Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams is poised to be the next big thing, but we say that about every player who gets selected first overall in the NFL Draft. Williams, who won the Heisman trophy in 2022 at USC, is the latest to try his hand at becoming the Bears’ passing G.O.A.T.
It’s actually a very low bar to clear, because no Chicago Bears QB has ever tossed 35 TDs in a single season. Or even thrown 30 touchdown passes for that matter. The Monsters of the Midway have never even had a single season 4,000 yard passer.
Just accomplishing any of those statistical feats would be a big deal for Caleb Williams, the Bears and their fans. I mean, have you seen the Super Bowl betting futures? No one expects Chicago to make it to New Orleans in February; or even reach a level anywhere near that, this season.
In any NFL Power Rankings that you might find, you will indeed see the Bears as lower middle of the pack.
If they contend for the playoffs that would be huge. And that’s because the history of the Chicago Bears, from a quarterbacking perspective, is indeed truly as you bad as you have heard. Actually, no, it’s a lot worse.
That’s kind of the Chicago Bears franchise story, at least in the modern era of NFL football, in a nut shell right there.
Until the Bears finally develop a true consistent vertical passing game, they will continue to have low expectations.
The league rules have changed to facilitate passing, and the club still can’t ever find a way to do it right.
I cannot stress this enough, the NFL has made it absolutely clear that they want teams to pass the ball as much as possible, and the team in navy blue and burnt orange persistently remain behind the rest of the league.
Caleb Williams won’t have to do a whole lot in order to etch his name into the Bears QB records book. We’ll highlight/detail that here, start with a guy who ironically has as many NFC title game victories as Aaron Rodgers.
Rex Grossman
It’s rather scary how Rex Grossman basically rewrote a lot of the Bears passing record book, until Jay Cutler then came along and rewrote it again. Neither of these guys were actually “very good,” let alone “elite.” Sexy Rexy had a phenomenal first half of a season, in ’06 and that was enough to place him second, all-time for single season passing yards at the time.
Although today it only ranks seventh. Despite the second half of that season being totally awful for Grossman, it is still a top ten, all-time, in all major statistical categories, to this day.
What does that say about your franchise?
When we’re referring to a campaign that actually included a Bluto Blutarsky 0.0 passer rating on New Year’s Eve, at home, versus the Green Bay Packers.
Grossman, who actually seemed like a pretty nice guy when I interviewed him, is still top 15 all-time, in Chicago Bears history, in completions, passing yardage and TD passes.
Jay Cutler
The franchise’s all-time leading passer, I refuse to acknowledge the idea that he’s the best quarterback is Bears history (that’s still Sid Luckman). However, I will die on the hill that he’s the best passer in franchise history. Yes, he made horrible decisions on the field, and had zero leadership skills in the locker room, but he’s still the best passing QB in franchise history and it’s not even close.
In addition to passing yards, he’s also the Bears all-time leader in TD passes, completions, attempts and completion percentage.
Some of these categories, he leads by a very wide margin. While he was extremely interception prone, and polarizing among the fans (the word “polarizing” is doing a lot of heavy lifting there), no one slang the rock in navy blue and burnt orange like #CuttyDoesit.
Mitch Trubisky
His 2018 stats aren’t really that impressive but it’s one of the five greatest quarterbacking seasons in Chicago Bears history, and that speaks volumes about the sad history of this franchise’s signal callers.
Like Grossman and Cutler, almost every Chicago Bears fan will tell you that he wasn’t good. Yet he still registers here on this list!
And honestly, his 2018 numbers are actually pretty inflated by the one game in which he tossed six TD passes, so even that campaign isn’t as legit as it seems.
Jim McMahon
Immortally beloved because he was QB1 of the 1985 team, a squad that will never ever ever go away, even long after we’re all dead, none of his single season numbers even really register. He is however, top five in all the major statistics, career wise.
What does it say about the McCaskeys and how they run their franchise, that a game-manager is still considered a franchise Mt. Rushmore QB?
He was a colorful guy, and he won games, but in terms of a pure passer he always was, and always will be, overrated.
Erik Kramer
His 1995 season (29 TD passes, 3,838 yards) is still the best in franchise history, by both metrics. His 1.9% interception percentage that year is very impressive too.
Yes, it wasn’t until ’95 that the Chicago Bears developed a modern passing game, and it was Ron Turner of all people who made that happen. And here we are, more than a quarter century later, and his records still stand.
Unreal.
Sid Luckman
He is the team’s all-time best QB because he was productive, efficient and he won titles. His threw 28 TD passes in 1943, meaning his club record stood for over a half-century!
We’re still talking about a guy from the WWII era when it comes to passing records?! Seriously?
Paul M. Banks is the Founding Editor of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He currently contributes to USA Today’s NFL Wires Network. His past bylines include the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. His work has been featured in numerous outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, the Washington Post and ESPN. You can follow him on Linked In and Twitter.