Caleb Williams has been and will be the talk of this draft cycle. As the likely first overall pick and first quarterback to be taken, his name will appear everywhere. The team with the first overall pick at this moment is the Chicago Bears. The Bears still have third year quarterback Justin Fields under contract but most signs point to them moving on. That would mean Caleb is likely to become the next quarterback to start for the Bears. A list that many would consider embarrassing. Can he be the one to end the curse that the Bears have at QB? Only time will tell.

In this article I’ll be focusing on Caleb Williams, the player. Maybe a bit about the person but my knowledge on his personality is extremely limited. I will not be mentioning Justin Fields and the debate currently going on. If you came here for that, sorry. This will be all about Caleb Williams.

Strengths

Arm Talent

Caleb Williams has some ridiculous arm talent. He can make throws that seem basically impossible. His ability to use his arm from different angles and off different throwing platforms makes it that much more difficult to defend against him. He not only possesses an arm that can throw the ball far but also generates a lot of velocity and is able to fit the ball into tight windows. Still even with that ability Caleb has been able to get his turnovers low having just 2.6% of his plays end up turnover worthy.

This throw is just ridiculous and shows off the insane arm Caleb has. He’s not even in his base, he’s moving up in the pocket while throwing this ball of his back foot.
This ball is thrown on an absolute rope. Caleb possesses the arm to be able to throw a strike like this and not just lofty deep balls.
Caleb is able to throw from different arm angles too in order to complete his passes. His arm talent is not just a good ball but the ability to throw from different arm angles and platforms.

Pocket Manipulation

Caleb Williams is able to manipulate the pocket like many can’t. He is always aware of where he is in the pocket keeping his eyes downfield and never panicking. He is able to step up in the pocket but also step away from pressure when he feels it. He always knows where he is on the field and especially where he is inside the pocket. His play style has some believe he is frantic in the pocket but that is untrue. He moves like he’s in control all the time.

Caleb able to see the edge rusher and avoids him and step up into the pocket and deliver this absolute dime. Everything about this play is insane

Out of Structure

Anybody who has watched any of Caleb Williams or know anything about him knows about this. His ability out of structure is genuinely some of the best I have ever seen. He escapes to pass, not to run, and always keeps his eyes downfield. He has that insane ability on off platform throws that we see out of someone like Mahomes. Sometimes he passes on easy completions early in progressions because he knows he can create like crazy and often times does. This is one of those traits that is easy to overlook but the hardest one to truly go from the very good to elite tier. He is just truly special when creating. You can call the perfect coverage and Caleb will still beat you.

Caleb is able to escape the pocket here and throw an absolute dime on the run while moving to his left side. The throw and ball are perfect. Not many can do this consistently like Caleb.
The ability to make people miss in the pocket is insane. Then to top that off moving to his left he’s able to make this throw and make it look easy.

Anticipation

Caleb throws with anticipation all the time. He is able to read the leverage of defenders to get the ball out early and on time so that the defenders can’t make a play on the ball. He trusts his arm and accuracy to be able to get the ball to the right spot before his receivers are out of their break. This is a crucial thing to succeed in the next level where windows are tighter and coverage is better.

This anticipation is impressive. He sees the leverage and hips of the DB facing inside and knows he will have the out. As Caleb is getting hit he’s able to throw this ball before the break and complete it.
Able to move towards his target and get his hips square and throw this ball with anticipation reading the defender’s leverage and throwing a perfect ball.

Accuracy

Caleb Williams is very accurate and had a 77.5 adjusted completion percentage this season while having a 9.2 average depth of target. He also has amazing ball placement on his throws. Caleb is not just a fastball thrower, he also is able to change the angle of the ball. He has unreal touch and is able to use it to layer throws over defenders. He knows the right time to change his velocity and angle of the ball.

Caleb is able to throw his receiver open here with this ball. His ball placement is perfect on this throw and he knows exactly where to put the ball.
Here’s that different ball angle I was talking about. Caleb on the move is able to loft this pass over the defender to get it to his running back. He possesses the ability to throw at different ball speeds and angles.
Caleb has the ability to loft the ball and change the velocity and angle of the ball even on throws over the middle of the field.

