Cubs News: Williams on being named team captain, facing adversity |
CHICAGO—Rookie quarterback Caleb Williams is gearing up for his first regular-season start this Sunday against the Tennessee Titans (Noon / FOX).
He will be entering that game as one of Chicago’s eight team captains for this season, an honor that is rarely bestowed upon rookies. “I’m extremely grateful. I can’t really think of how many rookies are captains, especially with a team so talented like this with a lot of … vet guys. We’re a pretty young team, but we have, obviously, a good amount of vets on this team,” Williams said. “So, to be named a captain by my peers and colleagues and my teammates and my friends and brothers, extremely grateful, extremely happy, and something I told them as soon as I got to be able to break it down or talk to them and things like that. So, ready to go, fired up, extremely grateful, and we’re excited.” There are a lot of different philosophies about how to treat a rookie quarterback. Some say to let him sit for a few weeks or a season like the Bears attempted to do with Justin Fields back in 2021. Some go the route of having their rookie be the starter right off the bat. Which way Chicago would go was never in question; when you drafted someone No. 1 overall, you have already made your choice. Even with the knowledge that he was going to be the starter from the time he was drafted, and even before the draft, Williams recognizes the team is going to face adversity. As a Communication major in college, he understands the importance of communication in avoiding mistakes and dealing with adversity when they do arise. “A lot of times when things go wrong, there’s a slip of communication. There’s a slip of information that we have. So, I think first and foremost, I think it’s the constant communication and information that we’re gathering each day day in and day out and then, I think for the adversity part of it, when it does happen, it goes back to, again, communication, understanding that the situation I’m in, bad things are going to happen every once in a while. You’re going to throw a pick, you’re going to fumble,” Williams said. “Whether it’s me, whether it’s the team, we’re going to jump offsides, we’re going to do a bunch of things. So, when those moments of adversity strike, it’s more about encouraging. It’s more about understanding that we can get out of the situation and not bringing more negativity to the situation that comes up and so, I think the communication and information part and then also just understanding there’s going to be a lot more times, obviously, you can’t be doing every single drive or every single play, there’s going to be a lot more times throughout the games or practices where there’s going to be a lot more good than bad. You just can’t let the bad outweigh the good.” There are a lot of things a rookie must learn going into his first NFL season. As a quarterback, you have to know the playbook inside and out. If you watched Hard Knocks, you also saw that transitioning to the NFL means even learning about things like spiking the ball, which seems rather routine to fans. Even with all of the things Williams has had to learn, the Heisman winner said the biggest difference between college and the NFL is the experience players in the NFL have, a level of experience that does not exist in collegiate ball. “The biggest difference from college is that there’s guys (that’ve) been in the league for 12 years and so, they’ve seen a bunch of different things and then there’s a guy that comes in the league and he’s been there for four months like myself … So, I think it’s more the information that we have, the younger guys and then, obviously, the older guys. So, they’ve seen so much more, they have a lot more information. They’ve seen a bunch of offenses and formations and different routes and how people have (run) the routes and things like that. So, I think the biggest adjustment is understanding that those guys have a lot more knowledge, a lot more information, a lot more time and things like that spent into this game of the NFL and so, I think that’s the biggest adjustment that everybody has to understand or at least, I’ve kind of come to that. The rookies, we don’t have as much knowledge and things like that,” Williams said. “You have to know your offense in and out and then from there you can grow and things like that and then as they always say, things will start slowing down at whatever point that may be. When you know all your stuff, you catch up to the speed of your guys and all your stuff, know when routes are going to break and not holding and sitting on routes as a QB is really important. If it’s not there, if it’s not what you thought it was going to be, move on to the next route or move on to the checkdown.” While the Titans are no easy task, they also serve as a warm-up to Chicago’s next game against the Houston Texans on Sunday Night Football on Sun. Sept. 15 (7:20 p.m. / NBC) where they will face defensive end Will Anderson Jr. and company.
