Is Caleb Williams capable of breaking 4,000 yards?

The Chicago Bears are known for many things: hard-nosed defenses, Hall of Fame running backs like Walter Payton, and most of all, never having a quarterback pass for over 4,000 yards in a single season.

Guys like Jay Cutler and Super Bowl champion Jim McMahon, who have had their respective triumphs in Chicago, never hit 4,000 yards passing.

With the selection of Williams in 2024’s NFL entry draft, many Bears fans said that this will be the franchise’s best quarterback and the one to break the curse. But without blind optimism, I think this is genuinely possible, and I think that it’s the perfect storm for him to succeed.

To start, Williams now has the pleasure of being implemented into Ben Johnson’s new offensive system, where Jared Goff succeeded in Detroit. Referring to Pro-Football-Reference.com, from when Ben Johnson was promoted to offensive coordinator back in 2022, Goff has had passing seasons all with at least 4,400 yards each season and had at least 29 touchdowns in each of those three seasons. To top that off, he had a passer rating average of 102.7 those three years.

Williams also has a ton of offensive weapons in D’Andre Swift, DJ Moore, Cole Kmet, Rome Odunze, Colston Loveland, and Luther Burden III—plenty of options for a young quarterback to take opportunities spreading the ball out.

But I digress. Let’s talk about the man himself. Williams was a stud in college (no surprise he was taken 1st overall). He had three great years spread out between USC and Oklahoma, but his sophomore season put him on the map, where he passed for 4,537 yards and had an incredible 42 touchdowns. That was impressive enough to get him the Heisman as a sophomore. Last year for the Bears, he had an underrated season under a disgruntled offensive line that was battered. He was sacked 68 times last year, a combination of rookie growing pains and the struggles of that offensive line. He had 3,541 passing yards with 20 touchdowns and a completion percentage of 62.5%.

If the floor is just 500 yards shy of 4,000 yards in his rookie year, and with that perfect storm surrounding him, I have some real optimism about Williams’ future and potential to become this franchise’s superstar and break the curse.