Transcript
Speaker: What's going on everybody welcome back to another episode of the passing down podcast I'm your host Rahul and I'm here with my co-host PD PD say what's up what's up
Speaker: And today we're back with another one of our series of the QB draft prospect episodes.
Speaker: We just dropped one on Drake May.
Speaker: If you haven't checked that out already, go ahead and check that out before the draft, which is coming up pretty soon.
Speaker: We went into a lot of details that we're going to talk about.
Speaker: with another guy who's supposed to go towards the top of the draft, probably going to end up going number one overall if all things go as expected, and that is Caleb Williams.
Speaker: Before I get into a quick overview of that, you have anything else to say, PD?
Speaker: Yeah, we don't have to mess around with the probabilities in this one.
Speaker: He's going number one overall.
Speaker: Maybe he gets caught with a bong and a mask a few hours before the draft, but otherwise I don't see it.
Speaker: Yeah, that's probably true and a big reason why, which I'll get into right now, is his college career was quite legendary.
Speaker: And normally, with a lot of these prospects, there isn't much to talk about, but much like your Joe Burrows, your Trevor Lawrences, your even CJ Strauss from last year, some of these guys had pretty illustrious college careers and that's a big reason as to why they're up here and Caleb Williams is absolutely an example of that.
Speaker: He kind of burst onto the scene in 2021 with Oklahoma taking over for who was supposed to be a Heisman candidate, Heisman hopeful and Spencer Rattler, one of the best quarterbacks in the country at the time and went on to be all American for a freshman, all American that year, all honorable mention and all the all big 12.
Speaker: played all 11 games and started the final seven uh where he threw for nearly 2 000 yards on roughly 65 completion percentage 21 touchdowns only four picks six more touchdowns rushing followed that in 2022 with a probably his best year on paper in college because he ends up going on to win the heisman this year goes on to win walter camp player of the year
Speaker: The Maxwell Award, Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Year, First Team All-Pac-12, First Team All-American.
Speaker: You get the gist.
Speaker: Led the FBS with 42 touchdowns, broke school records with yards, throwing like 4,500 yards, on incredible efficiency as well.
Speaker: Basically broke all of USC's records, which is a pretty historic program to do that on.
Speaker: And with the slightly worse team in 2023, he still had a pretty impressive season, being an honorable mention in the All-Pac-12.
Speaker: Finalist for the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award, which is basically the best quarterback of the year award.
Speaker: And ranked top 10 in the FBS with 170.1 passing efficiency.
Speaker: 30 touchdowns again.
Speaker: 3,600 yards.
Speaker: And just another incredible year, even though it didn't look as good on paper, which we'll talk about eventually as we get on into the seasons.
Speaker: But very, very great college career.
Speaker: And to kind of talk about how he plays very vaguely,
Speaker: He has kind of gotten to be one of the prototype quarterbacks you see in the modern day.
Speaker: He's great on the run, an incredible playmaker, but also amazing in the pocket, great with the deep ball.
Speaker: One of the smaller guys, plays almost like a Russell Wilson, Patrick Mahomes type player, big arm.
Speaker: That sort of mold of quarterback, so to speak.
Speaker: You have any comments on that, PD?
Speaker: Yeah, I don't want to go too in detail with this on my perspective right now, but I could gush about things that you're describing quite a lot.
Speaker: So I'll just save that for the end because I have a ton of data on it.
Speaker: So I'll just defer to you to finish up his pre-profile and then we'll get into the game.
Speaker: Yeah, that's definitely the case, for sure.
Speaker: And just to talk quickly about his opinions overall, I think as we kind of hinted at a second ago, pretty much everyone has him going number one overall.
Speaker: And I think it's kind of due to the combination of not only the talent that we've talked about with Drake May or Jaden Daniels,
Speaker: They have that talent, but a lot of the time you only saw maybe a year of sample size of play.
Speaker: You saw maybe not as high a level of play as you would see with the Caleb Williams because of the conference or team they're playing for.
Speaker: But with Caleb, it's kind of the complete package.
Speaker: And as a result, he has kind of risen through a lot of...
Speaker: not off the field problems with people kind of having issues with this character so to speak at times despite all those little drawbacks he's still become kind of the number one overall consensus and pretty much everyone's
Speaker: expecting him to be one of the better rookie quarterbacks that we've seen in recent memory.
Speaker: And it was our job to look into the film here and talk about if we see the same thing that everyone's talking about, if the hype is real.
Speaker: And with that being said, I say we jumped right into when he burst into the scene, and that was 2021 with Oklahoma.
Speaker: Yeah, so we're going to talk about his games from 2021 and 2022, some selected ones that I think represent the sample size that he put out for the entirety of the 2021 and 2022 seasons, which I charted.
Speaker: I think that we really do want to fly through these because there's a lot to get through.
Speaker: So we'll start it off right away.
Speaker: Caleb, first game ends up bursting onto the scene in week six against Texas, the Red River rivalry.
Speaker: I think this is my favorite college football game I've ever seen in terms of an entertainment standpoint.
Speaker: It was absolutely bonkers, incredible game.
Speaker: And Caleb, just unbelievable performance from a freshman.
Speaker: He, from the first play that he was put in,
Speaker: He takes the snap on fourth and one and breaks it off for an explosive gain for a touchdown.
Speaker: It's just like the explosive playmaking ability was apparent from play one for Caleb when he actually got to
Speaker: get multiple drives in a game.
Speaker: He followed that up with multiple impressive throws.
Speaker: The one I wanted to highlight was one which actually counts as a turnover-worthy play for me, but he also, on that same play where he drops the snap which causes a turnover-worthy play, rolls out of the pocket to the right and fires an absolute rocket to the right corner of the end zone.
Speaker: Between two defenders, he's able to kind of manipulate the defender that's underneath by flowing to that right and forcing the threat of the run, which opens up the lane to pass right behind him, and it's just...
Speaker: An incredible display of velocity and control of the defense.
Speaker: So, yeah, overall that game, not too much from a processing standpoint.
Speaker: They were not putting a lot on his plate, just very simple throws here and there.
Speaker: But he showed his playmaking ability in some select instances, and it was really, really impressive to see that kind of upside from a freshman.
Speaker: Despite them not really running much plays or in-structure offense with Caleb Williams being thrown in there in the middle of a game, not much expected out of him.
Speaker: But taking that out of the picture, this is probably one of the better games you could expect out of a...
Speaker: I believe he was just a true freshman at this point coming into his first ever game and the huge rivalry, as you mentioned, against Texas in a year when I believe they were both going back and forth for potentially winning that conference.
Speaker: And Cale Williams just took the field by storm and, as you said, showed incredible levels of playmaking out the gate.
Speaker: You saw plenty of plays out of the pocket, out of structure.
Speaker: Just in general, very early on, showing his ability to torch defenses without really even knowing how to play quarterback, so to speak, at the college level.
Speaker: It reminded me a lot of when we saw early Mahomes come into the league without ever playing much and just having a lot of backyard football type of vibes.
Speaker: This is what Caleb Williams' first game looked a lot like, and it showed the talent.
Speaker: It showed the ability to just play football, even with not much practice going on with him.
Speaker: Huge start for his career.
Speaker: Alright, let's move on to the next one.
Speaker: The next week against TCU, he leveled up his performance in a big way, in my opinion.
Speaker: The efficiency in this game was kind of a joke.
Speaker: He basically didn't miss a pass, and a ton of his offense was moving down the field.
Speaker: Just the TCU defense in this game, horrendous.
Speaker: Very typical of a Big 12 defense, but...
Speaker: Doesn't take anything away from me because freshman starting for the first time, still incredibly impressive.
Speaker: And yeah, I was kind of blown away.
Speaker: Explosive play after explosive play in this game.
Speaker: Did take a couple of sacks, but not really enough to take away from the performance.
Speaker: Just incredible game from him, in my opinion.
Speaker: Yeah, I like that you commented on that TCU defense because as I do with a lot of these games where it's a very mismatched offensive and defensive matchup, I did like to trick this game with a little bit of salt.
Speaker: But at the same time, like you said, Caleb Williams put out a spectacular performance.
Speaker: Practically a perfect pass on everything he threw.
Speaker: And it showed the big playability from early on.
Speaker: As soon as you give him the personnel to be able to go downfield, which we saw later in his career, he didn't have as much.
Speaker: But in this Oklahoma offense, there's a lot of talent.
Speaker: And that's why we were able to get these big games very early in his career.
Speaker: So much explosiveness on that team.
Speaker: And with Caleb Williams' arm talent and his playmaking ability, it's just highlights and big plays all over the field.
Speaker: Another amazing offensive performance from him.
Speaker: All right, let's move on to the next one.
Speaker: This one against Texas Tech and kind of more of the same.
Speaker: Just explosive plays left and right, making throws down the field, six touchdowns in this game.
Speaker: And yeah, it was that good of a performance statistically and charting-wise.
Speaker: Just unbelievable game, barely missed a throw.
Speaker: Only took one sack in this game as opposed to two in the last game.
Speaker: Just Texas Tech defense, an absolute joke, and Caleb Williams takes full advantage of it.
Speaker: Yeah, it feels like it's almost getting repetitive at this point, but that's how it felt watching this OU team this year.
Speaker: Because they just, week after week, were stomping opponents in this Big 12.
Speaker: And a huge reason was that upgrade at quarterback to Caleb Williams.
Speaker: They had all this talent on the field.
Speaker: And finally, Caleb Williams was able to get on and almost unlock it for them with the likes of Marvin Mims on that team.
Speaker: And once again, it was just deep shot after deep shot.
Speaker: Touchdown passes going all around.
Speaker: Very few mistakes in general because there weren't any turnover-worthy plays.
Speaker: Don't believe he took any sacks that I thought were his fault in this one.
Speaker: There was one on, I believe, a blocking breakdown.
Speaker: So...
Speaker: Almost a spectacular game.
Speaker: Absolutely a masterclass from Caleb Williams.
Speaker: And yeah, just it keeps happening in this season.
