Caleb's post-game press conference.

He won his 1st game as a NFL rookie. That is about all you can expect.

You and I both said when we were talking about him before being drafted that there will be some tough times and for sure a learning curve because he is a rookie. Regardless of how skilled he is. And a lot of others here were saying he same thing.

I want to see him getting the bugs worked out of this by the 2nd half of the season when we play inside the NFL North.

He threw what should have been a TD to Allen, but it was dropped. He was staying in the game, it wasn't too big for him. Lots of room for improvement.

What this showed me was how impressive it was for Bagent to win his first NFL start.

Over the next 5 or 6 games we are going to see what Caleb Williams and Shane Waldron are really made of.

Williams was practicing against what (hopefully) is a top 5 or top 10 defense.  But there were always limitations to the amount of contact in practice.  Williams was up against a decent NFL defense, playing at full speed and doing their best to get in his face and knock him down.  Their scheme was designed to confuse the rookie QB.  And IMO there were moderately successful in doing so.  And future opponents will be looking at the tape and designing their defensive game plans accordingly.

We will see if both of these men are capable of identifying where they come up short, recognizing what the issue really is and the modifying their behavior to fix things.  And do it when they are being blamed for all the faults in the offense (whether or not the criticism is actually justified).  The great coaches and players are able to put their mistakes in the past and not get hung up on them.  And they go on after learning from the mistakes.

I think they are both up to the challenge.  But we will see.

+1
Houston looks like one of the top teams in the NFL to me.  Impressive.  I suspect that will be a loss.  But, there is a lot that the Bears can clean up this week so they play better on offense.  Shane Waldron (hopefully) will adjust his play calling a bit.  The offensive line should settle down and be better... but I don't know what they can do at center.  I "get it" that he was brought here as a backup to Bates.  But he has never, in his career, been a good pass protector.  He is just a bad player and that's why LA moved on from him. 

Bates has played mostly at guard, and is not that bad at G... well in some games he was downright bad.  He really hasn't played much since he was benched in 2023.  But if you look at his grades in 2022, as a center, he's a bad pass protecting C.  He was a backup last year at Buffalo.    

Bates and Shelton look (at best) like Lucas Patrick.  Just not very good.