Shane Waldron Helped Get Caleb Williams Comfortable vs. Jaguars

When asked about Caleb Williams’ 4-touchdown performance against the Jaguars last Sunday, Bill Belichick said, “I think that was a good defense to play against.”

While that may have been the case, Williams still exhibited a lot of the traits that made him the #1 overall pick in this year’s draft. He also looked like a player who is starting to put this NFL quarterbacking thing together.

However, much of the credit should go to Bears Offensive Coordinator Shane Waldron, who did an excellent job of scheming up easy completions for Williams.

Waldron dialed up a number of throws where it was the play-design that created the completion more so than the quarterback (e.g. play-action, screens, gadgets, sprint outs, shovel passes, etc.). You can see a great example below:

Williams was 9 of 12 for 123 yards with 1 TD and 1 INT on these schemed-up passes. The ability to get easy completions early and often throughout the afternoon helped him settle into the game. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that when Waldron did call straight dropbacks, Williams was comfortable, confident, and able to perform at a high level (14-17, 103 yards, 3 TDs).

Credit to Waldron aside, it was on these straight dropbacks that you could see some encouraging signs of Williams’ growth.

On this first example, the Bears would come out in 11 personnel and align in an empty formation with a running back on the perimeter. The Jaguars matched up with a cornerback over him. They also had linebackers aligned inside where one, if not both, would be forced to account for a wide receiver in coverage. This was a pretty decent indicator of zone:

The Jaguars would play Tampa-2 with the middle linebacker opening to the 3-receiver side and climbing the middle seam. So Williams worked the 2-receiver combination to the other side:

Williams knew pre-snap that the route combination would put the the weakside linebacker in conflict. He wanted the deeper route, so he manipulated that linebacker by immediately and deliberately turning his head and shoulders toward the shallow-hook at the top of his drop:

That held the linebacker, giving Williams a window to hit Rome Odunze behind him:

On this next example, you could see Williams calmly work through an entire progression before hitting his receiver with an accurate throw against tight coverage.

First, here was the route concept: