It might be time to reduce the excitement around Caleb Williams by a few notches.
From the sound of the conversation about Caleb Williams and an ESPN piece on FS1’s Speak, it appears to be this way at least. An unidentified NFC East scout was mentioned in the Matt Miller story as saying:
“Caleb is the most likely player in this class to become a Hall of Famer.”
The majority of panelists appeared to believe that Williams was under too much pressure, and James Jones, a former wide receiver for the Packers, thought the remarks were excessive. Jones said,
“I think his talent is going to carry over (from college),”
“I think he is going to ball out, especially with what he has around him. But understand what we’re talking about. We’re talking Hall of Fame. We are talking Hall of Fame.
“We are talking about quarterbacks that played the game at a high, high, high, high, level, that has Pro Bowls, that have playoff wins and then still might not get into the Hall of Fame.”
James Jones talks about pressure on Caleb Williams
Jones insisted that rather than fitting Williams for the gold jacket in Canton, it’s time to let him prove all of this on his own. Jones stated,
“Do you know what I’m saying?”
“Do you know how hard the Hall of Fame is? Just like we don’t want to throw around Super Bowls, we dang sure shouldn’t be throwing around no Hall of Fame.
“It is extremely hard to get into the Hall of Fame. Philip Rivers might not make it. Eli (Manning) might not make it. The Cam Newtons might not get in there. The Josh Allens, as good as we think he is right now, might not get into this Hall of Fame.” “And we’re talking about this young fellow,”. “Now he hasn’t thrown a pass to Keenan Allen or DJ Moore yet. He’s got zero passing yards as a Bears quarterback.”
“And we’re saying Hall of Fame. Let’s just let the young player go ball out.”
.@Schultz_Report thinks Caleb Williams will have a good rookie season but to expect him to have a C.J. Stroud type of season is unfair. pic.twitter.com/E9cQ2u4t4o
— Speak (@SpeakOnFS1) April 18, 2024
Since the merger, there have been 27 quarterbacks drafted first overall; Baker Mayfield of the Browns was the best of them statistically as rookies in 2018, with 27 touchdown passes and 14 interceptions.
Kyler Murray of Arizona had the second-best rookie campaign in 2019 with 20 touchdown passes and 12 interceptions.
Although Luck was successful in leading the team to the playoffs as a rookie, he is frequently credited as the best quarterback of all time. That season, he passed for 23 touchdowns but also threw 18 interceptions.