Speaker: All right, let's finish it off for the 2021 season with a rougher performance.
Speaker: This won his worst game of the year to me against Baylor, and he was just missing a ton of throws.
Speaker: See it reflected in the completion percentage, and I think the completion percentage is kind of an accurate representation of what was going on.
Speaker: Just no rhythm at all to the game.
Speaker: Multiple interceptions, turnover-worthy plays left and right.
Speaker: Just not a good performance at all.
Speaker: This is a game where he really did look like a freshman.
Speaker: Of course, it doesn't really represent him as a player going forward, but this is why, even as one of the best freshman seasons I've ever seen, you do have to take your lumps with the good because you are still a freshman at the end of the day.
Speaker: Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker: We would think it might have happened earlier in the Texas game when he was kind of thrown into the spotlight, but that game where his hype was finally shot down a little bit came against a slightly better opponent in Baylor later on in the year.
Speaker: A little bit better of a defensive performance in a hostile environment playing at Baylor as well.
Speaker: And like you said, his age showed a lot more in this one.
Speaker: And though he corrected it a lot more in his future years in college,
Speaker: it did start to show a little bit of the cracks of some of the weaknesses he has even to this point in his game.
Speaker: I think a big reason Baylor was able to disrupt what Caleb Williams had going on was the amount of pressure they got with him in this game.
Speaker: And sometimes Caleb Williams, because he's such a great playmaker, because he's so good on his feet and making plays in the open space, you can almost get the problem that he'll play hero ball a bit too much.
Speaker: And much like something we talked about with Drake May in the last episode, there can be times when he bails the pocket too early and tries to do too much.
Speaker: And I feel like when the instructor play was breaking down against Baylor in this game, you started to see that lack of decisiveness at times and him just running around trying to make something happen.
Speaker: And that's why they kind of had to...
Speaker: go away from him in this one and got shut down a lot of time offensively.
Speaker: This was definitely not something that reoccurred to this level in his future years in college.
Speaker: He didn't have many performances this bad going forward, but it's definitely something to keep an eye on as his career goes on.
Speaker: Alright, let's move on to the next season for Caleb.
Speaker: So he transfers to USC, brings along Lincoln Riley with him, brings along Jordan Addison, and a ton of other talent transferring in.
Speaker: They don't really have the same structure and talent along the offensive line.
Speaker: that they did at Oklahoma the previous years, like when they had Kyler Murray or Jalen Hurts or Baker Mayfield.
Speaker: USC doesn't have that structure implemented yet.
Speaker: So you see their offense look a little different, especially in the run game.
Speaker: And I think you could see it...
Speaker: in Caleb's stats as well, where his per-play efficiency, like EPA per-play, doesn't quite stack up to Kyler Murray or Jalen Hurts or Baker Mayfield at USC, but I don't think that's really a reflection on him as a draft prospect.
Speaker: I think it's more so that the supporting cast along the offensive line isn't quite the elite run-blocking unit that they have at Oklahoma.
Speaker: Anyway, getting a little bit on a tangent too much,
Speaker: Going to jump in a little bit midseason for Caleb here.
Speaker: This one at Utah, the first game that we're going to talk about.
Speaker: And I just want to preface this with for the next two games that we're going to talk about.
Speaker: These are two of the very best games that I've seen by any quarterback of any age as a draft prospect.
Speaker: It's unbelievable the things that he's doing against Utah.
Speaker: And it's not even like all of this is reflected in the stats.
Speaker: So I'll talk about the first play.
Speaker: from the Utah game, just as an example.
Speaker: He's pressured, and he's rolling to his left and just launches an unbelievable throw to Brendan Rice in a tight window, and it just goes right through his hands.
Speaker: So you could see this type of potential 36-yard play not get reflected in his stat sheet.
Speaker: He also has a 55-yard run.
Speaker: The only negative plays that I have for him, albeit they are bad ones, he does have a drop snap in here.
Speaker: and takes a 20-yard sack, which was his fault, and takes a number of sacks on top of that as well.
Speaker: So negative plays are in here for sure, but man, the number of explosives that he's generating in this game, it's unbelievable.
Speaker: It's truly ridiculous what's going on out there on some of these plays.
Speaker: Yeah, and this game was pretty funny to me, much like I mentioned with some of Drake May's game last episode.
Speaker: But I remember the narrative coming out of this one again was that Caleb Williams couldn't get it done down the stretch of the game, and that's why they lost to this Utah team.
Speaker: But watching this live and once again getting to watch this again in the film right now, it was a treat.
Speaker: Because like Petey said, one of the best quarterbacking performances I've seen ever watching Caleb Williams in this one.
Speaker: And even though on paper it may not have looked the most efficient, a lot of that, like you said, were on miscommunications, a couple of drops,
Speaker: But the absolute explosives in this one just made up for it completely.
Speaker: He looked completely in sync with Jordan Addison in this one.
Speaker: Even though not as many explosives to him.
Speaker: It just seemed like he was always open.
Speaker: And just was getting in under the zone of that Utah defense.
Speaker: And Caleb was delivering it to him on the money every time.
Speaker: Him and Mario Williams had a lot of great connections going downfield.
Speaker: Including that huge 65-yard one.
Speaker: Great game from Caleb all around and showed that he has a level of talent that should almost instantly transfer to the NFL because the types of throws he was making in terms of anticipation and accuracy despite going so far downfield...
Speaker: Those are some pro level traits that you don't often see at the college level.
Speaker: Especially against such a high level opponent.
Speaker: This wasn't a slouch of a team.
Speaker: This was a Utah team that was ranked.
Speaker: Clearly had USC's number based off the results in both of these games.
Speaker: And despite that, Caleb Williams was able to put up a pretty huge performance.
Speaker: Very impressive.
Speaker: All right, moving on to the next one in their next game after the bye against Arizona.
Speaker: This one, he takes another step up from the previous game, which is kind of crazy to think about with how glowingly we described the previous game.
Speaker: But this one, I have literally zero negatively graded plays.
Speaker: Only a handful of plays that are even neutral.
Speaker: Just an unbelievable show of consistency from the USC offense and Caleb Williams.
Speaker: In specific, a few drops are actually holding down his completion percentage, which was already around 70.
Speaker: Just an unbelievable performance from a consistency and explosiveness standpoint.
Speaker: Accuracy was absolutely sky high in this game.
Speaker: Barely missed a throw.
Speaker: 29 of his 41 targeted passes were perfect.
Speaker: Just incredible performance and adding to an already stacked resume, as we've described before.
Speaker: Yeah, absolutely agree.
Speaker: And one thing about this game was it was a little bit more expected coming against the Arizona defense.
Speaker: That was a lot more subpar than the Utah team he faced the previous week.
Speaker: So for that game, I gave... For that reason, I give the previous game a little bit of an edge, but...
Speaker: Just in terms of his level of play, yeah, this game was absolutely flawless.
Speaker: I can't recall a single imperfect pass in this one.
Speaker: And once again, it was just dimes after dimes going downfield and doing it with a lot of his top weapons in this season, not necessarily being there.
Speaker: He was playing with guys like Todd Washington and Kyle Ford.
Speaker: being his main options and a lot of the games in this season he had guys like Jordan Addison went on to go in the first round so showing a little bit of a preview of the next season where he's still able to have a very high level of play despite not having as much talent around him and for that reason very very impressive game once again
Speaker: Alright, let's move on to the next game.
Speaker: This one's the Notre Dame game.
Speaker: A game where he hits the Heisman pose a couple of times.
Speaker: And this one was on national TV, so I guess he was right in saying that this game won him the Heisman, probably.
Speaker: Just an incredible performance.
Speaker: And this time, I wanted to highlight this game.
Speaker: Because it was an incredible performance through the air for sure.
Speaker: He was very efficient, only a couple of negative plays.
Speaker: But his rushing in this game was very, very impressive.
Speaker: His power to break out of certain attempted tackles by the defense, as well as the ability to power for quarterback sneaks.
Speaker: see gaps well in this game it was very very impressive from a rushing standpoint um nothing explosive or way down the field um except for a couple of plays here and there but um yeah i was i was very impressed with the way he played in this game um despite the fact that he wasn't maybe throwing it down the field as much as he was in like the arizona game or the utah game
Speaker: Yeah, this game once again a good performance and what impressed me about this one is a lot of the games that you watch as you go through this entire season.
Speaker: It's a lot of huge volume games with plenty of explosive plays.
Speaker: And as you mentioned, this being a big game on national TV, Notre Dame having a good defense, they decided that they were going to completely take that away and allow Caleb Williams to beat them in a different way without just torching them downfield.
Speaker: And I don't think it wasn't often in his college career, especially in this season, that Caleb Williams was tested in this regard.
Speaker: And I found it very interesting how he was able to handle that.
Speaker: And despite not having...
Speaker: the deep shot there he was still able to destroy teams just consistently going underneath slicing and dicing them attacking in that intermediate region a lot of timing routes through with a lot more anticipation because he didn't have as much space on that field
Speaker: And it showed me a lot of traits that he will undoubtedly have to use in the league when you're not going to get as many explosive plays or as many wide open receivers running left and right.
Speaker: And in that environment, he still had an incredibly efficient game.
Speaker: One of his more accurate games of his college career by far.
Speaker: And once again showed that he is deserving of that Heisman as he posed many times in that game.
Speaker: Alright, let's move on to our last game of the 2022 season.
Speaker: This one is the second game against Utah.
Speaker: I wanted to highlight this game because it was one of his performances that stuck out as below his average level performance.
Speaker: But the reason I wanted to highlight this game is that even in a game where he performed below his standards, his lofty, lofty standards,
Speaker: He played through injury and showed a ton of toughness to me, which was very impressive.
Speaker: And even despite the fact that he was injured, he was still making some very, very impressive throws.
Speaker: He makes one throw in specific where he twitches right in the pocket and then off his back foot just fires a dime over the middle to Brendan Rice.
Speaker: Really impressive throw.
