Caleb Williams, QB, USC (Junior)

Back for the 2024 NFL Draft edition, The Trick Play team is once again offering to immerse you in the heart of the event through the scouting reports of Rayane and Valentin. Who will become the next gem of the pro world and who, on the contrary, risks a spectacular flop?
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Strengths :

    • Elite athlete
    • Talented arm
    • Precision and mechanics on short throws
    • Ability to create outside of structure

    Weaknesses :

    • Precision on deep balls
    • Ball placement
    • Overuse of sidearm mechanics 
    • Footwork
    • Lectures
    • Pocket presence
    • Slow decision-making
    • Post snap process
    • Ball handling
    • IQ
    • