Why the Bears Selected Caleb Williams Number 1 Overall

possessing an elite arm outstanding improv and the pocket movement of a 10-year vet it's easy to see the hype behind Caleb Williams there are Splash plays and signs of Brilliance throughout the film but it doesn't mean he's a locked to be a star and I have some genuine concerns about the cerebral aspect of his game that might have me questioning his ceiling as we enter spin season let's bring some Nuance to the discussion turning on the tape it'll only take you a few snaps to see the true Talent of Caleb's right arm able to sling lasers at all three levels he shows pinpoint accuracy on and off platform using any arm angle required to complete it the speed of the gun allows Cross Field throws late hitches and downfield daggers to compromise even perfect coverage taking just a one-step drop here look at how fast he can find the boundary the corner is in off coverage so this is a risky throw but the speed of the arm means even rapid reactions can't break up this pass and on third down against or the lasers keep coming it's another boundary hitch with Jamal Hill staying locked on the white out but Williams whips this in releasing at the cut and throwing with pace and such Precision even perfect coverage can't stop it it's definitely not just short side hitch darts though Caleb has the arm to throw the big boundary out cross hash throwing in Rhythm and with the velocity to keep this flat his arm is so fast that lurking DBS are often made to look silly thinking they have a chance to jump it but then finding the themselves taking a bad angle and flying past their receiver this velocity and downfield accuracy translate greatly to the Deep ball where Caleb has the arm to uncork balls deep downfield USC have a cool shot play here with the half roll out of the play action giving Caleb a choice of two spot routes or if the safety comes down to play the run a Sluggo on the backside the corner gets turned by the double move and spotting his man is even Caleb rips a bomb launching this from his own 16 and being caught on the opponent's 19 that's a 65 yd throw in Rhythm for Brandon rice to take home and here's more launching this time off platform and with great pocket movement UCLA will start in twoo high but with the safeties rotating down to take the tide end and middle of the field away Caleb knows he's got another home run shot maturely stepping up and through the pocket on the linebacker Blitz Caleb creates time for rice to get in behind then launches a moonball on the jump pass throwing this 52y yards plus the angle perfectly in stride for another six points it's not all arm strength and lasers though Caleb demonstrates great touch when attacking deep getting solo coverage at the top of your screen he knows he's got a chance to attack deep Feathering one up with beautiful touch to drop this over the shoulder and right into the bucket running a deep crossers concept Caleb reads his first read open but with pressure coming Caleb has to slide back and left then throws an absolute Beauty pairing velocity touch and accuracy to throw this cross body into the perfect spot for the catch and run taking Caleb's arm talent to the 99th percentile is his ability to throw from any angle we've seen recent examples of this in the draft but Caleb is even a step ahead of those when Defenders get into his grill he's able to contort his body to complete the throw bending his arm and body to throw around him and when Defenders get their arms up ready to play these sidearms he's got the dexterity to throw under them bursting out a beautiful underarm whip to get this to his tight end in motion again on a very similar play Caleb is going to have the choice to either hand this off to his back throw to his man in the flat or turn it up field himself depending on the read he probably should have handed this off based on the numbers but not liking the look Williams keeps it on the first option then gets stuck in a tricky position there's two Defenders inside ready to take him and the flat option is also covered so it's time for a bit of magic Caleb Gets The Defender to commit to him with the pump fake then with the defender on the descent from his jump he goes Ariel himself contorting his body to throw a jump pass to his now open receiver in the flat and here he somehow finds his back on the broken RPO Caleb has the option to hand this off on the power run or throw the orbit swing screen and it looks like he picks the correct option but the rush is too strong and blocks the passing angle showing more mature pocket movement Caleb slides up then throws a no look flick pass to his back avoiding the attack and turning a broken play into a touchdown accuracy and arm Talent are key starting points for a prospect but the game of quarterbacking as we always tell you is played between the ears how a player can process information and React to what they're seeing is what separates the pros from the Schmo while not fully formed there's definitely a lot to like he from Caleb showing great willingness to scan through progressions and as seen throughout having that Elite pocket movement NFL defenses are much better at taking away your initial read so the ability to scan becomes Paramount and here Caleb shows a lot of promise with the Fighting Irish able to get pressure on Caleb early Riley calls a seven-man protection to give Caleb time to scan his eyes get to the safeties reading their positioning and how they're playing the left side of the concept the leeven shifting over and the defender who initially looked to be playing the motioning tight end staying middle both the sail route and over route are going to be cut off so Williams Works to his backside dig firing quickly and in Rhythm to move the long chains more progressions and quick trigger help reset the chains here Caleb doesn't like the aggressiveness against the swing screen so quickly Works backside raing how the linebacker is zooming out to play the motion he knows this match coverage puts the safety on his deep spot route and with that much leverage he just needs to throw early releasing before the break and putting it right between the numbers of his man and back to that game against Notre Dame Caleb again goes from sideline to sideline line