After being hurt during a tackle during a preseason game against the Chiefs, Bears cornerback Douglas Coleman III was discharged from a Kansas City hospital and traveled back to Chicago on Friday.

Bears coach Matt Eberflus said of the player, “He was walking around,” on Chicago radio station WSCR 670-AM. “The Score, 670.” “Yes, I did speak with him. He’s feeling upbeat.

Coleman tackled Cornell Powell of the Chiefs on the opening play of the second half, leaving him immobile on a stretcher and requiring an ambulance ride from Arrowhead Stadium on Thursday night.

Head up, the 26-year-old Coleman attempted to make a tackle close to the Chiefs sideline, but his neck twisted awkwardly to the side, causing the former CFL star to fall to the ground. Trainers from both teams hurried onto the field to check on Coleman, who was motionless. Soon, physicians arrived as well, following the arrival of a medical cart on the field.

The medics took off Coleman’s facemask and secured him to a backboard as he wiggled his extremities. After that, he was placed on the cart and taken via the stadium’s corner tunnel.

In the end, the Bears prevailed 34–21 in their preseason finale.

Fans of the Bears are cautioned that quarterback Caleb Williams will have a “average” first year.

Caleb Williams, the quarterback for the Chicago Bears, is expected to have a rookie season filled with great expectations from fans, but are they putting too much stock in him and risking disappointment?

The answer to that question is, more or less, probably, according to Aaron Schatz of FTN.

In an interview that aired on Friday, August 23, he shared his predictions for Williams’ rookie NFL season with SB Nation’s Windy City Gridiron’s Sam Householder. Schatz started off by projecting that Williams will have a “average” season. He then went on to rather circumstantially explain his use of that description.

“It seems like you have to assume rookie quarterbacks won’t be good. They’re not inherently harmful. There are some good ones among them. And a few of them are mediocre. And some of them are just plain awful,” Schatz remarked. “You project rookie quarterbacks to be average—average for rookies, which means bad—rather than any of those things.”

Schatz pointed out that with players like wide receivers Rome Odunze and Keenan Allen joining the team, the Bears have a wider variety of potential outcomes in 2024 than other teams. But he also gave Bears Nation some sobering counsel.

“I think people should roll a little bit more slowly. Williams’ first campaign “may be really good, but it may also disappoint,” Schatz remarked. Assume Caleb Williams has a mediocre first year. That would resemble Desmond Ridder or Aidan O’Connell. Although none of those players played the entire season, that is about what you would expect from a first-round rookie quarterback.

Caleb Williams’s Comparisons to Other Recent NFL Rookie QBs That Aren’t Based on Conventional Statistics

Schatz’s prediction may not come to pass in Williams’ traditional statistics production for the following season.

After a 5-5 season as a starter, O’Connell concluded the year with 2,218 yards, 12 touchdowns, 7 interceptions, and a 62.1% completion rate. In the meantime, two years ago, as a rookie starter, Ridder went 2-2 while throwing for 708 yards and two touchdowns at a completion percentage of 63.5%.

From a statistical perspective, Williams might still prove to be significantly more productive than O’Connell or Ridder, especially if he plays in more games and starts more of them, which is likely assuming Williams stays healthy.

Schatz does anticipate, however, that Williams will provide the Bears, as a team, with a winning contribution akin to what O’Connell gave the Las Vegas Raiders the previous season and Ridder gave the Atlanta Falcons the year before.

The Bears’ season-long success may be more determined by those surrounding Caleb Williams.

Schatz is the creator of the sophisticated DVOA measure, which can be used for players within units, teams as a whole, and units within teams.

Schatz says on FTN, “We get DVOA, or Defense-adjusted Value Over Average, by adjusting each play based on the opposing defense’s average success in stopping that type of play over the course of a season.”

Schatz is estimating Williams’ performance using DVOA, and he is comparing that forecast to previous results for O’Connell, Ridder, and their respective teams. With O’Connell under center, the Raiders finished 8-9 on the season and were.500. Two seasons prior, the Falcons went 7-10 overall and had a.500 record with Ridder.

Schatz conceded that Chicago’s roster construction is probably superior to that of both of those teams. But if the Bears want to go from a 7-10 team under quarterback Justin Fields to a team capable of making a postseason push in a competitive NFC North Division, players like Allen, Odunze, and the entire offensive line may need to put in more work than Williams.

It’s also crucial to remember that Schatz’s estimate just covers a single year’s worth of data, especially Williams’ rookie season, and doesn’t necessarily mean that he won’t live up to his status as the top overall draft pick in 2024.