Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Caleb Williams doesn’t even have to be that good to break the Bears’ all-time passing records.
The Chicago Bears are once again starting anew at quarterback, this time with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft.
Thanks to last year’s big trade with the Carolina Panthers, the Chicago Bears are the winners of the Caleb Williams sweepstakes. Williams will be the Bears’ third quarterback taken in the first round since releasing Jay Cutler in 2017. After his dazzling performances at Oklahoma and USC, the 2022 Heisman Trophy winner could finally be the solution to the Bears’ seemingly endless quest for an elite quarterback.
If the book of legendary Bears defensive players is as thick as an encyclopedia, the book of great Bears quarterbacks is more like a pamphlet. Hall of Famer Sid Luckman, nearly 75 years removed from his retirement, remains the gold standard as the Bears’ best and most accomplished quarterback. Jim McMahon, beloved as he may be as Chicago’s only Super Bowl winner, was not a particularly great player. The frequently scrutinized Jay Cutler holds the Bears’ all-time passing records for completions, yards, and touchdowns, all while making one postseason appearances (with one playoff win) in eight seasons.
Williams is thought to be a generational talent. While Bears fans and the organization are undoubtedly hoping he lives up to the hype, Williams won’t need to be elite in order to rewrite many of Chicago’s tepid quarterback records.
Rookie Single-Season Passing Yards: 2,193
Mitch Trubisky has the (fairly low) high mark for Bears rookie quarterbacks with 2,193 passing yards, which isn’t even top-60 all-time among rookies.
In fairness, the Bears have historically not started their youngsters in Week 1. Kyle Orton is their lone post-merger opening day rookie starter, and that was because of injury to Rex Grossman. Orton, Trubisky, and Justin Fields are the only Bears rookies to reach double-digit starts.
Trubisky may lead in these two categories, but he only threw a paltry 7 touchdowns in 12 games. That must be some way off the Bears’ rookie franchise record, right? Well…
Rookie Single-Season Passing Touchdowns: 11
That is not a typo. In 1942, Charlie O’Rourke threw 11 touchdowns while serving as Sid Luckman’s backup, and his record still holds up today. O’Rourke enlisted in the US Navy and while he did return to the NFL, he never played for the Bears again.
Assuming Williams bucks the historical trend and starts right away, he’ll have ample time to supplant Trubisky and O’Rourke atop these lists.
Single-Season Passing Yards: 3,838
The Bears are the only team in NFL history to have never had a 4,000-yard passer. Erik Kramer came close to cracking that mark in 1995, but missed out by 162 yards. There have only been 12 instances of a Bears QB passing for 3,000 yards, fewer than the Carolina Panthers (16) and Jacksonville Jaguars (15), who didn’t enter the league until 1994.
Could Williams light up the league and end the Bears’ 4,000-yard drought? It’s possible, but it’s unlikely. Only five rookie quarterbacks have ever eclipsed 4,000 yards in a season, although two of them (Justin Herbert and C.J. Stroud) have occurred within the last five years.
Single-Season Touchdown Passes: 29
Oh yes, the Bears are also the only team without a 30-touchdown passer.
Once again, Erik Kramer was the closest with 29 in his aforementioned career-best 1995 season. Of the 12 times in which Bears QBs threw for at least 20 touchdowns, five of them were prior to the AFL-NFL merger.
Again, it’ll be a very tall order for Williams to reach this landmark in his first year. Justin Herbert is the only rookie with a 30+ touchdown pass season.
Single-Season Games Started (16)
Would you believe that the Bears haven’t had a starting quarterback play the whole regular season in over a decade? Jay Cutler’s first season with the Bears back in 2009 saw him go 16-for-16, then never again through the rest of his Chicago tenure. Vince Evans, Jim Harbaugh, Erik Kramer, and Rex Grossman are the other 16-game starters.
Since 2010, Bears fans have witnessed sporadic appearances from Todd Collins, Caleb Hanie, Jason Campbell, Jimmy Clausen, Matt Barkley, Brian Hoyer, Mike Glennon (who signed a 3-year, $45 million deal to replace Cutler, by the way!), Nathan Peterman, Tyson Bagent, and many others they probably wish to forget.
We’re only four seasons into the 17-game era, so by default this is the franchise record that Williams has the best chance to set in year one.
Career Passer Rating: 87.2
Yes, traditional passer rating is a flawed, antiquated metric for measuring a quarterback’s performance, particularly as the game has evolved heavily in favor passing offenses. Case in point: Mitch Trubisky is the Bears’ all-time leader in passer rating (min. 1500 attempts). In 1994, an 87.2 passer rating would’ve made Trubisky an MVP contender and one of the clear-cut best at his position. That’s a below-average number in today’s NFL.
In the Super Bowl era, Bears quarterbacks are dead last in average passer rating at 71.4, with the highest interception rate (4.0%) in the league and the worst completion percentage (56.4%).
With 1500 pass attempts as the qualifier, it’ll take at least three seasons for Williams to be eligible to unseat Trubisky as Chicago’s passer rating king. By then, we should have a good idea as to whether or not Caleb is indeed the franchise QB the Bears have been yearning for.
