninth overall pick, and signed Pro Bowl running back D’Andre Swift—which led to the fifth-most single-season passing yards (3,541) by any Bears QB in franchise history.
Williams also threw the fewest interceptions (six) of any Bears passer with 20 or more touchdown passes, and his 87.8 passer rating was the fifth-highest among Bears QBs who threw for 3,000 or more yards in a single season, per Pro Football Reference.
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For those reasons and more, FS1 host Danny Parkins believes Williams is already better than one of the highest-paid QBs in the NFL — Jordan Love, whose $55 million-per-year salary puts him in a four-way tie with Cincinnati’s Joe Burrow, Buffalo’s Josh Allen, and Jacksonville’s Trevor Lawrence as the second-highest paid quarterback in the NFL, behind only Dallas’ Dak Prescott ($60 million).
“How about this — Caleb Williams is already better than Jordan Love,” Parkins recently said on “First Things First.” “How about that? No one believes that. It’s OK. I’m sorry, but it’s true. Jordan Love has played the majority of two seasons. Both of those seasons, double digit interceptions.
“Here’s the thing about Jordan Love — the guy had 11 interceptions both years that he played. Caleb Williams played 17 games last year and he had six.”
And while Williams and Love is more of an apples-to-oranges comparison, Parkins does raise some intriguing points about the two passers.
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“Caleb Williams’ offensive coordinator was fired nine games into his rookie year with the worst offensive line in the league, and they fired his head coach three weeks after they fired his offensive coordinator,” he continued. “…Jordan Love has Matt LaFleur of the Sean McVay tree. Everything in the world has been catered to him. Jordan Love.”
Love and Wiliams had similar completion percentages (63.1 to 62.5) last season, but Williams actually threw for more yards (3,541 to 3,389) with fewer interceptions (six to 11) than Love did in 2024, though Love missed two games early in the year.
Williams also played behind a worse offensive line, as evidenced by his 68 sacks taken to Love’s 14. He was also pressured on 241 drop backs to Love’s 172.
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