Can people expect Caleb William’s talent from college transfer over to the NFL as well as C.J. Stroud’s did.
One thing that has been talked about a lot recently, is whether or not Caleb Williams will be the next C.J. Stroud. A former NFL general manager, Rick Spielman said on the “With the First Pick” podcast that, “Williams has a 95% chance or higher of accomplishing something similar to what Stroud did in 2023.” Williams has been named one of the best QB prospects in recent history and is almost certainly going to be drafted by the number one overall pick, to the Chicago Bears. But could he seriously do what Stroud did in his rookie season?
C.J. Stroud took the Texans from pretty much the bottom of the league to winning a playoff game. Stroud won the Offensive Rookie of the Year, and at one point was even talked about getting the MVP Award. He’s been one of the biggest key factors in the turnaround in Houston.
Will Caleb Williams do the same? Many major sports websites such as NBC Sports or NFL on CBS, seem to think he will. But me? I don’t think he will. See despite coming onto a team that was near the bottom, Stroud still came into a pretty good spot. He had Nico Collins as the starting receiver, Houston drafted well in his class too, and then came into a place where good changes happened to the coaching.
For Williams, I think he’s coming into a worse spot and doesn’t have the same talent Stroud does. To give the Bears the benefit of the doubt they have made some good moves at coaching. The offensive coordinator Luke Getsy, quarterbacks coach Andrew Janocko, receivers coach Tyke Tolbert, running backs coach Omar Young, and assistant tight ends coach Tim Zetts were all fired. But this was the very reason Justin Fields performed so poorly with the Bears, they were always changing coaching every year.
They also brought in a couple players, like Keenan Allen, to catch the ball. But the problem is Williams is even better, or as good as Stroud. He didn’t have a winning record in the 2023-2024 season with USC, which people can blame the defense for, which I can agree with. Then he also didn’t do any drills at the NFL combine, which also makes sense because he was supposed to go number one, why risk dropping by doing badly at the combine? There’s just something different though between Stroud and Williams.
It feels like Stroud we pretty overlooked because he scored so low on the S2 cognition test, then got taken second overall, behind Bryce Young. So for Stroud, it feels like he had a reason to play so much better, as for Caleb Williams just everyone expects him to be good, with pressure like that it’s super easy to mess up.
Many people have high hopes for Caleb Williams to do what C.J. Stroud did in 2023, and yes I do believe it is possible for him to do it, I also believe that Williams will be coming into a different position than what Stroud came into.