Speaker: Before he got injured in the first half,
Speaker: He made a couple of plays, two out of his three plays in this sequence.
Speaker: He throws a really, really deep bomb to Taj Washington for an explosive gain of 49 yards.
Speaker: The ball's a little bit behind him, but still a very impressive throw.
Speaker: And then he makes a 59-yard run
Speaker: on a read option, just absolutely slicing his way through the defense.
Speaker: And then another one after this injury, a 48-yard pass on a fourth down, just a critical, critical play.
Speaker: He does have a really ugly interception late in the game, which kind of doomed them a little bit.
Speaker: Also has a fumble.
Speaker: late in the game, which was another turnover-worthy play for me.
Speaker: It came on fourth down, but still bad play to not give his receiver a chance.
Speaker: And he does take a sack at the end of the game, which was a big negative play.
Speaker: But really, it's tough to grade this one straight up.
Speaker: I'm definitely grading on a curve with him playing through injury and all that.
Speaker: And yeah, still impressed with Caleb's performance, even if he performed well below his standards.
Speaker: Yeah, as you mentioned, him coming into one of the biggest games of the year against the 11-ranked Utah team being injured.
Speaker: Just on paper, if you look at the numbers, 360 yards, 68% completion, three touchdowns, only one pick.
Speaker: Even if you look at that on paper, that's a lot of players' career numbers that he's having on what we clearly outlined was an off game for him.
Speaker: It's crazy to see the standards that Caleb Williams was held to in this season.
Speaker: But even with that, I would agree this was one of his more disappointing performances.
Speaker: And it was funny how it was painted once again.
Speaker: how he just can't beat Utah, and I know that interception was highlighted a lot, so was that fumble to show how Caleb Williams can't really, quote unquote, get it done in these big situations.
Speaker: And granted, those plays were very bad, but...
Speaker: I absolutely agree.
Speaker: He still made a lot of impact plays on this one and being injured and having a limited ability to playmate, get out the pocket in a game where Utah was clearly coming out aggressive and clearly coming out after him, one of his biggest assets was limited and he was still able to adjust his game, be a very very pocket dominant passer.
Speaker: And still threw plenty of dimes through multiple big time passes downfield.
Speaker: And it was very impressive to see that even though he didn't necessarily have his best game.
Speaker: And it still probably averaged out to be...
Speaker: mid to slightly below average performance for me.
Speaker: Especially because of the amount of sacks he took.
Speaker: It was a little bit frustrating to see him build a pocket as often as he did and much like I was talking about in one of his games last year where he was doing a bit too much trying to make something happen with obviously USC's Pac-12 championship being on the line.
Speaker: I can't blame him for trying things, but it did dig them into a little bit bigger of a hole in certain situations and bring his overall performance down.
Speaker: But a lot of goods to still come from one of his worst games as a college player.
Speaker: All right, let's move on to the 2023 season.
Speaker: So this season, I think we're both in agreement that it was worse than his 2022 season.
Speaker: Am I right with that?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Okay, yeah, so for most people, this is a consensus opinion where he took a step down, especially as a passer.
Speaker: And we'll discuss some reasons for that.
Speaker: But it definitely doesn't start off in the early part of their schedule because they're playing absolute cupcakes to start it out.
Speaker: So San Jose State, the week zero game, nothing too crazy.
Speaker: He makes an impressive throw after a drop snap where he rolls to his right and fires a deep bomb way down the field.
Speaker: But, yeah, beyond that, I wasn't too wowed by this performance.
Speaker: It was just, yeah, San Jose State, not really a serious program at this point in time.
Speaker: Yeah, absolutely agree.
Speaker: I mean, a lot of these performances are just to get guys going.
Speaker: SJSU is clearly a step below this USC team.
Speaker: Granted, even with USC's team not being as good, there's still a pretty clear gap.
Speaker: And if anything, I expected Caleb Williams to dominate maybe even more coming off such a historic year prior.
Speaker: But it being the first game of the season, still very impressive.
Speaker: Hit almost all of his throws.
Speaker: That 76-yard pass to Todd Washington was probably one of the better deep touchdown passes I saw from him all year.
Speaker: So they made quick work of SJSU.
Speaker: But like I say, with these games, you got to take it with a grain of salt.
Speaker: All right, let's move on to the next one.
Speaker: Another one we're going to be taking with a grain of salt, this one against Nevada.
Speaker: He plays a little bit better.
Speaker: Perfect pass rate above 60%.
Speaker: One negative play with an ugly sack fumble, which becomes a theme a little bit for the season where he's fumbling quite a lot.
Speaker: Not under too much pressure this game.
Speaker: Yeah, just a little bit of another cupcake opponent, but he kind of dominates again.
Speaker: Yeah, this is a little bit more of what I was expecting in that SJSU game.
Speaker: Even though it was still a very dominant performance, this was a little bit more of a dominance.
Speaker: And that's kind of what I expect out of Caleb Williams, to make very quick work of these really low-level opponents and just play damn near perfect.
Speaker: And I know it's a high bar, but when you have that 2022 record-setting season...
Speaker: That's kind of what you are to expect coming back to college.
Speaker: And at least in this game, he did deliver, like you mentioned, perfect passes on almost every pass he threw in this game.
Speaker: Not as many deep shots in this one, but still...
Speaker: a couple of chunk plays going downfield and pretty much scoring on every single offensive drive.
Speaker: I did like that you pointed out that sack fumble though because as I was mentioning last year it did start to become a problem and for weirdly enough it became even more of a problem in this season which typically doesn't happen for quarterbacks.
Speaker: And the problem I'm talking about is the whole hero ball bailing out of the pocket issue.
Speaker: I feel like Caleb Williams developed it even more so.
Speaker: And this Nevada game was a little bit of a sign.
Speaker: And I'll talk about it more in the games that it became bigger problems.
Speaker: All right, I'm going to speed run this Stanford game as much as possible.
Speaker: 80% perfect pass rate.
Speaker: Serious joke of an opponent.
Speaker: Stanford stood no chance in this game at all.
Speaker: Barely got pressure on Caleb, and he posted one of the most efficient games I've ever charted.
Speaker: So that's that.
Speaker: Yeah, this reason, games like this are the reason the Pac-12 does not exist anymore, and USC's gone on to better things.
Speaker: This was practically a perfect game from Caleb, and like you said, very subpar defense.
Speaker: It is what it is.
Speaker: All right, let's move on to the next one.
Speaker: A little bit more interesting stuff happening in this one.
Speaker: So first road game of the year for USC.
Speaker: Kalo plays very well in this game, but again, the fumble is a play that drags it down.
Speaker: Throws a dropped interception in this one, but he is able to generate some really impressive explosive plays.
Speaker: Has a 29-yard completion to Brendan Rice.
Speaker: Just very, very impressive throw there.
Speaker: And then on his final pass of the game, throws a very, very impressive pass to Taj Washington.
Speaker: The ball ends up a little bit behind him, but it's deep enough to where I'm like, okay, whatever.
Speaker: Extremely impressive explosive play.
Speaker: Has another one earlier on in the game for a 43-yard completion where he hits Brett and Rice.
Speaker: This one's a little behind him again, but yeah, another very impressive play.
Speaker: Also wanted to highlight a 23-yard completion where he hits Zach Branch.
Speaker: Wide open, but still an impressive perfect pass.
Speaker: This game, a couple of turnover-worthy plays, but enough to make up for it, in my opinion, and solid performance here.
Speaker: Yeah, I would agree.
Speaker: Even though ASU isn't on the level of the last three opponents, ASU still, once again, should be pretty light work for what was a top five team in terms of rankings in USC at this time.
Speaker: And...
Speaker: To have a couple of those lapses and turnover with he plays is a little bit disappointing from Caleb, but regardless, if you look at it on an objective scale and don't hold him to those high standards, he still plays a pretty great game in terms of...
Speaker: being very accurate once again a lot of chunk plays I like how in this game he was finally starting to develop a synergy with Brendan Rice which we didn't see as much in those first three games because it was very low volume for him and kinda everyone was open at all times this game finally showed us what USC is going to look like moving forward in terms of their offense in terms of when they face better opponents and
Speaker: But it's still a little bit, you start to see the cracks in that mistake in his game, which is him trying to do too much sometimes.
Speaker: And you see it again in this ASU game.
Speaker: I think it gets worse in a couple of other games moving forward.
Speaker: So we'll get back to that then.
Speaker: Alright, let's move on to the next one.
Speaker: This one, a national TV game against Colorado.
Speaker: Colorado, a little bit of a joke of a program.
Speaker: I don't know if that's a hot take, but they just really didn't stand a chance at all on defense in this one.
Speaker: Caleb misses one throw, ugly enough to where I gave it a big negative.
Speaker: Also has a bad interception late in the game and then takes one sack that I thought was on him.
Speaker: But he makes up for it pretty well, in my opinion.
Speaker: Throws a nice 28-yard completion in a tight window to Zach Branch, and then makes another impressive play for a 71-yard touchdown where he's scrambling left after he gets pressured and hits Taj Washington.
Speaker: The ball is a little bit high, but an impressive explosive play nonetheless.
Speaker: And has another one where he hits Mario Williams wide open for a 24-yard touchdown.
Speaker: touchdown.
Speaker: So I think he did enough to acquit himself of that turnover-worthy play.
Speaker: Good game overall, in my opinion.
Speaker: Yeah, man, this game looks like kind of a joke going back to this point in the season, because I remember everyone talking about how hyped up USC going into Colorado would be, and like you mentioned, Colorado did turn out to be a little bit of a joke of a program, but
Speaker: Anyways, going back to Caleb, I think this was a game where on kind of a big stage because of all the attention Colorado was getting at the time, Caleb did make a statement that he is still the best despite maybe not putting up the same type of stats he had been in the previous season.
Speaker: And once again, just huge play after huge play in this one really, really dominated that intermediate range as well.
Speaker: And we start to see that aspect of his game develop a lot more as he does not have as many deep threats on this USC team as he did, I'd say, both of the two years prior, both at USC and even at Oklahoma the year before.
