The sophomore slump seems to have officially claimed the likes of Caleb Williams, and it only took two games for it to come about. The Chicago Bears are winless, Williams has a passer rating south of 90, and now, his new head coach, Ben Johnson, is criticizing the team’s effort during practice.
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Now granted, these are all fixable problems, but when you paint your nails and attempt to stand out for things other than football, these kinds of off-the-field issues will only be amplified. Unfortunately for Williams, various figures from around the football world, such as Adam “Pacman” Jones, are beginning to question not only his fashion statements, but his outright skill set as well.
After Chicago was routed by the Detroit Lions in Week 2, Jones found himself exclaiming that “Any quarterback with nails on f**king sucks” during one of his most recent podcast episodes. “I don’t want my quarterback with no nails on.”
During his own podcast taping, the former face of the Carolina Panthers, Cam Newton, couldn’t help but to agree. “You lost that game,” Newton remarked towards Williams after recapping his loss to the Minnesota Vikings in Week 1. “You just played another division foe in the Detroit Lions. They put up a 52 Ray Lewis on you.”
According to Newton, the only way that Williams can begin to rebound is by keeping “the main thing the main thing” and beginning to take control of his own narrative.
“If somebody asks for a media opportunity to talk about your nails, decline it… There’s so many things that people want to talk about when you’re not winning. ‘Man, you’ve got a quarterback that’s worried about getting a french tip more than getting the ball over the goal line.’ You don’t want that to be the case. The optics don’t look good.”
When it comes to the stat sheets, Newton certainly isn’t wrong. He’s currently sporting a 61.5% completion percentage, and his current passing success rate is a meager 39.4%.
Throw in a 0-2 overall record with both losses being divisional rivals, as well as the fact that he’s already taken six sacks, and it seems as if Williams and the rest of his sleuth are doomed to repeat their failures from 2024. Then again, as Johnson previously pointed out, it all begins at practice.
Nevertheless, there’s not much time left until they have to host the Dallas Cowboys, whose offense has managed to produce a total of 60 points throughout the first two weeks of the 2025 regular season. Considering that the Bears nearly allowed that much in Week 2 alone, Chicago is going to need to make some adjustments rather quickly, otherwise they’ll have to endure their second 0-3 start since the 2023 season.
