While Washington Commanders rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels largely impressed fans and other onlookers as he guided his club to a 10-5 record, first-overall draft choice Caleb Williams has often looked and sounded like “a defeated guy” amid the Chicago Bears’ losing streak that’s now at 10 straight games.
Well-known NFL Network analyst Brian Baldinger recently spoke with Dan Duggan of The Athletic about why Daniels has flourished playing under offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury as Williams has endured a rough debut season.
“It always looks like Jayden has an answer no matter what you do,” Baldinger explained. “If you go blitz-zero on him, he knows where he wants to go with the ball. He’s an elite athlete. He can escape, and he can rescue some plays. But I feel like built into the offense, they always have a check-down some place where he can just get the ball out of his hands and get the ball to a receiver — maybe break a tackle, maybe pick up a first down — but at least get a completion where you can build confidence in your player.”
According to the StatMuse website, Daniels heads into the final weekend of December ranked eighth in the NFL among qualified players with 4,040 combined passing and rushing yards on the season. He’s tied for eighth with a total of 28 passing and rushing scores, and ESPN stats show he’s fourth among qualified passers with a 71.8 adjusted QBR for the campaign.
To compare, Williams is 11th with 3,872 combined passing and rushing yards, tied for 17th with 19 total touchdowns and 30th among qualified players with a woeful 45.9 adjusted QBR. Baldinger indicated the Bears’ in-season firings of offensive coordinator Shane Waldron and head coach Matt Eberflus likely did more harm than good for Williams, who has taken a league-high 67 sacks on the campaign.
“(The Bears) fired the offensive coordinator first, then they elevated the quarterbacks coach to be the offensive coordinator, so now he has that,” Baldinger added about Williams’ situation. “Then they fired the head coach and elevated the offensive coordinator now to head coach. Now he’s splitting his duties between coaching Caleb, which he was doing full time, to now he’s got to coach the whole team. So that’s a disaster.”
As of Friday afternoon, DraftKings Sportsbook listed Daniels as the overwhelming betting favorite at -20000 odds to claim Offensive Rookie of the Year Award honors. NFL insider Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated noted on Friday that the Bears could be “looking for a leader-of-men type” as their next head coach, but Baldinger offered a reminder of how important it will be for Chicago to land the right offensive mind to get the most out of Williams’ skill set starting with his second season in the league.