Caleb Williams is playing unlike any NFL QB. It’s working, but is it sustainable? — Video – The Athletic
The Chicago Bears are one of the NFL’s most improved teams.
One of the main reasons: Caleb Williams, the team’s second-year quarterback, is taking far fewer sacks.
But how?
In one of the more confounding developments, Williams is holding the ball longer on average than any quarterback (minimum 350 dropbacks) since 2012, even longer than he held it while taking 68 sacks as a rookie in 2024, but his sack rate has plummeted from second-worst in the league last season (10.8 percent) to sixth-best (4.8) entering the team’s Week 13 game Friday against the Philadelphia Eagles.
This goes against logic.
We dive into the numbers and the game tape in the video atop this column.
The two charts below appear only here.
The first chart shows 2025 Williams (orange dot) alone in the lower-right corner as an outlier for sack avoidance among 433 passer-rating qualified QBs since 2013. He has been holding the ball 3.13 seconds on average before a throw, sack or crossing the line of scrimmage on a scramble, without taking many sacks.
The blue dot represents 2024 Williams, who took sacks at more than twice the rate, while holding the ball longer than most quarterbacks.
The second chart shows the relationship between how long Williams has held the ball in each season and how frequently he has taken sacks, with a third line showing the league average over those two seasons.
Under new head coach Ben Johnson, Chicago’s jump in offensive EPA per game (+7.3) from 2024 is the fifth-largest year-over-year gain in the NFL, per TruMedia. More than half of that improvement (3.8 EPA per game, or 52 percent) stems from one major change: a reduction in sacks taken by the quarterback.
The Bears remade their interior offensive line in the offseason, improving Williams’ protection, but he’s also been far more elusive against opposing pass rushers.
Is any of this sustainable for Williams? He held the ball shorter than usual in the Bears’ victory over Pittsburgh last week (2.52 on average), but the Steelers still sacked him and recovered the resulting fumble for a touchdown on one of the plays where Williams held the ball longest (4.9 seconds).
It’ll be fascinating to see what happens if Williams continues leading the league in how long he holds the ball. A gifted escape artist and runner, he can make big plays for both teams in those situations. He’s cut down on the negative plays in a big way this season.