Speaker: But we still get a couple of those sprinkled in there once again.
Speaker: You do have that pretty bad pick and sack that you mentioned, but I feel like at that point, it felt like the game was a little bit in hand for USC anyways.
Speaker: So I'll give them a little bit of slack for that, but definitely not a mistake you want to see in which we now know is a not-so-great Colorado team.
Speaker: Alright, let's move on to the next one.
Speaker: So this is a stretch of two back-to-back bad games, like true bad games for me against Arizona and Notre Dame.
Speaker: Let's start off with this first one against Arizona.
Speaker: So he has a sack fumble in this one and then another dropped interception and another fumble.
Speaker: Those are the biggest drivers of Notre Dame.
Speaker: the play being negative in my opinion.
Speaker: He makes up for it a little bit with an impressive 53 yard completion to Brendan Rice.
Speaker: Also has another play
Speaker: where he breaks free for an 18-yard touchdown.
Speaker: This one is in overtime.
Speaker: So some plays here and there, but those turnover-worthy plays were really ugly enough to where I thought this was well below average for his standards and definitely even in consideration for just a below-average game overall for a college quarterback.
Speaker: So not a very good performance here at all for Caleb.
Speaker: Yeah, up till this point, both Caleb and USC, because of how things looked on paper and his stats were looking a little untouchable.
Speaker: Caleb was looking like he would just repeat potentially another huge historic season.
Speaker: And this was the first game where he did look a little bit human.
Speaker: And it was a little confusing coming against the Arizona team, which we talked about last year.
Speaker: He dominated quite a bit.
Speaker: and even this year they weren't that much better of an opponent to where you would see this much of a difference but I think games like this is where people finally saw that there may be some flaws going into Caleb's game going into the NFL the biggest one obviously being the one I've been harping on for a while the hero ball I feel like came in a huge play in this game
Speaker: For whatever reason, USC's receivers were not really getting the separation that you saw pretty much throughout Caleb's career with his supporting cast.
Speaker: And he was asked to do a little bit more, especially in that overtime scenario, trying to make something out of nothing in a lot of cases.
Speaker: You saw in that his accuracy drop a little bit.
Speaker: You saw his footwork at times get a little bit shifty and shaky, something that not much that you would like.
Speaker: And a lot of time that easy offense, just quick, easy completions that you want your franchise quarterback to have in the back pocket of his game when the big plays aren't working and he's not really getting anything going as a playmaker.
Speaker: You kind of want that easy offense, and I don't feel like I saw that enough with Caleb in this one.
Speaker: I think the fact that him and his team were way more talented than this Arizona team kind of took over at the end, and they were just able to pull through.
Speaker: But he showed a big sign of struggling here, and that did continue a little bit into his next game.
Speaker: A little bit.
Speaker: I'd say a lot of it.
Speaker: The next game, yeah, I mean, it's been talked about endlessly, so I don't want to continue to belabor the point, but Caleb was atrocious in this game.
Speaker: Four turnover-worthy plays in this one for me.
Speaker: All three interceptions, bad.
Speaker: To varying degrees of bad, but all of them bad, in my opinion.
Speaker: And then he also has a sack fumble.
Speaker: And then on top of that, he takes another couple of sacks, which I thought were pretty bad.
Speaker: There are not very many...
Speaker: like explosive downfield plays at all in this one the only impressive plays that i found were some very nice admittedly uh intermediate throws but that was really not enough to make up for the number of turnover worthy plays um i've preached multiple times on this podcast that you need to generate explosives for me to think that your turnover worthy play issues have been uh mitigated um
Speaker: I'll just quickly touch on each of these turnover-worthy plays.
Speaker: So, this first one, not really, like, that terrible of a turnover-worthy play.
Speaker: He's, like, under severe pressure because there's an absolutely horribly blown assignment on the Blitz, but he kind of chucks it up for his tight end, like McCree, and it just sails over his head.
Speaker: Not the worst turnover-worthy play in the world, but still a turnover-worthy play to me.
Speaker: The next one, pretty bad.
Speaker: tries to force it to Dorian Singer, but he just totally covered, and it's not there at all.
Speaker: This last interception was pretty horrendous.
Speaker: He's just trying to stuff it into a tight window in double coverage.
Speaker: It's just not good at all.
Speaker: And then the sack fumble is just, yeah, just more of the same for Caleb in this season, unfortunately.
Speaker: So all those turnover-worthy plays combined to make, yeah, just a not good game, like, at all to me.
Speaker: Yeah, not to overanalyze the situation here, but it almost felt like Caleb Williams finally got touched or finally got a negative performance in his resume in that Arizona game, and he wanted to come out and...
Speaker: do go over the top to prove that this USC team is still one of the best in the country to prove that he should still go back to back to win Heisman because the hype around USC and Caleb Williams after the Arizona game did die down a bit, but because they pulled it off with the win, it was still up there.
Speaker: And I feel like what we saw in this Notre Dame game was Caleb Williams, who...
Speaker: simply tried to do way too much and it led to him making very uncharacteristically poor decisions.
Speaker: Seeing him throw four turnover-worthy plays was unheard of, something we didn't even see him do as a freshman.
Speaker: He takes six sacks as well, and all of which I thought were his fault.
Speaker: And it once again showed that same Notre Dame defense which rattled him a little bit last year.
Speaker: Just putting intense pressure on him, taking away the deep play, and they kind of force him to sit in the pocket, take hits, and make big time throws over the middle.
Speaker: And a lot of the time he was not able to do that, and that's what led to all those...
Speaker: bad plays that what that's what led to all these mistakes and If you are looking for negatives if you are looking for a reason to not draft Caleb Williams, it would be games like this Granted it's not easy to both put pressure on a quarterback and be able to take away the deep pass simultaneously But teams who were able to figure that out and force Caleb Williams to play in a very specific way you can get results like this where
Speaker: He's making mistakes left and right.
Speaker: And it is a little bit not concerning, but interesting to see.
Speaker: Because to this point, like I mentioned a second ago, you didn't really see anything go wrong with Caleb Williams.
Speaker: It was back-to-back-to-back stompings for almost a year and a half straight.
Speaker: And you finally start to see a little bit of the crack show in this game against Notre Dame.
Speaker: Alright, let's move on to the next one, this one against Utah.
Speaker: Again, not the greatest performance in my opinion, but definitely a step up from the previous game.
Speaker: To be fair, hard not to be, but I digress.
Speaker: Caleb makes a couple of very impressive throws in this game.
Speaker: One deep down the field to Taj Washington where he's open, but the ball's a little bit behind him, but still a very, very impactful throw.
Speaker: And then another one where he hits Taj Washington wide open.
Speaker: hits him in stride for this one for a 41-yard gain.
Speaker: The reason this game wasn't in the elite category after those plays that I mentioned was he took a number of sacks in this one that I thought were on him, and then he also has one at the end of the game, which was an atrocious one, where he fumbles the ball deep into...
Speaker: Utah territory.
Speaker: So yeah, a couple of rough plays in here.
Speaker: He also has a really bad missed pass where he forces a terrible receiver hit.
Speaker: So a couple of bad plays in this one dragging down his overall game, but definitely a step in the right direction from the previous game, in my opinion.
Speaker: Yeah, coming off his worst game as a college player, as well as going into a week against this Utah team, which they lost to twice last year.
Speaker: And he had a lot to prove coming into this third matchup, finally being able to potentially beat this Utah team.
Speaker: And unfortunately, he was not able to get that done.
Speaker: But like you said, a step back in the right direction of
Speaker: the Caleb Williams we expect to see I felt a lot more accurate in this one a lot more of what we're used to in terms of perfect passer rate and just even completion percentage in general and we finally started to see him I feel like settle in against the style of offense teams are starting or style of defense teams are starting to use against him
Speaker: which was more or less taking away that deep shot and forcing him to play in the intermediate range over the middle, anticipate a little bit more.
Speaker: And against a pretty solid Utah team defensively, he put up a lot better of a showing, which, like you said, doesn't say much considering how bad the Notre Dame game was.
Speaker: But it shows he is able to recover and he is still able to play a variety of ways even though in some games everything's not going for him and there can be some loopholes in his overall game.
Speaker: But in general, he's able to figure a way out because his field's at a very high level and he's able to make things happen despite teams maybe taking away what he's best at.
Speaker: All right, let's move on to the next one, this one against Cal.
Speaker: And the explosive plays are back in a big way, baby.
Speaker: This game was an absolute blast to watch.
Speaker: One of my favorite Caleb Williams performances to watch overall.
Speaker: Just makes a ton of impressive throws.
Speaker: Throws a beautiful one to Taj Washington as the first impressive throw of the game for a 25-yard gain.
Speaker: And then has a 57-yard pass to Taj Washington.
Speaker: Throws it 34 yards down the field, hits him in stride for another explosive play.
Speaker: Has another one...
Speaker: where he hits Brian Branch, or not Brian Branch, Zach Branch in a tight window for a 26-yard gain along the sideline.
Speaker: Another one for a 30-yard gain and then a 35-yard gain.
Speaker: He hits Lake McCree wide open over the middle.
Speaker: for an impressive pass and then hits Kyron Hudson in a tight window for a 35 yard gain.
Speaker: Another one later in the game for a 22 yard gain, this one hitting Brendan Rice wide open down the field.
Speaker: And then for his final incredible pass of the game, has a 53 yard completion where Marshawn Lloyd,
Speaker: is able to turn it upfield for a ton of yak, and Caleb makes an impressive throw here after scrambling out of pressure.
Speaker: The only thing that's holding me back from calling this one of his very best performances is that he has another sack fumble, which was a pretty bad sack fumble.
Speaker: Again, it's become a little bit of a theme with Caleb, unfortunately, in the season.
Speaker: Only ended up missing a couple of throws otherwise, so not too many negative plays, but that one negative play was very bad and enough to drag him down from
Speaker: One of the best games of his college career otherwise to just another elite performance.
