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Four Verts: Take a deep breath with Caleb Williams, while Raiders have wound up in a predictable place

Charles McDonald
Staff writer
·9 min read

Three weeks of the NFL have people stumbling over each other to give the hottest take they can, which is a great time to center the masses and get them to calm down — particularly when it comes to young quarterbacks (except for Jaguars fans).

That’s where this week’s Four Verts column starts, with a trip to Chicago to get people to relax about the future of their franchise.

Everyone, let’s calm down. It’s time to realize that perhaps NFL fans have been spoiled by young quarterbacks like Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson reaching elite status so early in their careers. That’s not the normal development path. Most baby quarterbacks need seasoning, reps and lots of practice before they ascend to the top of the sport. It's a big reason why NFL passing games are down right now.

There’s no reason to look at all of these guys with a sense of despair, even with Jayden Daniels having a breakout performance on national television that many young players haven’t had to date.

That’s particularly true of Bears rookie Caleb Williams, who currently sits at the bottom of many NFL efficiency stats, leading people to wonder, after three games, if Chicago might have selected the wrong guy. Whew. Breathe. It’s healthy for you. Slow down. Feel the breeze. It’s far too early to make that proclamation and honestly, there isn’t a reason to freak out about Williams yet.

The overall numbers have been poor. Williams currently ranks 29th in expected points per dropback (-0.34) according to NFL Pro’s list of qualified passers. Only Will Levis (-0.44) and Bryce Young (-0.60) have been worse in terms of efficiency. Part of that is due to Williams, who is still testing the limits of what will be possible for him in the NFL. Part of that is due to a poor showing from the Bears' offensive line, especially the interior, which has been putrid this season. Part of that blame can be attributed to health as the Bears haven’t had their full arsenal of wide receivers.

Even with all of those things being true, Williams has steadily improved since his first start against the Titans and actually put together a quality outing against the Colts, even though the Bears managed to score only 16 points with Williams throwing the ball 52 times.

The playmaking is still apparent with Williams and he was finally able to generate a few big plays in the passing game to fellow rookie Rome Odunze. He managed pressure well for the most part in the Bears' loss to the Colts. His work in the pocket was a big selling point for him coming out of USC and that part is starting to translate in the NFL. There’s no reason to be concerned about Williams' future, or really even his present, as long as people give him the runway to struggle a bit and potentially put up poor numbers as a rookie.

In a way, Williams is going through the same thing that Trevor Lawrence is in Jacksonville. The pre-draft expectations were so enormous that anything less than walking through the door as a top-10 quarterback feels like a letdown. Still, there are enough moments of positivity in Williams’ play where people should calm down a bit and let him go through the process of getting acclimated to the NFL. Just watch some of these plays from the game against the Colts and take a deep breath.

Look! A young quarterback who is putting up some quality numbers!

Daniels has gotten off to a strong start this season as the Commanders have a surprising 2-1 record. Daniels has provided a level of playmaking that the Commanders were hoping for when they took him second overall in the 2024 NFL Draft, and Washington's offense finally had a breakout game on national television, which wouldn’t have been possible without him.

Sure, the Bengals' defense is terrible. However, the Bengals are still only the third professional defense that Daniels has faced in his career, and he completed 21 of his 23 passing attempts with a dime downfield to Terry McLaurin to ice the game late in the fourth quarter. After a more conservative approach in his first two games, Daniels let it rip against the Bengals averaging 9.2 air yards per attempt and taking chances downfield. He looked closer to the Daniels who lit the SEC on fire en route to a Heisman Trophy, which is a great sign for Commanders fans.

The game plan played to his strengths. Daniels is a great thrower of deep passes down the sideline and can also operate quickly in the short passing game like offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury loves. Daniels didn’t throw to the middle of the field much, but he took what the Bengals gave him and was a bit more disciplined on his scramble attempts. There’s still room for improvement in handling pressure, but he did a good job of not taking many negative plays against Cincinnati.

