Chicago Bearsquarterback Caleb Williams had one of his best performances in his young career in a 59-37 win over the Carolina Panthers. But, if you ask Pro Football Focus, he wasn't even in the Top 20 of quarterback performances in Week 1, which is ridiculous.
Williams completed 21-of-29 passes (72%) for 269 yards and two touchdowns while adding 10 rushes for 65 yards and two scores. And yet, PFF gave Williams a 57.6 grade for his showing against the Panthers, which doesn't make any sense when looking at his stats or, most importantly, watching his execution in the game. They have since adjusted the grade to 64.6, -- including 64.0 passing and 64.8 rushing -- which still doesn't align with his performance.
For what it's worth, Williams had a 124.1
passer rating and led the entire NFL with a 94.8 QBR after Week 1, which is a better way to evaluate his performance.
PFF was getting dragged so badly that they had to issue a damage control post explaining the grade, choosing to double down on their decision, and that only made things worse.
NFL fans are dragging PFF for ridiculous grade on Bears QB Caleb Williams
After I looked at the Pro Football Focus rankings for Week 1 that had Caleb Williams ranked 17th best week 1 QB performance I did what we should all do, I canceled my @PFF subscription. I am not wasting my money on this ridiculously idiotic site. #TakeThat pic.twitter.com/sAg5iNsYr2
— David Kaplan (@thekapman) September 15, 2026
🚨Caleb Williams and Sam Darnold received almost identical week 1 PFF grades
— Polymarket Sports (@PolymarketSport) September 14, 2026
Sam Darnold played only 5 snaps, Caleb Williams had 269 yards and 4 total touchdowns pic.twitter.com/0NctH0Phs1
Yes, we are aware. Our own eyes, as well as every former QB turned analyst that has a platform saw it differently. Might want to recheck the tape. https://t.co/19N5KyVU5K
— Bill Zimmerman (@BillTZimmerman) September 15, 2026
Important reminder
— Mason West (@WestSportsPT) September 15, 2026
A certain QB controlled the game to the tune of 59 points with a QBR 94.8 and pass rating 124.1
Seems like good reads, decision making, and throws to me.#DaBears https://t.co/qlOwknQLb3 pic.twitter.com/VjYLDVk60y
Eh not really. A QB throws to a WR, and the CB falls down. He gets a neutral grade on an open throw.
— Steven Ruiz (@theStevenRuiz) September 15, 2026
He makes the same exact throw but the CB stays up and nearly gets a hand on it. Now it's a +2 because it's tight window https://t.co/QZsYl15YLC
Does anyone actually take PFF seriously? For years as soon as anyone starts talking about PFF grades and thinks they hold any value, that person instantly loses a lot of credibility in my book. Its been a joke for a long time and just gets laughably worse. https://t.co/uxVS7aNdu1
— dwtread (@dwtreadwell73) September 15, 2026
Interesting to see into the process, but this just sounds like a broken grading system if only one throw all week across the entire NFL is earning the 2nd highest grade of 1.5.
— Quinten Krzysko (@ButkusStats) September 15, 2026
The TD pass to Kmet sure sounds like a 1.5 grade to me, based on their definition. https://t.co/azXrfTQpsR pic.twitter.com/GaatIynkzs
Just admit ya’ll are bums & got it wrong.. pretty pathetic for a company that only does this shit. How do yall still mess up? 🤣 https://t.co/aNgC9tEgQh
— Logan James (@LoganJGardiner) September 15, 2026
Important reminder
— Chris G (@TSpeeps) September 15, 2026
PFF has always been a stupid way to grade and evaluate anyone. https://t.co/cyNQOYSOiV pic.twitter.com/O0m06zIa5G
https://t.co/l8bApmpWpW pic.twitter.com/kLcMPS8HUx
— Aaron Leming (@AaronLemingNFL) September 15, 2026
Important reminder - yall don’t know the reads or the decisions anyone on the field, especially the QB, are being coached to make. Also, not grading the result in a result based industry is.. interesting. You had your day in the sun, take care. https://t.co/xHNmUrIxpI
— Anthony Barr (@AnthonyBarr) September 15, 2026
https://t.co/zGP9UNTzaZ pic.twitter.com/On93LHTgzO
— Brendan Sugrue (@BrendanSugrue) September 15, 2026
I watched every single throw 5 times. How in the world are you going to subjectively say 53.8% were accurate. He had 4 throwaways, an accurate ball batted out of Raymond’s hands out of 8 incompletions. Loveland was also a miscommunication not an inaccurate pass. What an awful… https://t.co/USjQne6Sjz pic.twitter.com/PjycTVz9y0
— Ilan (@ilannfl18) September 15, 2026
LMFAOOOOOO MUGS SAW CALEB PUT UP A ELITE GAME WITH THEIR EYES SAW THE PFF GRADE AND FINALLY SAID THATS ENOUGH 😂😂😂 https://t.co/kh7fox4gei
— PAT THE DESIGNER (@PatTheDesigner) September 15, 2026
Getting ethered so badly about a grade that they wrote a damage control article about a play where a nose tackle dropped out of the weeds for a RedZone INT that was negated due to one of his teammates being offsides - i.e. the play didn't exist/count - but still impacted his… https://t.co/HpH1zbAEp1
— ZAN (@ZANmadden) September 15, 2026
I already discussed PFF’s grade for Caleb Williams yesterday 👇 Suffice it to say, I’m not buying this explanation, and neither should you. https://t.co/itUy2AcwAt
— Pete (@Pete_Martuneac) September 15, 2026
Important reminder
— Tony Squares (@TonySquaresNFL) September 15, 2026
If you have to release a PR statement for a grade because it is so diametrically opposed to what everyone can see with their eyeballs -- you aren't an analytics site, you're hot take slop https://t.co/5xvPqy8wVD
There is no human being on the face of the planet that could have watched that game and came away with an assessment that Caleb makes poor decisions. Maybe Some of those decisions are poor for lesser armed QBs... not for him. This is credibility-killing from PFF. An embarassment. https://t.co/Ww7XOeBLi2
— Brad Robinson (@bradrobinson8) September 15, 2026
This might be the dumbest thing I heard when it comes to stats.
— Chicago Sports Bums (@ChiSportsBums) September 15, 2026
"Yea the defense caused an unfair advantage with the rush to due to offsides, but we're still gonna count it as a negative anyway" https://t.co/m6QkML2xjO pic.twitter.com/ZEAqaHbcQ0
The fact that Caleb’s PFF grade includes a heavy negative adjustment due to his interception (on a free play) should invalidate his score completely https://t.co/payF04mzoF
— Ben Shabaz (@BenShabaz) September 15, 2026
You can grade every punch and say another boxer landed more clean jabs than Mike Tyson. Cool. Tyson could still end the fight with five punches the other guy simply couldn’t throw.
— Clay Harbor (@clayharbs82) September 15, 2026
And some “average” throws only existed because Caleb escaped pressure, extended the play and… https://t.co/UlH36LQsox
I stopped taking PFF seriously after I saw this https://t.co/IiwxYaagfd pic.twitter.com/77t7fzgzwy
— 🐻 (@Soriano2Kirk) September 14, 2026
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This article originally appeared on Bears Wire: PFF getting dragged for ridiculous grade on Bears QB Caleb Williams