to find the open man he's got a double slant concept on the near side and a spacing concept on the far side first reading the Slants against a man coverage the middle backer lurks as a robber cutting the first route off and the corner clamps hard on the flattened second slant to force a no throw but with good progressions Caleb Gets backside spots the clamp on the curl and immediately throws to his receiver on the corner who converts it to a comeback with the space off and here's an even more mature throw Caleb wants to come to the near side hitches but or is all over it forcing Caleb to work backside pressure is coming through the B Gap and Caleb shows vet presence to slide and stay in the pocket keeping his eyes up to find the backside curl and ripping this at the Breaking Point with the man in his face now that right there is an NFL throw and this one's even better using Advanced Eye manipulation for a big play in overtime backed up after a sack the Trojan's called mesh but the backed off man- Match coverage by the wild cats leaves little space to go the hook route is going to come open however Caleb can't release as he's forced to step up to avoid the rush but keeping his eyes up amongst the chaos what comes next is just beautiful the mic has drifted with his movement blocking the path to the hook route so watch Caleb look him off pointing his shoulders as if he's about to rip right opening the throw back middle you really don't see that that often in college while it's overall lacking and we'll be talking about it at length in the next section there's the occasional flash of anticipation in Caleb's game it's better to the boundaries but here's a really early throw on the RPO reading the safety crash to fill the Box Caleb throws this a full step before the break floating it into space for his man to cut in for the score throughout these clips Caleb has demonstrated fantastic pocket movement sliding and stepping through the rush while almost never lowering his eyes I'm confident in saying he'll enter the league as a top 10 pocket manipulator he's already infinitely better at this than many NFL starters it's the subtlety of his movements knowing how to flow with the play and take a step up to create the pocket then being able to throw a cross has out on the money without being able to step in that's very mature quarterback play with the rush coming through both B gaps here with haste most young QBs would be sent backpedaling trying to wheel out and create an improv play early but Caleb knows the way to attack in football is to exploit the space Defenders have rushed from working up and through the pocket getting his hips skinny to avoid the arm tackle making sure to keep his eyes up field for the entirety of the rep scanning he's able to find his receiver coming open on the drag throwing a jump pass to the flat letting his man do the rest against Cal on third down USC are going to clear out the right side of the field and try to bring the drag underneath into the created space however cow's D are biting dropping everyone back into Zone believing the rush can get home through the poorest protection knowing he needs the yards for the first first Caleb turns down the drag steps up to avoid the rush keeping his eyes up the whole time then throwing a jump pass to Taj Washington who's come open thanks to some good route design and this is all before we get to the real wow he doesn't just slide and keep his eyes down field he straight stunts on these teams when nothing's open he's finessing the rush trying to stay in the pocket to make a game breaking play with nothing opened initially Caleb scans full field and then gets back left now he should throw the hitch but feeling the edge incoming he doubles back on himself staying in the comfort of the pocket to give himself time working back up and through Caleb spots Brandon rice has come wide open rifling the ball to the end zone for the wide open score again Caleb should probably take a drag route on the mesh knowing this is four down territory but he isn't going to be given a chance with the backer blitzing straight through the a gap he first slides right while keeping his eyes up however number 27's Rush is too strong and keeps up the pressure but Caleb understands angles so well simply shifting back right to put the center in his path once again looking to escape up and through however JD bertran is now pressuring through the B Gap and Caleb is forced to abandon plans and spin out avoiding a third rusher diving At His Feet scrambling out right as the Fearsome Rush takes over the pocket not enough to just Escape The Rush Caleb whips the ball down the boundary as he takes a hit bringing up a short fourth down as you've probably seen by now USC's line was bad last season and here it forces Caleb into dancing mode early versus just a three-man rush star rusher Lau latu avoids the tight end chip then splits the double to bring chaos immediately but Caleb's quick to the call avoiding the rush right then working back left to avoid the wrapping rusher the entire pocket is now collapsed and Caleb is forced to avoid the third of three rushers his head's up immediately once he Jukes the last guy whipping this off platform form rolling left to his man and more need to avoid a three-man rush here steadying the dropback Caleb makes sure to Hitch up after his final step helping the tackle push the end around him creating the pocket there's still nothing open and a second rusher is coming for him so Caleb hits a 360 spinning out of the arm tackle and again looking downfield for the throw with time to set his feet Caleb scans and fires a dart for the big gain on Fourth and this is all before he calls his own number nothing is open here early against Notre Dame so Caleb works up but the edge is fully around the tackle forcing him to again pull a 360 escaping the arm tackle and keeping his eyes up with everything still loged down Caleb spots a gap in the rush darting through the D line juking the backer to leave him stumbling then cutting back Midfield to use a blocker before out joking another incoming tackler sliding when he feels a rush right behind him Oregon had one of the best defenses in the country last year and their blanket coverage is again going to force him to call