For much of the last two years, the conversation around Caleb Williams felt unavoidable in Chicago.
Every throw was compared.
Every stat was stacked against someone else.
Every stumble reignited an old fear Bears fans know too well.
Did they pick the wrong quarterback?
That question followed Williams from the moment Jayden Daniels exploded onto the scene with a remarkable rookie season in Washington.
The comparisons were loud, relentless, and often unforgiving. For a franchise haunted by quarterback misses, skepticism felt almost instinctive.
But now, according to longtime NFL coach Herm Edwards, something has changed.
The noise didn’t evolve.
It didn’t get answered point by point.
It simply… stopped.
Speaking recently on 670 The Score, Edwards made an observation that felt subtle but telling: the critics who once dominated the conversation around Williams have gone quiet.
“I think, hopefully, all the naysayers about who their quarterback was last year… have to be quiet right now,” Edwards said. “That noise got quieted.”
That silence matters.
Not because Daniels wasn’t excellent — he was. His rookie season with the Commanders reshaped expectations overnight. But football careers aren’t built on flashes. They’re built on durability, growth, and adaptability over time.
And that’s where the conversation quietly shifted in Williams’ favor.
While Daniels appeared in just seven games during the 2025 season due to injuries, Williams stayed upright. He absorbed hits, adjusted to structure, and evolved within a new offensive identity. Availability, often overlooked, became part of the evaluation.
The arrival of head coach Ben Johnson accelerated that transformation.
Edwards pointed to Johnson’s influence as a turning point — not just schematically, but philosophically. Williams was placed under center more often, asked to operate within timing and rhythm rather than relying solely on improvisation.
“This is what you’re going to do,” Edwards recalled of Johnson’s approach. “He took heed to that.”
That buy-in showed.
In 2025, Williams set the Chicago Bears’ single-season passing record — a mark that had stood for three decades. He led the franchise to its first NFC North title since 2018 and delivered its first playoff win since 2010. Those milestones didn’t arrive with hype. They arrived with control.
And consistency.
Edwards didn’t frame Williams as a finished product. He framed him as something Chicago has rarely had: a foundation.
“If you’re a Bear fan,” Edwards said, “you can go to bed every night in the offseason and say, ‘We got a quarterback for the next decade.’”
That statement carries weight not because it promises championships, but because it offers stability — something the Bears have chased for generations.
What’s striking isn’t that the debate ended with a declaration. It ended with absence. There are no viral arguments this offseason questioning the pick.
No weekly segments asking if Chicago regrets its decision. The league moved on because the answer became inconvenient for critics.
Williams didn’t silence the noise with bravado.
He did it with progression.
With structure.
With wins.
And perhaps most importantly, with time.
The Bears aren’t finished building. Williams isn’t finished developing. But for the first time in a long while, the quarterback conversation in Chicago isn’t about survival or second-guessing.
It’s about what comes next.
And that, more than any headline, explains why the noise faded instead of exploding.
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