If you ever want to be depressed, I suggest you scroll the list of Chicago Bears all-time passing yards leaders. It's a grim group, and one not too dissimilar to the list of all-time scoring leaders on the Washington Generals.
The Bears have repeatedly tried in recent times to reverse their century-long aversion to the forward pass. Mitch Trubisky was selected with the No. 2 pick in the 2017 draft, but outside of one playoff season that ended in the most painful way possible (I'm not going to say it, but it rhymes with "bubble boink"), he never panned out, a fact that was made all the worse by this generation's greatest quarterback, Patrick Mahomes, going just eight picks later.
Justin Fields was the next potential franchise savior, but although he was easily the most athletic quarterback the Bears have ever had, he never quite harnessed his physical gifts to become what Bears fans hoped he would be.
Now it's up to Caleb Williams, the Heisman-winning No. 1 overall pick, to drag the Bears into modern times. Looking back on it, Caleb's rookie year was better than anything that Bears fans have seen from a rookie before, even if that doesn't seem like a high bar to clear. Team success didn't follow though, as the Bears lost 10 straight games before their regular season finale win over the Packers, a streak that got head coach Matt Eberflus fired after Thanksgiving.
Caleb's personal successes on the field were also minimized by the electric rookie campaign of Jayden Daniels, the player selected just after him. Daniels wowed people on a weekly basis with his legs and his arm, and he led the Commanders all the way to the NFC Championship Game.
Caleb will always be compared to Jayden, but thankfully, help is on the way. He has a new head coach that is thought of as one of the brightest offensive minds in the game, Ben Johnson. He has a completely revamped offensive line that now includes First Team All-Pro Joe Thuney, former Pro Bowler Jonah Jackson, and top available free agent center Drew Dalman. And he enters this season knowing that he was sacked 68 times and came out standing on the other side.
Caleb is going to be climbing up the ranks of the all-time best Bears quarterbacks, and fast. It will take a few years until he's able to catch Jay Cutler for the franchise lead in passing yards and touchdowns, and he may never match Sid Luckman's four championships, but as far as the esteem he's held in among the fanbase, there's a real chance that Caleb could finish next season as the unquestioned best quarterback in Bears history.
First things first though, as it will take more than the 3,541 yards and 20 passing touchdowns of his rookie year to be considered so highly. Here are three quarterbacks that Caleb could surpass on the all-time franchise leaderboard with just one great season.
Rex Grossman
As a Bears fan with many fond memories of the Rex Grossman era, it surprised me that he only started 31 games. Granted, many of those fond memories involved Devin Hester and Brian Urlacher, but I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't also a fan of Sexy Rexy.
Grossman was the first Bears quarterback in a while that could actually chuck it around the field, even if he was just as likely to throw it to the other team as he was one of his own receivers (33 touchdowns compared to 35 interceptions). That Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde quality of his game showed itself at the worst possible time in Super Bowl XLI as he threw a fourth-quarter pick-six to Kelvin Hayden to seal the game for the Colts.
Grossman is currently 15th on the Bears all-time passing list with 6,164 yards, which means that Caleb only needs 2,623 yards to pass him. He also needs only 14 passing touchdowns to pass him for 17th in that category. Both of these should be easily accomplished if he stays healthy.
Though Grossman was mostly carried by Lovie Smith's outstanding defense, he did still reach a Super Bowl. Caleb doesn't have to get there, at least not yet, but Bears fans wouldn't complain if he did.
Justin Fields
Justin Fields and Caleb Williams will always be linked. In the offseason before the Bears drafted Caleb, the only topic any Bears fan could talk about was what the team should do — trade Justin and draft Caleb No. 1, or trade the pick for a haul and build a proper team around the former 11th overall selection.
Bears general manager Ryan Poles opted for the former, and although I was the unofficial president of the Justin Fields fan club, even I have to admit that it looks like the right choice. Caleb is already ahead of Justin in terms of his processing speed and ability to get the ball downfield, and he threw for more than half of Justin's career Bears passing yards in his only season (Justin played three).
Justin was probably done in even moreso by poor coaching than by his own shortcomings, and most Bears fans are still rooting for him to succeed because he handled himself with such class and grace during his time in Chicago. He got the Steelers off to a hot start last year only to be usurped by Russell Wilson, but now he'll be the unquestioned leader of the Jets, another franchise with a sketchy quarterback history, after they gave him a two-year, $40 million contract.
Regardless of how Justin does with Gang Green, Caleb has the opportunity to put the Caleb vs. Justin narrative to bed. It will take 3,134 yards to pass him, and if he throws even one more touchdown than he did last year, it will put him ahead of Justin's 40.
One way which Caleb would not like to jump his predecessor is in the sack department. A repeat of his 68 times sacked would gve him 136, one more than Justin.
Bob Avellini
Unless Caleb plans on becoming the first quarterback to throw for over 6,000 yards in a season, the highest he can get on the Bears all-time passing yards list is ninth. That will require 3,571 yards and would put him just ahead of Bob Avellini.
Avellini was a sixth-round pick in the 1975 draft that started 50 games for the Bears and played in 23 others over a nine-year career. He was part of the same draft class as Walter Payton, and spent most of his time handing off to Sweetness before becoming a permanent backup for the final half of his career, first for Vince Evans and then for Jim McMahon.
Avellini never passed for more than 2,004 yards in a season, but because only Sid Luckman and Rudy Bukich spent more seasons with the team, he was able to compile enough passing yards to crack the top 10.
One thing that could help Caleb and this offense reach another level is to take a lesson from Avellini's teams and invest in a top running back. Unlike Payton and Avellini, Ashton Jeanty would start his career one year later than Caleb, but he could be the kind of backfield threat that could really open up the passing game if the Bears were able to land him with the 10th pick four weeks from now.
Looking ahead, Caleb could get to third behind Jay Cutler and Sid Luckman in just two more seasons if he's able to throw for about 4,000 yards each year, passing guys like Erik Kramer, Mitch Trubisky, Jim McMahon and Jim Harbaugh in the process.