{"id":117201,"date":"2024-05-06T01:22:14","date_gmt":"2024-05-06T01:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/?p=117201"},"modified":"2024-05-06T01:22:25","modified_gmt":"2024-05-06T01:22:25","slug":"bears-keenan-allen-could-get-frustrated-with-caleb-williams-exec-nguyensa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/bears-keenan-allen-could-get-frustrated-with-caleb-williams-exec-nguyensa\/","title":{"rendered":"Bears\u2019 Keenan Allen Could Get \u2018Frustrated\u2019 With Caleb Williams: Exec"},"content":{"rendered":"
Getty\u00a0Bears rookie quarterback Caleb Williams.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Expectations are rising for the\u00a0Chicago Bears\u00a0and their passing offense after they traded for\u00a0Keenan Allen\u00a0and landed both\u00a0Caleb Williams\u00a0and\u00a0Rome Odunze\u00a0over the past six weeks of the 2024 offseason. One NFL executive believes that Allen might not be happy with the tendencies of his new starting quarterback, though.<\/p>\n
The Athletic\u2019s Mike Sando\u00a0recently spoke with numerous NFL executives about their post-draft impressions of all 32 teams and relayed some interesting \u2014 and critical \u2014 perspectives shared about the Bears\u2019 draft class. One of them specifically criticized Williams, believing his off-schedule playstyle could leave Allen \u201cfrustrated\u201d in 2024.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you hold the football in college, you\u2019re not all of a sudden learning how to get rid of it on time in the pros,\u201d an anonymous executive told Sando for his May 2 article. \u201cThey are surrounding this quarterback with weapons, thinking that he can go through progressions and distribute the football on time, and that is not his game.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou traded for a veteran receiver (Keenan Allen) who is used to catching passes from\u00a0Philip Rivers\u00a0and\u00a0Justin Herbert. He is going to be frustrated if his young quarterback does not operate on time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Williams\u2019 ability to play on schedule is one of the leading knocks against him following his strong, Heisman Trophy-winning career at USC.\u00a0NFL Network\u2019s Daniel Jeremiah\u00a0even mentioned it in his final prospects rankings for the draft, warning that Williams will \u201cneed to play more on schedule at the next level\u201d to be successful.<\/p>\n
According to\u00a0Pro Football Focus, Williams took 3.16 seconds to pass in 2023, giving him the slowest average time to throw on all dropbacks among the college quarterbacks coming into the NFL in 2024. Williams did improve from his Heisman-winning season in 2022 (3.30 seconds) and is throwing faster than former Bears starter Justin Fields (3.39 seconds did last season, but it could still be a cause for concern in Chicago.<\/p>\n
That said, one of PFF\u2019s own analysts,\u00a0Trevor Sikkema, dismissed most of the concern about Williams\u2019 longer-than-preferred time to throw as the fault of the Trojans.<\/p>\n
Sikkema argued that USC\u2019s offense broke down frequently, forcing Williams to hold onto the ball longer while trying to make plays. He also pointed out how the Trojans defense \u2014 which finished 116th in total yards allowed and 118th in points allowed\u00a0in the FBS\u00a0\u2014 put Williams in a position where he faced more pressure to score each play.<\/p>\n
Without the breakdowns, Sikkema has Williams closer to 2.6 seconds to throw.<\/p>\n
The criticisms levied against the Bears in Sando\u2019s article extended beyond Williams. He also quoted a different executive who felt the Bears made a mistake using their No. 9 pick to select Odunze. Instead, the unnamed executive would have recommended the Bears trade further back into the first round and find a playmaker on defense.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would have traded back,\u201d the exec told Sando about the ninth pick. \u201cThe idea of taking the third-best receiver, unless he was rated as their top receiver, I don\u2019t like that when I could trade back and get the best defensive player to fill a hole at three-technique or a hole opposite\u00a0Montez Sweat. They could have a harder time than you think outscoring people unless Caleb Williams starts out really strong.\u201d<\/p>\n
While it is fair to wonder whether an impact defender might have made more sense for the Bears in the first round, the executive clearly has not listened to how the team has spoken about Odunze since his selection. General manager Ryan Poles confirmed on\u00a0The Pat McAfee Show\u00a0on May 1 that Odunze ranked \u201cat the top\u201d of the Bears\u2019 list.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are certain guys you don\u2019t pass up on and Rome\u2019s one of them,\u201d Poles said.<\/p>\n
Odunze led the FBS with 1,640 receiving yards during his final season at Washington, wreaking havoc with his unique blend of size and speed. Odunze\u2019s superb route-running could even help Williams with his aforementioned time-to-throw problem, providing him with a reliable target he knows will be in the right spot on anticipation throws.<\/p>\n
Of course, the jury will remain out on both Williams and Odunze until they play actual snaps in the NFL, but the executives\u2019 concerns seem to be much ado about nothing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Getty\u00a0Bears rookie quarterback Caleb Williams. Expectations are rising for the\u00a0Chicago Bears\u00a0and their passing offense after they traded for\u00a0Keenan Allen\u00a0and landed both\u00a0Caleb Williams\u00a0and\u00a0Rome Odunze\u00a0over the past six weeks… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":117212,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-117201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117201"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117201\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":117215,"href":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117201\/revisions\/117215"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}