Windy City Gridiron
In week 10 of the NFL season, the Chicago Bears welcomed the New York Giants to Soldier Field in what was technically the first “snow game” of the league’s new year. The cold weather, coupled with swirling winds along the lakefront, spelled a recipe for minimal kicking as both teams opted to utilize all four downs on offense early in the game. To the Giants’ credit, they seemed prepared for the challenge of containing this Bears running game and at least didn’t allow them to impose their will in a way that many may have anticipated. The weather, bad luck, etc. may have also contributed to a number of drops by receivers in the passing game. This hampered what could have been a much bigger day on the scoreboard for Chicago. So how did they ultimately fare, and how did this game (and last week’s because oops – life got in the way of the week 9 update) affect the season-long projections? Let’s take a look:
Caleb Williams
Comp: 2022 Jared Goff
Benchmark Statistics:
Caleb Williams stats from this game look fairly mundane on paper. If you weren’t watching this game, you probably don’t understand why Williams has been getting so much praise for his performance in this matchup (minus his game-winning score, that probably makes sense). But the bulk of the praise from coach Ben Johnson and others this week has centered on Williams’ continued demonstration of his clutch factor late in games as well as his impressive ability to escape sacks. To touch on the latter, last season Caleb was sacked a near record-setting 68 times over the course of the season. He’s currently on track to lower that number to just 26-27. That’s a credit to the o-line and the changes that have been made there, but also to the offensive coaches who have implemented this new scheme, and obviously to Caleb himself who has both adopted this new scheme and worked his sack-avoiding magic on a regular basis.
D’Andre Swift
Comp: 2022 D’Andre Swift
Benchmark Statistics:
Returning to the lineup after one week of rest to an injury that had been ongoing, Swift once again took over the lead back role from Kyle Monangai. Though he didn’t find the endzone in this one, Swift still put up an impressive 6.2 yards per carry, which included a long 25-yard run on the day. His 13 carries and 5 receptions amounted to just shy of 100 yards on the day at 98 total yards from scrimmage.
Kyle Monangai, DJ Moore, Roschon Johnson, etc.
Comp: 2024 David Montgomery
Benchmark Statistics:
Monangai reverted back to the reserve role in Swift’s return, but he was still effective in his limited touches and was able to account for one of the Bears’ touchdowns on the day. This, on top of his enormous day running the ball against the Bengals (plus Britain Brown’s score) have really lifted the season totals for this group, now projected to just surpass...