In a year when there seems to be a lot of young quarterbacks playing recklessly or carelessly, Daniels was able to put together an efficient, aggressive game that showed off that the Commanders might have finally found their guy after years of floundering around since Kirk Cousins left for Minnesota. Beating up on a terrible defense is exactly what a player drafted where Daniels was should be doing.

If Daniels can repeat that performance a couple more times this season, he will walk into being the Offensive Rookie of the Year, making a certain writer of this column look very silly considering he may or may not have said that the Commanders would finish with the first pick in the 2025 NFL Draft.

There’s nothing worse than watching a team that doesn’t have a pulse. The Jaguars put forth a pitiful effort against the Bills, getting blown out 47-10 on Monday Night Football in a game that somehow did not even feel as close as the score. It was never a game as Jacksonville's offense floundered once again and the defense allowed five straight touchdown drives to start the game.

This continues the extreme downward trend the Jaguars have been in since the end of last season. They were 8-3 after Week 12, and have won just one game since — against Bryce Young and the Panthers. For a team whose owner claimed his club had the greatest roster in franchise history, this season has been an unmitigated disaster. There is no reason that this collection of players should be blown out to this degree by any team in the league, especially when the Jaguars entered Monday 0-2 and desperate for a win.

This team is performing way underneath the expectations that they set on themselves and what media on the outside suggested was possible. At 0-3 coming off a 37-point loss, it feels like the bottom has fallen out on this team, and it’s difficult to figure out exactly where to point the blame for its failures — so everyone should get their fair share.

Trevor Lawrence hasn’t been good enough this season. He’s far too talented to struggle to break 200 yards passing in each game. The offense isn’t built in a manner where it can overcome his inconsistencies, which have occurred too often this season. It’s too soon to write him off for his career, but this needs to turn around quickly.

That will be difficult as long as head coach Doug Pederson and offensive coordinator Press Taylor fail to find any rhythm as play-callers and orchestrators of the offense. At some point, they’re going to have to accept some blame for how discombobulated the offense is looking.

Jacksonville’s defense is likely better than what it showed Monday, but the Jaguars need to adjust their style of play as they deal with cornerback Tyson Campbell missing time with a hamstring injury. They don’t really have the horses to play man coverage right now, which was supposed to be their bread and butter for the season.

It’s all bad for the Jaguars, but the most concerning part is how hopeless and lifeless they looked on the field. Something needs to change here in a hurry, and it'll likely start with the head coach who can’t seem to produce an inspired performance from his team.

No one is really that surprised the Raiders are here, right? Well, maybe we're surprised that a loss to the Panthers is the moment that spurned the team into introspection, but choosing to enter the season with a quarterback competition featuring Aidan O’Connell and Gardner Minshew II has produced what most people were expecting: not much.

Head coach Antonio Pierce was dejected following the preseason and three weeks into this experiment it looks like he was upset for good reason. Neither Minshew nor O’Connell have the juice to get the Raiders the season that they want, which was something most people already knew.

Those concerns were accentuated during a 36-22 beatdown at the hands of previously hapless Carolina. Minshew was eventually pulled from the game in favor of O’Connell, but appears as though Minshew will remain the starter as Pierce mulls over the “business decisions” he needs to make to improve this team.

What this game really showed is that the Raiders aren’t good enough around the quarterback to endure inconsistent and poor games from that position. Thirty-six points to the Carolina Panthers! Andy Dalton is a clear upgrade over Bryce Young, but this Carolina team isn’t the Greatest Show on Turf. That game suggests the defense has a bunch of room to improve, which is a tough fact to swallow when the Raiders already feature star players like Christian Wilkins.

The tough part to come to grips with is there isn’t anyone coming to save the Raiders in their quest for better QB play. This is it. It’s not good enough. Everyone knows it, the head coach keeps saying it and that’s about all that can be done. Unless they decide to make a play for Russell Wilson, it’s going to be yet another long season on offense in Las Vegas.