Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams has quickly become one of the faces of the NFL following his breakout sophomore season where he established himself as one of the most clutch and exciting young players in the league.
Williams captivated the city of Chicago and the NFL world with his improbable throws and impressive escapability, while setting a franchise single-season passing record and NFL record for most fourth-quarter comebacks (including the postseason).
CBS Sports' Garrett Podell believes Williams is among the most overrated quarterbacks heading into 2026, citing his low completion percentage and turnover struggles in the postseason. Also among the most overrated: Williams' draft mate Bo Nix of the Denver Broncos and Baker Mayfield
of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The high level of universal praise for Williams as the first Bears quarterback with a pulse since, perhaps, the pre-2010 NFC championship game Jay Cutler is a little much. The reason Chicago fell behind in both of their 2025 playoff games and lost in overtime to the Rams is because of Williams' inefficiency. He morphed into a turnover machine in the postseason, throwing two interceptions while completing just 24 of his 48 passes (50%) in the win against the Packers before throwing three more interceptions on 23 of 42 passing (54.8%) against Los Angeles. The third interception against the Rams came in overtime and doomed the Bears to defeat.
That extreme level of inefficiency in the postseason wasn't an outlier. He led the NFL in 2025 with 12 games possessing a completion percentage of 60% or lower, and no other quarterback registered a double-digit number of games in that category. Cam Ward was the closest with eight such games. The Bears' signal caller finished the 2025 regular season with a 58.1% completion percentage, the second-worst in the league among 33 qualified quarterbacks. He finished ahead of only Minnesota Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy and his 57.6% figure -- one that was so bad they brought in Arizona Cardinals castoff Kyler Murray to compete with their former 10th overall pick quarterback for the starting job. Williams' fundamentals still need plenty of polishing.
When people criticize Williams, they always point to his completion percentage as the main reason why. But when you look at some of the league's top quarterbacks, they had low completion percentages in their first few seasons in the league, most notably Buffalo Bills star Josh Allen.
The turnover criticism seems like a reach given Williams was one of the best at protecting the football in his first two seasons, throwing a total of 13 interceptions to 47 touchdowns in that span. Yes, he threw a combined five interceptions in those two postseason games, but a few of those came on fourth down that acted more like a punt and resulted in worse field position for the opposition. His turnovers in the postseason are more of an outlier than a trend when you examine Williams' entire two season resume. Still, he's got plenty to prove in Year 3.
There's no denying that there's been a ton of hype surrounding Williams this offseason, and rightfully so after his breakout sophomore campaign, but it's hard to say he's "overrated" before giving him a chance to prove he's worthy of the pre-season hype. Let's revisit this topic at the end of the 2026 season.
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This article originally appeared on Bears Wire: CBS Sports believes Bears QB Caleb Williams is overrated
