‘A defeated guy’ – Shannon Sharpe points the blame for the Chicago Bears giving Caleb Williams a disastrous rookie season

Caleb Williams has endured about as difficult a rookie season as could be expected.

The ‘generational’ quarterback arrived in the league with much fanfare after starring for USC in college, landing with the Chicago Bears as the No. 1 overall pick. 1 earlier this year in a draft class loaded with big-arm talent.

4

Before the season started, some believed the young gunslinger expected to revive a lowly Chicago franchise landed in the best situation for a rookie No. 1 overall in NFL history.

Fast forward several months, and that proposition looks ludicrous as the battered Bears have fired their offensive coordinator and head coach midseason and suffered their eighth straight loss — a 30-12 loss to the Minnesota Vikings on Monday Night Football.

Williams and the now 4-10 Bears struggled all night long as their porous offensive line failed to protect their signal callers with any regularity — a theme throughout their season.

Caleb, once compared to the great Patrick Mahomes, was beaten up by a Vikings defense that continued to find him and finished with two sacks and three quarterback hits.

Williams looked defeated on the bench after taking a huge hit from Vikings linebacker Jihad Ward in the fourth quarter. The cumulative effect of so many hits this season appears to be taking its toll, with the young star at one point looking visibly pained from taking so much contact.

The 23-year-old has been sacked an NFL-high 58 times this season, a damning statistic that indicates the Bears’ O-line woes.

Williams admitted after the fight, “I think I’ve got a few bruises and cuts.”

“Let’s put it in this context,” Williams added. “Say you get into three car accidents in a month, you’re going to feel it. That’s what a hit is in football. … Getting hit, especially when you can’t deliver a hit to somebody like in driving the ball, you take them over a period of time and it builds up.”

On ESPN’s national broadcast, former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman said he was concerned the Bears might snap Williams.

“He was grimacing and in tremendous pain. When you watch him, you see he’s a defeated guy … what you worry about is a rookie quarterback losing confidence.”

Shannon Sharpe echoed Aikman’s sentiments, acknowledging the Bears’ internal problems, but also laid some of the blame at Williams’ feet for ‘holding onto the ball too long’ and making ‘bad decisions’.

4

4

“They’re bad,” Sharpe said.

“Their offensive line isn’t the best, but I think Caleb Williams is holding on to the ball way too long. It’s clear that he’s not comfortable making the right decision other than letting the football go on cool and on rhythm .

“I just think it’s pre-snap. He’s just got to do a better job of pre-snap.

“He’s got to do a better job of processing and letting the football go.

“Like I said, there were situations where he had receivers open and for whatever reason his eyes went elsewhere.

“He’s very good at scripting, but that’s not how you want to try to make a living. Now it’s nice to have that in your back pocket. You see guys like a Lamar Jackson. You see guys like a Patrick Mahomes .You see guys like a Josh Allen being able to script the playoffs, but that’s not how you want to live.

“You want to be able to review process information very quickly, one, two, three, check it down, get it out of the way. That’s how you have to do it.

“That’s the only way to be successful. You’re not going to make a living in this league that’s constantly scripting play offs. It’s just too hard for you to do,

“They got off to a terrible start and then they got going right at the end, but I just don’t think that’s a good way to try to win football games, to keep falling behind and then ask your rookie quarterback to try to play now . “

4

The Bears’ offense recorded just one touchdown against the Vikings, with 300 total yards gained. Williams completed just 57 percent of his passes for an offense that lacks explosive plays.

Everything that could go wrong has gone wrong this season for the Bears, who were 4-2 in mid-October and looked like a playoff team.

Jake Crain, host of @CrainAndCompany, told exclusively talkSPORT’s Run Down show.

“One of the knocks on Caleb Williams … is he has a front runner in him when things are going well.

“Caleb Williams is great. When things aren’t going well, Caleb Williams tends to add to those problems and we have to see if he has the ability to lead in dark times because that’s where you find out of it.

“Anyone can be good when the going is good. But when the going is tough, even as a youngster, you can be that leader — can you be the mature guy in the locker room?”

Chicago’s season has been settled since impressing against the Jaguars in London, and Williams reflected on his rough rookie season after the Vikings loss.

“It’s been frustrating and encouraging,” Williams said. “I would say the frustrating part obviously is we’re on — how many games now, eight? — yeah, eight game losing streak. Like I’ve said before, it’s new to me. I’ve never experienced anything like it is the frustrating part. The encouraging part is how much we fight as a team.

“The encouraging part is that we as a team … to be able to go through everything that has happened this year. I did not play well at the beginning of the season and felt that I saw it well and then to be in able to find ways to keep growing, keep going through the times when I was frustrated.

“Coaches getting fired and all this stuff going on, 4-10 right now. To be able to wake up, be consistent, do it every day with how it’s been going is encouraging to me. It’s encouraging for this team and we have It has been encouraging but also frustrating for myself.

Next up for the Bears is the small matter of the Detroit Lions, one of the most physical teams in the NFL, made in the image of their gritty head coach Dan Campbell.

Williams will now rest and recover before he is likely to be hit hard again in a short week.

“We’ve got to go into this game plan for Detroit, I think, in a couple of days,” Williams said. “So being able to correct and then move forward very quickly is something we need to do right here, right now.”

talkSPORT is your home for NFL on UK radio, join us for weekly commentary and subscribe our dedicated NFL channel for news, interviews and our weekly ‘Run Down’ show