his own number it's the right tackle time to give up the pressure and again Caleb shows that maturity to work up and send him flying past but there's still more pressure to come forcing improv mode spinning back 180 Caleb finds himself in the path of the original rusher juking up and through the pocket to lose him then with nothing open breaks right for The Rush showing good Vision to use his block Caleb Gets this inside the five before taking a quick slide to avoid his head being taken off and because he's so elusive even when the play is completely broken he can just out aete everyone everybody on the Sun Devils reads the obvious rush and three Defenders are there for the tackle for loss so Caleb refuses the handoff and says it I'll do it myself sprinting outright and just beating everybody to the pylon this athleticism and elusiveness makes him a serious threat on design runs making Defenders look silly with regularity it's a split Zone Zone read here called by Lincoln Riley and with the end crashing Caleb will keep it modern defenses are much more prepared for the Zone read forcing the keeper then wrapping a linebacker around ready to bring down the QB but Caleb hits him with the hesi faking the cut back inside before escaping wide dancing out of the diving tackle one-on-one with the safety now you expect most QBs to just jog this out of bounds and take the Downs reset but Caleb spots the poor angle and early breakdown hitting that Circle Circle button and just making this dude look silly more read option here again and with the emphatic Rush Caleb has to keep it again the D tackle is readit well shoving aside the guard forcing Caleb to Juke him but the Defenders keep on coming causing Caleb to Juke another Defender then a third guy to get wide he then sets up his blocker by faking the angle up field before getting to the edge jogging out when there's no more yards to be had and speaking of setting up blocks I think this one shows just how good his runner's vision is the end doesn't spot Caleb keeping it and instead of throwing the screen Caleb says nah it's 13's ball watch him start sprinting initially to attack the open space then slow right down to allow his blocks to set up slithering down the sideline and finishing with power going straight at the DB's chest for the score and that power is not a one-time thing while I'm not the biggest proponent of QBs putting their body on the line especially in college there's no doubt he's got some power on his frame with wild plays and athletic gifs Galore it's easy to get pulled into the hype spiral but quarterbacking is far from just physical tools and your money is made on decision-making how you process and how you anticipate and here Caleb's game just isn't fully formed there's flashes in the quick game and working through his progressions but when it comes to advanced level reading or throwing with anticipation it's not there with any regularity here's a very common dgo concept that's a go route clearing out the boundary for for the out route with Arizona State threatening the blitz up at the line it's an obvious man coverage on the outside and this should be an easy read and throw for Caleb hit it in Rhythm at the top of your drop back and the yards are yours but Caleb doesn't take it instead calling his own number for a scramble the safeties are the key to working out what the back end coverage is so watching for their rotation or movement is where a quarterback's eyes need to be with the Trip's look to the far side you'll see the safety follow the wheel route from the number three receiver leaving the post wide open yet with his eyes on it Caleb just doesn't see it climbing the pocket and looking to improvise finding his man on the boundry off the scramble Dro and while this looks like a good find the Miss and scramble actually brings up a hold sending them backwards rather than for six and these boundary outs that are so common and needed in the NFL just aren't read and hit with the frequency needed everybody stood up at the line of scrimmage threatening to Blitz on third down but will drop out to form a 44 again off the dgo concept the Deep route forces number 20 back and a quick out is going to beat the dropping linebacker to the flat no problem yet Caleb diverts his eyes from the obvious read going for the Home Run shot thinking it's cover zero and Caleb has missed his fair share of quick Concepts too and these just need to be hit here's another variant of a common play design play actioning one way then trying to hit the flat off the motion a particularly effective play down on the goal line where defenses are having to guess run or pass number four is clear to the flat for the walk-in score Caleb just got to put this out in front of him and allow his momentum to take him to the pylon but he passes up the re almost immediately and tries to throw a hook route inside leading to a hospital pass these quick throws have got to be out in Rhythm and thrown at the cut Point yes he makes the completion here against Colorado but there ain't no pump faking Slants in the NFL this would be going the other way and here he shows off his ability to go through progressions but again he just won't pull the trigger backing his talent instead it's good work to scan across the formation and with time he's got to throw this comeback route but again he's waiting and then is forced to dance and try to make a play even with good signs of progression work Caleb has been unable to remove the target lock from his game so many rookies struggle with and this can lead to disaster at the next level he's predetermining where he's going with this one but I'm not sure why you do that with a slot Fade with seven yards of cushion for the DB never looking backside for the wide open slam and while his pocket movement is good you can avoid a lot of this Movement by simply anticipating the easy throw a similar concept to what we looked at earlier with clear outs to open the boundary and a slot receiver working to the boundary off a Whi route Caleb needs to show the anticipation that his concept will come open but he turns it down and then finds himself having to deal with way too much pressure and this is really lacking from his game and it's scares me that it will massively limit his ceiling