Speaker: Yeah, like you mentioned, the explosive plays are back.
Speaker: And normally when you play Cal, they do tend to come back.
Speaker: And Caleb Williams 100% took advantage in this one.
Speaker: And this was, like you said, one of the better Caleb Williams performances because of how much he really put this team on a backpack overall.
Speaker: Despite him having a very accurate game in both your opinion and my opinion, you see the numbers in terms of completion percentage are not that great.
Speaker: And it's the drops almost killing this team and almost losing this team this game.
Speaker: But Caleb Williams just puts on a masterclass to...
Speaker: Make sure that this doesn't happen.
Speaker: And in addition to those passes, you once again see two touchdowns coming on the ground.
Speaker: And I know you mentioned it earlier, and I think in the league, Caleb Williams isn't necessarily going to be the guy that makes a lot of people miss in the open field or is always scrambling.
Speaker: I do see him being the kind of guy who can time the rushes right or in short yardage situations, get you those few yards by getting in the right hole and picking up crucial yards in that regard.
Speaker: And you see that in games like this.
Speaker: And it's interesting to see because I feel like that'll be a huge addition to his arsenal when he's already able to do so much as a playmaker.
Speaker: And obviously as a passer, he was incredible in this one.
Speaker: Great passes to both Todd Washington and Lloyd downfield.
Speaker: Incredible ability to control that intermediate range of the field as well.
Speaker: And I feel like in this stage of his college career, I feel like I'm saying it even more and more, you're starting to get a Caleb Williams that is...
Speaker: not only getting the deep shots, but also consistently able to kill in that 10 to 20 yard region, even that zero to 10 yard region.
Speaker: And I love seeing that out of him because he has to be able to be multifaceted and just destroy defenses in multiple ways.
Speaker: And I liked that he was able to do that against the Cal team, even though he had to continue scoring and keep up, he was still able to do it by destroying them in many ways.
Speaker: And that made him so unpredictable and
Speaker: So hard to stop as a defense in this one.
Speaker: Has one for a 20-yard gain where he hits Brendan Rice outside the numbers to the left.
Speaker: The ball's a little bit low for Brendan Rice, but very impressive throw nonetheless.
Speaker: Has another one where he hits the tight end Robinson wide open.
Speaker: He just stone hand drops it.
Speaker: Just a horrible drop.
Speaker: One of the worst I saw all season.
Speaker: Has another one for a 41-yard gain where he hits Taj Washington wide open.
Speaker: The pass is a little bit high, but a good pass nonetheless.
Speaker: And then has a very impressive 34-yard gain to Taj Washington.
Speaker: Just hits him open in stride, allows him to run after catch.
Speaker: Impressive throw there.
Speaker: And then another one where he hits Brendan Rice for a 25-yard touchdown.
Speaker: He's scrambling out of the pocket because I think this is RPO QB draw.
Speaker: So he picks QB draw, but it's just absolutely blown up.
Speaker: And there's this hilarious route, which has like no chance to ever get open that Marshawn Lloyd is running.
Speaker: I would advise you guys to go look at that if you haven't seen that play.
Speaker: Look at the route that Marshawn Lloyd is running and how long it takes.
Speaker: But Caleb Williams scrambles to his left, makes an incredible throw on the run, hits Brandon Rice in his face mask.
Speaker: Just an incredible creative play.
Speaker: And then has another one that I thought was really impressive, where he makes an incredible anticipation throw.
Speaker: He's on the 20-yard line of Washington, and he just throws this one to the perfect spot to Mario Williams, like maybe a full second before he's out of his break.
Speaker: Just an insane anticipation throw.
Speaker: It kind of flashes that high-end anticipation ability that we'll talk about at the end multiple times throughout his career, but...
Speaker: This was one of the best examples I saw.
Speaker: Has another couple of negative plays with a sack later on in the game and he misses a throw here and there.
Speaker: But yeah, I thought the explosive plays were impressive enough to make up for the bad sack and the fumble.
Speaker: Yeah, I would agree.
Speaker: A very impressive game from Caleb against a team that ended up being one of the best in the country this year in Washington.
Speaker: And like you said, unfortunately, this defense got absolutely steamrolled and didn't really give them a chance.
Speaker: But I saw this Caleb game as one of my favorite games that we watched in this season.
Speaker: Flurry of games that we've talked about and I'd say this is probably the best competition he had to face and Despite that he was able to showcase his many different abilities as an NFL quarterback showed his kind of range as as a player and quarterback in general because he did a little bit of Everything that we've talked about throughout his college career in this one like you mentioned with that pass to Brendan Rice and
Speaker: You saw him get out of the pocket, make a play in the open field, play make and show that aspect of his game that we've seen since day one.
Speaker: But then you mentioned with the passes to Mario Williams, it was a lot more anticipation, putting the ball at the right spot, accuracy.
Speaker: And I feel like we not only saw that backyard version, backyard football version of Caleb, but also the guy who can sit in the pocket and just dot you up.
Speaker: And as a result, it kind of came together as an offensive masterclass.
Speaker: If you didn't have those few mistakes, I felt like almost every pass showed some version of the traits that Caleb has, which we'll get into in a second.
Speaker: And that impressed me a lot.
Speaker: unfortunately, that sack fumble, once again, it just keeps happening.
Speaker: And I don't really know what this fumbling problem, where it even came from with Caleb because it's been such a big issue in this one.
Speaker: I would like to blame it on the offensive line and him having to try to do a bit too much, but sometimes it feels like...
Speaker: When he is looking to make a play and playmake, he's not really also thinking about the football, which you really can't be doing.
Speaker: And that's why it keeps slipping out of his hands.
Speaker: It keeps getting knocked out.
Speaker: He's not really holding it tight.
Speaker: And I'm sure that's something which can be fixed, that he's going into the league.
Speaker: But at this point, it's looking like a bit of a problem and can put his offense in a big ditch if he's fumbling all the time.
Speaker: Alright, let's move on to the next one.
Speaker: Speaking of teams that were really good and USC had no chance against Oregon, they really had no chance against Oregon.
Speaker: And I thought Caleb was very, very good in this game.
Speaker: So he has an ugly fumble in this game again for the billionth time this year, but he makes a ton of impressive throws.
Speaker: Throws a deep one to Dorian Singer where he just hits him in the face.
Speaker: Going on the run...
Speaker: Out of the pocket to the right.
Speaker: And he just launches a perfect throw.
Speaker: Really impressive play.
Speaker: Has another one for a 59-yard gain where he hits Taj Washington wide open, hits him in stride.
Speaker: Another impressive one for a 40-yard gain.
Speaker: where he hits Deuce Robinson wide open.
Speaker: The ball is a little bit behind him, but still an impactful play nonetheless.
Speaker: And then another one for a 37-yard gain, where he hits Brendan Rice in a tight window, and he's able to break a tackle and turn that into a big gain.
Speaker: Also wanted to highlight his last play of the game, where he...
Speaker: like on it was a two-point conversion after they had scored and he's running full speed to his right and just fires it way across his body to Brendan Rice.
Speaker: Brendan Rice almost gets in.
Speaker: I think this would have been a more talked about highlight but the fact that he even has the audacity to throw that pass was was very um it was very impressive to me to see him just throw that and the flexibility and stuff needed to throw that pass.
Speaker: So um yeah turner worthy play in this one but I thought he played very very well and especially against a strong opponent like Oregon it was it was all the more impressive.
Speaker: Yeah, I feel like this game really symbolized USC's season because despite Caleb's efforts coming off a game, which I think the Washington game pretty much ended their hopes of doing anything competitive in that season in terms of being ranked in bowl games and whatnot, this was really their last chance to make a statement against an Oregon team that...
Speaker: could maybe show on their resume that they have one more quality win, bump them up a bit.
Speaker: And Caleb came out and balled out, and his team absolutely did not respond the same way.
Speaker: This game wasn't as good of a game as the previous game against Washington, but to me, once again, showed his kind of...
Speaker: He has many different skills as a quarterback because in this one he kind of goes back to not the high efficiency version of Caleb Williams but being able to get big plays left and right to make up for maybe not getting as many completions.
Speaker: It shows how many ways he can get it done offensively.
Speaker: And once again, you end up getting a touchdown from him.
Speaker: A touchdown for him rushing shows, once again, his ability to kind of get in in those short-yarded situations.
Speaker: And again in this Oregon game you saw that sack problem kind of pop up again.
Speaker: Doesn't have a lost fumble in this one but like Petey mentioned it pops out again.
Speaker: It's a big problem and like I mentioned earlier hopefully that's something he can work on and figure out because I think a lot of these fumbles that he was getting away with in college kind of like this one against Oregon
Speaker: It's not going to be going the same way in the NFL, and it can be looked at as a much bigger problem.
Speaker: I don't think it's been talked about enough with Caleb.
Speaker: Alright, let's move on to his last game, this one against UCLA.
Speaker: Makes the throw that we've seen a billion times.
Speaker: At least I've seen it a billion times.
Speaker: He's under pressure in the pocket, steps around it, and on the run without setting his feet.
Speaker: Doesn't really have to throw it on the run, but just kind of does.
Speaker: Throws it deep down the field for Brendan Rice in a tight window.
Speaker: Drops a dime, and Brendan Rice scores a 75-yard touchdown.
Speaker: He also has a play where...
Speaker: He generates a 33-yard completion, hits Marshawn Lloyd wide open.
Speaker: Impressive throw there, and then another one for a 27-yard gain where he hits Brendan Rice in a tight window.
Speaker: Really, really impressive pass this one was.
Speaker: And then another one for a 22-yard gain to Zach Branch where he's wide open, and the ball's a little bit behind him, but still an impressive pass nonetheless.
Speaker: Does have another turnover-worthy play in this one where...
Speaker: This one's an interception this time.
Speaker: Just a little bit of an ugly interception.
Speaker: But beyond that and one or two sacks here and there, I thought he was very good of winning negative plays.
Speaker: And yeah, just a number of very, very impressive throws in this one.