Processing

Lincoln Riley does run his fair share of quick concepts which require not much processing but when Riley does call full field stuff Caleb has shown an ability to process at a high level. He is able to quickly get off reads and keep his eyes in the right place. Lincoln Riley has a tendency to not have outlet options in his plays. What I mean by that is like a RB as a check down in the flat or around the LOS. So if the play was covered Caleb would have to put on the superman cape. He hit those outlets when they were there, they just frequently weren’t.

USC is running a stick variation front side and instead of having double slant backside they have a sit and a basic in behind it. Caleb is able to see the MIKE backer come and take the hitch off the stick and works backside to hit the basic.

Weaknesses

Willingness to Play in Structure

Caleb Williams has a tendency to look right at an open player on a hitch or other quick routes and just ignore them. He has a tendency to just not want to play in structure. He would rather create and play out of structure than in. That won’t work in the league, at least not the the degree it is happening at now. There are reasons, such as the limited progression reads, the lack of outlets, or by design, but Caleb chooses to not play in structure more than is very comfortable at this moment. He thinks he can create like crazy, and in college he was able to, won’t be the same in the NFL. He is going to have to be able to take the easy completions and only create when he has to. This has also made his pressure to sack rate (19.2%) as high as it has. Can’t be taking sacks at that frequent of a rate when pressured. Sacks are one of the largest play types in magnitude and equate to roughly a 21 yard play, so need to avoid those.

Caleb has the hitch wide open and is staring at it. He decides to not throw it and then gets himself in big trouble at the end of the half. This turns into a big issue as he fumbles the ball and gives away free points.

Time to Throw

I don’t think having a high time to throw is inherently a bad trait and all Lincoln Riley quarterbacks have higher time to throws under him than in the league, but my concern is more of a durability one. Quarterbacks who tend to hold the ball longer than they need to get hit more often and are all around less durable. Some of the best quarterbacks in the league are up there in time to throw but many of them do sustain injuries quite frequently. While not the largest concern it is one that should me monitored and mentioned.

Fumbles

Caleb Williams has a fumble problem. Whether it’s just bad ball security or trying to make a play that isn’t there, he has put too many balls on the ground this season. He’s going to have to learn to simply just take an incompletion or even a sack on some plays. Sacks are better than turnovers although many know how much I hate sacks. Seems contradictory to an earlier thing I said but yeah sacks suck, turnovers worse.

A very unfortunate fumble but Caleb happens to have loose control on the ball at times and it causes him to fumble more than he wants to or should.

All the weaknesses really fall under the same umbrella of playing in structure more often. The fumbles would decrease if he got the ball out quicker as would the TTT, but then you lose the out of structure ability. You can mask these weaknesses but truly you don’t want to prioritize getting rid of them over letting Caleb play his game. He will need to play more in structure in the league than he did in college but he will learn that himself. No need to force him to play tentative.

Misconception

One of the biggest misconceptions I’ve heard is that Caleb is incapable of playing in structure and can only succeed when he’s running around. This is one of the more untrue things about Caleb. I touched on his unwillingness to play in structure but he is more than capable of doing it if he has to. Against UCLA, for example, his OL was getting dominated and he was able to adjust and play much more in structure than out of it. His time to throw was 2.90 for that game and he was throwing quick often. He is able to adapt and has shown it many times.

This is Caleb playing in structure and quick against UCLA. The UCLA DL was dominant and Caleb was able to adjust his game to succeed in structure.

Conclusion

Caleb Williams has been the #1 QB prospect in this class for basically two years now. He was deemed generational early on and we are now getting to that weird point in the draft cycle where generational becomes not so good. Prospect fatigue is very real, especially for someone who has been at the top like Caleb for so long. People begin to find negatives and ignore positives. It should be what can a player do, not so fixated on what a player can’t do, as Ryan Poles said. Caleb can do it all. Literally it all. There are few negatives to his game. The negatives do exist and if he wants to truly succeed at the next level than he will have to learn to play more on time and limit the fumbles. If he can do that he will be one of the very best in the league, but doing so won’t be so simply. Regardless, this is a truly special player and whatever team ends up drafting him will be super lucky to do so.

I hope you enjoyed this article. If you have any suggestions about format or content please let me know. I plan to do more of these with draft prospects so any advice is good.

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