the ability to throw a guy open is by far the rarest trait a quarterback can have and one needed to become Elite at the next level however the speed of the game makes this near impossible to learn at the pro level so you really need to start showing this in college making matters worse are his Miss misses often coming from poor footwork that throws off the rhythm of a play off platform throws and twisty arm angles to beat Defenders are very impressive but the NFL works on a foundation of timing and this is why footwork is so important it's not that you can't throw from crazy platforms it's that doing so often compromises the timing of the play and throws off the ability for anticipation throws often leading to Misses and overthrows as the QB tries to compensate for the lack of timing here against the Sun Devils the Trojans have a creative rub play using a slant to pick the backer leaving the Wheel from the running back wide open Caleb reads well but his footwork is poor taking a big first drop step then rushing through step two and three as he finds the top of his drop back he doesn't stay still or take a proper hitch up step instead shuffling his feet launching without a clear step through despite the space he can definitely make this ball but trying to throw with just your arm is infinitely harder and here it is again it's off the play action this time but watch the lack of Rhythm through his three-step drop taking one big stride step before jumping through two and three rushing to throw and leading leading this too far for his wide out I love the pocket movement he shows it's truly Elite but he has a habit of drifting off the spot and making throws way more difficult for himself this is much nicer footwork on the drop back but I wish you would throw this Mills concept at the top of his drop or one hitch up rather than drifting left and throwing this while leaning this removes any ability for him to put air under it throwing too flat and leading to a nice interception and these throws only get more erratic when under pressure and now is probably the best time to talk about that bad side of his improv like it standup comedy variant improv can sometimes become too absurd leading it to fall flat on its face Caleb is a wizard and is going to make a lot of defensive ends look silly but he's also going to make himself look like a dummy if he continues to force the ball on every piece of improvisation Arizona are going to stick with their shown man but send one linebacker on a cross Blitz and drop the other to a robber Zone the USC tackles again give up those edges forcing Caleb into a nice step up but with internal pressure too there's no way to go but left again the eyes are up and reading for the open man but for some reason he passes up the boundary ball for a Crosser that has long since closed forcing this into coverage and completely missing the boundary hanging Defender who steps in front and should have taken it back to the crib it's a similar situation here Colorado have just three down linemen but send a backer on a r rush and with USC running some BS screen outside off the play action Caleb's got nowhere to go lucky for him he's way too slippery for most Defenders simply Sid stepping the free rusher now he's got an immediate chance to launch to the busted coverage on the bottom of your screen but turns down the quick shot at it instead trying to buy more time and create space outright for the throw however by now the Defenders have been able to recover and this throw has long since closed leading to an ugly duck of an interception and and it coming amongst good play is probably the most frustrating aspect Caleb shows great maturity to work up through and then out of the pocket with nothing open and seeing man coverage and green grass in front of him he just got to take off dude but again he tries to force this to the blanketed hitch and I promise you this is an interception in the NFL the improvisation is impressive and his ability to move up and through the pocket to avoid the rush is going to do him wonders at the professional level but he's got to be a smarter decision maker much of this dancing leads to Miss Quick throws and leaves linemen stranded trying to block for 10 seconds leading to many a holding call compounding this issue is his problem with hanging the ball real low especially when he's trying to pull a magic act Defenders are too smart and too strong to be doing this and it's going to lead to a lot of fumbles if he doesn't clean this up at the pro level a final note to touch on and more concerns in the fumbling department is the numerous problems he had with the exchange now USC's line wasn't very good last year and the snap was erratic at times but most of these are on Caleb failing at the point of exchange it seems to be a lack of decisiveness and him not being on the same page as his running backs most of the fumbles come during a read where Caleb is gripping too softly allowing the player to contact the ball and knock it clean rather than having a firm grasp and ripping it away from the running back option so yeah that was a lot of waffle how would you sum up Caleb Williams well the talent is tremendous the improvisation ridiculous and the flashes of high level play particularly in Pocket movement and progressions make him worthy of a top selection in any draft however his lack of consistent anticipation and reading of defenses leads to a quarterback who's flawed despite some great core Talent coaches will believe in their ability to teach and mold young quarterbacks with this much talent and rightly so their coaching ability and drive are what got them to this spot in the first place with good coaching I think many of the decision-based problems can be cleaned up and the high level reads can be taught through film grinds and dedication however I always question whether you can truly teach someone to anticipate in the NFL I guess we'll see

Channel: Thinking Football

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Keywords: NFL, NFL Highlights, all 22, Film Study, NFL breakdown, Thinking Football, Coaches Film, Scouting Report, NFL Draft, Film Breakdown, College football

Id: 4Hj-zl8T5SY

Length: 23min 42sec (1422 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 16 2024