Speaker: Yeah, this game felt like Caleb Williams was just coming out and trying stuff because their season was obviously over at this point.
Speaker: This being his last game as a player at USC, I believe last home game as well.
Speaker: I think he came to show out and if you want to watch a game where you have...
Speaker: multiple highlight Caleb Williams throws this is the one to go to because he was putting on a little bit of a showcase in terms of his talent and all the different things he can do like you mentioned with that 74 yard pass which was going all around Twitter and
Speaker: definitely showed Caleb Williams is at the top of Caleb Williams highlight tape.
Speaker: He didn't really have to kind of make that pass on the run.
Speaker: He could have set his feet, took his time, but he wanted to show that arm talent.
Speaker: He wanted to show that flexibility and he wanted to show that kind of on the run ability that not many quarterbacks have in general.
Speaker: It's just one of those talents that Caleb Williams is able to
Speaker: do naturally that we don't see out of many prospects and it's very very impressive to see the arm talent was completely there in this one the accuracy looked very good I feel like this was one of his more accurate games of the season in terms of perfect passes putting the ball in the right spots
Speaker: Just one of those games where Caleb Williams was kind of finalizing his college career as legacy, putting a stamp on it, so to speak, as he was leaving.
Speaker: And he does have that one pretty ugly interception on his way out.
Speaker: When you are playing as aggressive as Caleb was in this one, I feel like it's natural almost and it didn't seem to affect too much in the game, but definitely detracts from his overall performance, makes it not hyper elite, but still very good.
Speaker: All right, so that'll wrap up our look into all of his games for the 2023 season and a little bit of snippets of the 2021 and 2022 seasons as well.
Speaker: And we're going to discuss some of his high-level traits and how he projects to the NFL.
Speaker: We're going to start it off with his accuracy.
Speaker: So until I charted Jaden Daniels' 2023 season,
Speaker: Caleb's seasons 2021-23 were the most accurate I've charted.
Speaker: That includes guys like CJ Stroud, Bryce Young from last year, Drake May as well, but we already highlighted that Drake May's accuracy is a little bit of a question mark.
Speaker: And most of this is really driven by his ability to hit short passes as an incredible clip.
Speaker: I highlighted last time that we did our episode on Drake May that his perfect pass rate on short passes was 62.5%.
Speaker: Well, Caleb is way ahead of him.
Speaker: He's at 72%, which is incredibly impressive and should translate to the next level.
Speaker: And this is an important skill that he has in his tool bag because...
Speaker: I think that one of his better fits in the NFL in terms of route concepts and stuff like that, his ability to throw that hitch at USC, it was just consistent.
Speaker: Time after time after time, receivers just run to a spot five or ten yards down the field and he just hits them.
Speaker: Yeah, that's kind of the biggest driver of his short passing, really.
Speaker: Also, a standout behind the light of scrimmage.
Speaker: Those passes are a little bit of an arm talent and flexibility thing in terms of how impactful that they can be, but I still wanted to highlight them because it's a component of his accuracy that's strong.
Speaker: He also was a pretty good intermediate passer, but not quite an incredible intermediate passer.
Speaker: I thought that he showed that skill at a pretty solid clip.
Speaker: And his deep passing was slightly behind Drake May, but not...
Speaker: that much behind Drake May.
Speaker: It's really the biggest area of difference between these two that's driving a significant accuracy gap is the short pass stuff.
Speaker: Yeah, I'll let you touch on stuff that you want with the accuracy while I look into the other stuff.
Speaker: Yeah, I'm also a pretty huge fan of Caleb Williams' accuracy, and I feel like kind of the layout of what you described of where he's most accurate at is a great reflection of how he will end up playing in the NFL and how I think he should play in the NFL.
Speaker: As a little bit of a smaller set quarterback who may not be able to stand over and see those intermediate passes kind of going on in that intermediate range, I feel like it is best to get very, very accurate to almost an automatic level in that short range.
Speaker: And that is exactly what he did at the end.
Speaker: both Oklahoma and USC.
Speaker: All those, like you said, hitches, slants, outs, those passes that have become routine.
Speaker: I feel like Caleb has practiced and gone through those situations so many times throughout such an illustrious college and, I believe, high school career.
Speaker: I feel like it feels almost second nature to him.
Speaker: That sort of thing almost comes with the feel of the game that's so great for Caleb.
Speaker: And I think that's why he's going to be elite once again, going with quick passes, short passes in the NFL.
Speaker: And I think in terms of the intermediate and deep range, I don't think he'll ever be a guy that's got pinpoint accuracy.
Speaker: I don't think he'll ever become someone who's...
Speaker: Left and right throwing dots downfield and super super tight coverage I think part of it is he has elite arm talent But maybe it's not as great as some of those guys who are pinpoint accuracy downfield and once Once again, like I said the size can come in as a factor there, but I think his accuracy downfield
Speaker: And the intermediate range of the field is still going to be good enough to where he can still play at an elite level because those short passes are so automatic.
Speaker: It gives him almost a little bit of a grace and a little bit of breathing room to make mistakes going downfield because he's going to get a lot more opportunities and space.
Speaker: In those parts of the field with people really trying to focus on stopping him, making those quick passes, making those almost split-second decisions that is so hard to stop as a quarterback or as a defense.
Speaker: Yeah, one last thing I wanted to touch on.
Speaker: So there's a significant gap between him throwing inside the numbers and outside the numbers in terms of the accuracy.
Speaker: Quarterbacks are going to tend to be more accurate when they throw inside the numbers just because it's a distance thing.
Speaker: And in college, the width of the field is just a little wonky.
Speaker: Caleb, around 50% perfect pass rate outside the numbers for Drake May.
Speaker: That was at 44%.
Speaker: So he's still well ahead in that regard.
Speaker: But 67.7% perfect pass rate inside the numbers.
Speaker: That was the number one guy for me until Jaden Daniels, who we'll talk about sometime soon.
Speaker: So, yeah, very, very impressive from an accuracy standpoint.
Speaker: Let's quickly touch on timing, anticipation, and vision, which I don't measure through any stats, but Caleb's ability to anticipate is extremely impressive, especially for a guy who's not very big.
Speaker: So you don't really see him be able to see over the line in the traditional sense that people like to use.
Speaker: I usually think vision is more of the ability to see between the linemen because most guys aren't going to be tall enough to see over this 6'6 lineman in front of them.
Speaker: But Caleb's vision in terms of being able to anticipate throws outside the numbers is incredibly impressive.
Speaker: And I think that it's something that should translate reasonably quickly.
Speaker: assuming the situation isn't terrible, which we think that the Bears' situation is going to be pretty good.
Speaker: Also, to touch on his timing and vision, his timing is okay.
Speaker: I think that...
Speaker: His ability to use his footwork, which is incredibly consistent.
Speaker: I should have touched on it with the accuracy as well.
Speaker: But his base and ability to not have heel clicks or to consistently keep his heels on the ground, it's just incredibly consistent.
Speaker: It allows his timing to be very, very good.
Speaker: I think that he might have a little bit of an adjustment period in terms of things coming out late and stuff like that.
Speaker: But as he gets more reps, I think that should...
Speaker: get to a point where he can not have it be much of an issue.
Speaker: And in terms of vision, so this is one of the more interesting parts of Caleb's game to me, because sometimes you'll watch the film and it seems like he's passing up something.
Speaker: And he really is.
Speaker: It's kind of hard to throw a hitch like 15 times in a game like the USC offense was sometimes asking him to do.
Speaker: So he'll go trying to hunt that play that he doesn't really
Speaker: He probably shouldn't be hunting, which is kind of covered anyway.
Speaker: But that's really the biggest part of his vision that is concerning to me.
Speaker: There's also a few plays here and there where he will actually just miss something that was in his line of sight, but he didn't throw it.
Speaker: That happens a little less frequently.
Speaker: relative to the average rate of what I think the other thing is, which is passing stuff up in his vision that you would expect someone to throw.
Speaker: It's just wide open, and he's looking for something down the field and being too aggressive.
Speaker: So that's the component of the vision that I wanted to touch on more.
Speaker: Yeah, and real quick before I get into those traits, one thing I wanted to mention about the accuracy is I was a little bit concerned by the fact that his deep ball accuracy wasn't as elite as it should be in a Lincoln-Riley offense, so QB friendly and so...
Speaker: statistically going downfield friendly I would have expected a little bit more a little bit better downfield numbers something that we would see of previous quarterbacks in that system but as you touched on it a little bit before it was a little bit different at USC with the talent and the offensive line still a little bit definitely a point to look at when comparing him to other guys going downfield and
Speaker: Looking at the anticipation, I absolutely agree with you.
Speaker: I think his anticipation is pretty elite.
Speaker: I think we didn't see it as much early in his college career, but he really, I feel like, flexed that trade on us last year where he wasn't getting as many explosive plays.
Speaker: He didn't necessarily have as much talent.
Speaker: but he did know exactly where every single one of his receivers were going, and they were going to get delivered that hitch or that out route on the money every single time.
Speaker: And I think that contributes back to his field being at a very high level, his timing of how the play is going to go, and knowledge of that is very high, I feel like, football IQ in general.
Speaker: And I think as a result of that,
Speaker: He's able to make those throws at a high level and I think that's why his intermediate range and short range over the middle of the field passing is so good.
Speaker: Unfortunately, sometimes he doesn't have the size and arm talent to power those passes outside the numbers as much so as some other quarterbacks and maybe that's why his outside the numbers accuracy is a little bit more mediocre.
Speaker: But anticipation and ability to see those things is there.
Speaker: and i'm very high on that aspect of caleb timing wise i also agree with you fundamentally he is very very sound his footwork seems to be just always on time very very well trained and you don't see those mistakes that you see out of a guy like drake may which we harped on a lot in terms of when he's under duress under pressure no matter what the defense brings to him
Speaker: you can't really rush Caleb Williams.
Speaker: He's always going to have the same sort of structure.
Speaker: He's going to still run in that same way and make passes in a very uniform way.
Speaker: And as a result of that, his timing is very, very good.
Speaker: Once again, unfortunately,
Speaker: With those passes that are maybe a little bit deeper downfield or outside the numbers.
Speaker: I think he can improve his timing a little bit by throwing it slightly earlier.
Speaker: So he can get those passes there.
Speaker: Because he doesn't have that talent to just power it in there.
Speaker: If he throws it a second earlier it might get there at the right time.
Speaker: And hopefully he can develop that a little bit.
Speaker: And I feel like your point on the vision was very interesting.
Speaker: I think a guy like him who can playmake and almost run around and make things happen at such a high level, he is very, very greedy for that big play.
Speaker: And even though he doesn't necessarily have the body for it, a lot of the time I feel like his mindset can go into that gunslinger mode where he wants to make the most out of every situation.
Speaker: He wants to...
Speaker: get a big play whenever he can.
Speaker: And I do agree.
Speaker: I feel like a lot of his vision concerns come from the fact that he will see that easy safe play underneath and just try to go for more because he knows a lot of the time his talent is good enough to just make things happen.
Speaker: And going into the NFL, that hero ball kind of may have to get limited a little bit.
Speaker: And hopefully we can see the version of him who can utilize that vision in making those plays.
Speaker: Or maybe he just simply isn't seeing it.
Speaker: But I feel like in some games, like the Washington game or the Oregon game.
Speaker: you see him locking in almost and making those passes because he knows there's a talent disadvantage.
Speaker: So it lends me to believe that the vision is there, but he can be a little bit too greedy at times in the moment.
Speaker: And that is something that can be worked on for sure as you go into the league and be coached.
Speaker: Alright, let's move on to the next two components that I wanted to talk about.
Speaker: I'm just going to group these together because they illustrate a point that I've wanted to make for Caleb for this entire podcast.
Speaker: The athletic toolbox and the feel and decision making kind of play hand in hand to generate this combination of things that I'm about to list off.
Speaker: His ability to make people miss in the open field is like borderline ridiculous.
Speaker: It's unbelievable how many guys he made miss in the open field.
Speaker: So for Drake May, we highlighted this as a strength.
Speaker: He has 55 forced missed tackles for his career, which is really impressive.
Speaker: More than one a game.
Speaker: For Caleb Williams, that number is 142 missed tackles, which is, it's just, it's ridiculous.
Speaker: It's just unbelievable.
Speaker: Just two and a half times more than Drake May.
Speaker: And he has definitely not played two and a half
Speaker: times more the games of Drake May.
Speaker: So you could just see that stuff kind of coming through.
Speaker: He also has 333 evaded pressures to Drake May's 202.
Speaker: So another area where he shows his strength.
Speaker: He also leaves the pocket very infrequently early.
Speaker: We'll talk about where his issues in the pocket lie in just a second.
Speaker: But Drake May...
Speaker: 108 early pocket bails in his career for Caleb Williams.
Speaker: That was only 41 and looking at it from a rate perspective Drake May's early pocket bail rate was at 9.37%.
Speaker: I think I highlighted this as one of the worst I've seen actually the worst I've seen among guys I've charted by quite a lot and
Speaker: For Caleb, it is the best I've seen by so much.
Speaker: He's at 3.28%.
Speaker: The next closest guy is at 4.05%.
Speaker: And it gets really, really hard to get lower than 4% once you get down there.
Speaker: At a certain point, you're just going to see guys leave the pocket at some point.
Speaker: He also has 30 broken sacks.
Speaker: to Drake May's 16, as well as not having as frequent of a sack responsible for as Drake May, with his 53 sacks responsible for to Drake May's 59.
Speaker: The area that he's a little bit concerning with is his tendency to hold the ball.
Speaker: And you can see this in just basic stuff with time to throw, but looking at the stats that I charted, 9.03% pressure is responsible for
Speaker: to Drake May's 8.76%.
Speaker: So he's slightly ahead of Drake May in that regard and has one of the higher marks that I've charted only behind Anthony Richardson and Bryce Young, who are also creators themselves.
Speaker: in college.
Speaker: So you could see where the holes in his pressure profile lie.
Speaker: He creates a ton of his own pressure, but he's able to evade pressure at such a ridiculous rate that I don't really think it matters too much to me.
Speaker: And then also touching on his ability to make plays under pressure.
Speaker: So this was an interesting area where his impact numbers and his grading didn't really align with the public perception.
Speaker: And I think there's a couple of things going on here.
Speaker: One is the fact that
Speaker: his check down options are presented quite a lot better than someone like Drake May.
Speaker: So he ends up kind of taking them a little bit more often.
Speaker: Drake May will, you know, try to force something down the field and that ends up with a better grade for me most of the time because of the way that the grading scales up.
Speaker: But Caleb is more willing to take his check down.
Speaker: And the bigger, very important thing that we've touched on a few times, but I really want to like hone in on it,
Speaker: is the fact that Caleb Williams holds the ball.
Speaker: What's your favorite phrase?
Speaker: It's like a sack of potatoes.
Speaker: Quite a lot when he's running around in the pocket.
Speaker: And it causes him to get stripped, take a ton of fumbles, and that's just... It's a big thing for him and a big reason why his grade against...
Speaker: Edge pressure versus pressure overall is not going to be as good as you would expect it for a guy with his creation profile.
Speaker: But man, he is an incredibly impressive player in terms of spatial awareness, his ability to make guys miss, his ability to keep the play alive at basically all points of the play.
Speaker: The play is really never dead with him, and it's just incredibly impressive to see him work on a number of these plays.
Speaker: Yeah, a lot of what you said there I do agree with, especially when we look at his athletic toolbox because like you said, as far as prospects that we've watched, he's probably one of the hardest we've seen to bring down.
Speaker: And like I harped on a bunch going through his games, he was trying to do too much.
Speaker: And I said a lot with May.
Speaker: With May, like you mentioned, it was a lot more stuff like pocket bails, just running around too early, messing up the timing of the play.
Speaker: With Caleb, it isn't necessarily that because he has such a high football IQ that he's not going to ruin the timing of the play by just running outside the pocket and cutting himself off from half his options.
Speaker: However, like you mentioned, he does hold the ball.
Speaker: way too long, a little bit too much.
Speaker: And in another way, that does also still mess up the timing of the play.
Speaker: When those deep options aren't there, he can tend to just run out of options at times.
Speaker: And that's when you sometimes see
Speaker: those mistakes come to play but in general like like we said he's just so hard to bring down even though he's not the fastest guy in the world he's just so elusive and you when you see him moving around in the pocket or even outside the pocket in the open field
Speaker: It just feels like there's always more field for him and he just finds space somehow some way to avoid tackles.
Speaker: And it's so surprising to see how many sacks he still took despite that.
Speaker: It goes to show that he is just always under duress.
Speaker: Even though he's taking so many sacks and still being brought down so much, he's still evading pressure at a very high rate and still making so many people miss in terms of missed tackles.
Speaker: I don't know if he'll be able to do it at such a successful rate in the league.
Speaker: It's very hard to constantly be...
Speaker: making people miss it's like i've said a lot of the time with other quarterbacks it's a lot simpler to just learn how to be in the pocket and shuffle around and not have to make people miss and still be able to buy yourself time and i think caleb is very capable of that you see that a lot with the time to throw but he does love being able to play make and run around and make things happen
Speaker: And he's got the athletic ability to do it.
Speaker: So it's definitely very interesting to see in terms of his arm talent.
Speaker: I think for his size at second to none, you very rarely see someone who is a little bit smaller in terms of quarterbacks be able to go toe to toe almost with the arm talent of your your Drake Mays, etc.
Speaker: And I do think naturally he will not be able to keep up completely with those deep passes and outside the number of throws.
Speaker: He just simply can't generate the velocity that some of these other guys can do.
Speaker: But for his size, it's just incredible.
Speaker: And with his level of flexibility, which is...
Speaker: He's a pretty flexible guy.
Speaker: He is able to put his arm in plenty of angles.
Speaker: You've seen him make sidearm throws, throws on the run, throws without his feet set, and just a myriad of different decisions that not very many quarterbacks can make.
Speaker: And moving on to that, that goes on to my feel.
Speaker: I feel like with the amount of high-level football Caleb has played, his feel is going to come into the league and be, I'd say, one of the best.
Speaker: And I think that's one of the things that makes him so unstoppable is that...
Speaker: Even though he's maybe holding on to make that big play, even though maybe he's putting himself in slightly unfavorable situations, he's got just such a high understanding and feel of the game that a lot of those times the big play does happen because he knows what he's doing and he knows where to move to
Speaker: get to a spot where his receiver is going to be in space in front of him or which way to operate his, which way to navigate the pocket so that he can step into the throw and make that big decision downfield.
Speaker: It's just a level of field that not very many prospects can have at this age because not many of them
Speaker: Gotta go ahead and win the Heisman and gotta play in such a high level offense at Oklahoma and such a high level at USC.
Speaker: And it's a level of field that makes him this absolute strong number one pick that not really anyone is questioning much at all.
Speaker: And in terms of his decision making, I absolutely agree with you in terms of holding the ball.
Speaker: And my phrase is, he's holding it like a loaf of bread.
Speaker: He just has the ball out there without much protection.
Speaker: And unfortunately, I think that's going to be an even bigger problem in the league.
Speaker: If anything, they'll be digging at him more.
Speaker: They're going to be...
Speaker: studying that film, seeing where he is prone to losing the ball.
Speaker: And he's a guy who's going to play make it a lot.
Speaker: He's going to be a guy who's constantly under pressure because he's forcing it upon himself.
Speaker: He's going to be a guy who's constantly trying to make people miss.
Speaker: And in those situations, the ball is going to be out there and he's got to do a better job of making the decision to keep the ball intact.
Speaker: But in terms of a passer, I feel like he is one of the more refined passers that we've seen in a minute in terms of decision making.
Speaker: He does have a couple of bad interceptions here and there, but if you look at his film across the years,
Speaker: It's very rare you'll see him make a throw and think, that was the wrong read, or he didn't see the defense correctly here.
Speaker: He learned a pro-level offense very early, and I feel like as a result, the decision-making's at a level that you don't see out of guys like Drake Mayer.
Speaker: Like you mentioned, he does have the talent to hit those short passes and those checkdowns a lot of the time, but you will see quarterbacks like your...
Speaker: CJ Strouds, for example, or even your Justin Fields in college, who did have those options, but would tend to have games with high interceptions and stuff where teams would take away those deep passes because they still weren't willing to make those checkdowns.
Speaker: And it almost came as a maturation coming in the league for a guy like Stroud, for someone like Fields, maybe it still hasn't even happened.
Speaker: With Caleb, I feel like we're already seeing that.
Speaker: And I feel like it's not going to be a problem when he comes into the league, into a Bears offense, which already has some weapons and has a lot of guys who he can go to underneath and just let them make plays in space.
Speaker: And I think that's something that's already there for him very early in his career.
Speaker: All right, so let's talk about some style of play stuff and some comps.
Speaker: So, Caleb, I think, so one thing I wanted to touch on quickly is that the USC offense just spammed RPOs at a rate that I have not seen from very many quarterbacks.
Speaker: Very, very.
Speaker: And this one specific RPO, I don't know if you noticed it specifically, but the one where he just consistently rolls out of the pocket and hits that tight end in the flat, it was... Yeah, he just leaps immediately and makes that pass.
Speaker: And it was killing his grade too, because I can only give a certain grade for...
Speaker: passes that close to the line of scrimmage, and they ran it so frequently that his grade was just tanking consistently on passes like that.
Speaker: He even suppressed his passes, like the frequency that which he targeted inside the hashes and stuff like that.
Speaker: But let's touch on that stuff because I brought it up.
Speaker: So I think that Caleb Williams projects as a good middle-of-the-field passer who can also stretch the field outside the numbers as well.
Speaker: His accuracy on passes inside the numbers and inside the hashes is incredibly good.
Speaker: And the volume was lacking but like I said the the USC offense really like they tried their very hardest to skew my numbers away from Anything positive in this direction On top of that he has the ability to make plays out of structure like we said and it comes at the cost of sacks and fumbles instead of interceptions which I would prefer that they come at the cost of interceptions because of the frequency of the interception being so low and the frequency of the sack being much higher despite the fact that it has less value and
Speaker: And especially in his case with the sack fumble, which is the worst of all the possible negative plays that you can have, being so frequent, it does leave a little bit of sour taste in my mouth watching him play under pressure sometimes.
Speaker: So my comparisons for him...
Speaker: This one was really tricky for me because he has elements of a bunch of different players, but not really one that could line up in my head.
Speaker: So I took elements from three different players.
Speaker: I did not take Patrick Mahomes because that was...
Speaker: horribly overused comparison that I will never make.
Speaker: I took comparisons from Russell Wilson, Jalen Hurts, and a little bit of a later career Aaron Rodgers.
Speaker: And the reason I'm using a later career Aaron Rodgers
Speaker: rather than younger Aaron Rodgers is because he's developed like this kind of tendency to attack the 1v1 matchups at a pretty ridiculous rate.
Speaker: And I think that Caleb has the potential to do that at a really high rate.
Speaker: The other guys in Russell Wilson and Jalen Hurts.
Speaker: Jalen Hurts was the most intriguing comp to me because he also has that tendency to attack the 1v1 matchups, but he's
Speaker: His brushing style and his movement patterns remind me a lot of Caleb Williams where he has this power element to his game, but when he's healthy, he can also make defenders miss.
Speaker: And he also has, like, the most underrated thing about Jalen Hurts' game, in my opinion, is his tendency to attack down the field
Speaker: and understanding when to attack down the field and when not to while avoiding interceptions.
Speaker: And I think Caleb fits that specific trait to a tee.
Speaker: Same with Aaron Rodgers and Russell Wilson, who I compared with.
Speaker: He has some of Russell Wilson's movement patterns and tendency to hold the ball for an eternity to make the downfield play.
Speaker: So there's elements from all three of those guys' games.
Speaker: I really see him in the league as a guy who can hunt mismatches,
Speaker: for strong 1v1 players and then also be able to counter by being an element of like a simpler system and as he develops maybe he becomes like a high level processor but I didn't really see enough high level concepts and his ability to read those out right now which he's 22 like that stuff comes with time but yeah there's a toolbox here for a really really special quarterback and my all-time prospect grades reflect as such with him coming in
Speaker: Yeah, first and foremost, I really like that you brought up the stuff about the RPO, very RPO-heavy offense, because just to quickly go back to the anticipation and accuracy talk, I feel like one thing he may struggle with is...
Speaker: playing normal offense at a higher volume in the league.
Speaker: He had so many easy passes, just check downs, just coming straight from those RPO structural plays, which you typically aren't going to get as much in an NFL offense offense.
Speaker: In a lot of them, there are some that do kind of tend to run their offense that way coming from the college game.
Speaker: But in general, you probably are not going to get that many easy passes.
Speaker: And I feel like Caleb will have to use his anticipation at a much higher volume in that regard.
Speaker: I do expect him to be able to do it.
Speaker: However, it's still something that we haven't necessarily seen and could be something interesting to look at going into the league.
Speaker: But in general, in terms of how he'll play, I do agree with you.
Speaker: I think earlier on in his career, they're going to let him be a little bit more conservative because of his style of play.
Speaker: If it does lead to a lot of mistakes earlier on, it could kill his offense and kind of get a lot of negative performances stringing together, which would hurt his overall career going forward, I believe.
Speaker: So I think early on they're going to keep him in a little bit more of a pocket passing situation.
Speaker: Give him a slightly transitional offense from what we saw in his college days where he is going to run a lot of RPOs, get rid of the ball quick.
Speaker: But we're also going to let him play at his best, which is getting him a little bit of open space and letting him dump it off, maybe taking shots here and there.
Speaker: And I think as Caleb goes and gets a little bit more accustomed to playing in Chicago, presumably, I feel like we'll get more of that Seahawks offense that we saw with Russell Wilson, who in a second is also going to be one of my comparisons where...
Speaker: They kind of just give him the ball and let him roam and do his thing.
Speaker: If he feels so fit to run out of the pocket and make plays, they're going to let him do that.
Speaker: If he's going to stick in the pocket and deliver a dime across the middle of the field, Caleb's going to be able to do that.
Speaker: I feel like...
Speaker: he's going to play in a very free-roll offense.
Speaker: And for that reason, I did have one of my comparisons to be Russell Wilson.
Speaker: I feel like that elusiveness and sheer ability to make people miss, almost as if you're just too small and elusive for those defensive linemen, that's something that we saw a lot out of Russell Wilson for years and years in Seattle.
Speaker: He was just able to make so many people miss and still make a play out of it.
Speaker: And I feel like those almost...
Speaker: random magical plays that we saw to Russell Wilson then wasn't replicated until we saw Caleb Williams in college.
Speaker: Some people will say Mahomes, like you said, it was a very mainstream option, but I feel like Mahomes' ability in playmaking relies a lot more on his arm talent, and with Caleb and Russell, it's a lot more on that elusiveness, and even the way they operate in the pocket, where I feel like both Caleb and Russell...
Speaker: trying to find those gaps in the offensive line being smaller set obviously Russell being a little bit more smaller but I feel like Caleb took that out of his game and he waits for those windows to open up and he's so good at reading them that we see his accuracy numbers being so high in that short range of the field
Speaker: Another guy who you didn't mention who I feel like his game would be really similar to and kind of like you did, I had to change a little bit of their characteristics to match Caleb Williams because he is a bit of a unique prospect.
Speaker: And I think Caleb Williams is what Kyler Murray would have been had he been 6'1".
Speaker: I think Kyler Murray and Caleb both are incredible pocket passers, both in college and probably the pros as well.
Speaker: And they are incredible in that short range of the field and are still able to drop dimes going downfield.
Speaker: And I think what is the difference between Kyler and Caleb is how they have to operate as rushers because Kyler is a lot smaller.
Speaker: So naturally, he's just more elusive and quicker.
Speaker: And as a result, you see a lot more...
Speaker: rushing plays for him you see him scramble a lot more you just see him use his legs way more but if he was a little bit bigger and could use that to play make and make things happen like a Russell Wilson does I think that's how Kyler would have played but I do see very very strong similarities in terms of
Speaker: being small guys with massive arms, the elusiveness you see with them avoiding defenders, but Caleb's able to do a little bit more because Kyler tends to kind of just go to the ground because of his size and to avoid injury.
Speaker: But if he was the size of Caleb, I think he would try to make more defenders miss and make something happen out of those plays.
Speaker: So Caleb just reminds me of what Kyler would have been in, I guess, another life had he become a little bit...
Speaker: taller and bigger all right uh one thing i want to mention quickly before we head out is that none of the quarterbacks that we mentioned um and especially like when i brought up um late career in rogers i was kind of regretting it because like i don't want to throw out early career and rogers as comps because that's dangerous territory that we get it is the all-time great right there
Speaker: Yeah, but all of these guys that we've mentioned do not target the middle of the field quite like Caleb Williams, and especially like Jalen Hurts, Russell Wilson, Kyler Murray.
Speaker: Even Aaron Rodgers has refused to throw over the middle of the field towards the end of his career here.
Speaker: And I think Caleb Williams projects better throwing over the middle than those guys.
Speaker: But beyond that, if you have nothing else to add, we should start to head out, I guess.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Alright, that'll be all from us for this one.
Speaker: Make sure to like, leave, rating, do what you need to do on whatever platform that you're listening on.
Speaker: Make sure to follow me at PD34 underscore on Twitter and at RealRhoPotty2 as well.
Speaker: That'll be all from me.
Speaker: That'll be all from Potty.
Speaker: We'll see you guys in the next one.
Speaker: Peace.
Speaker: Peace out.
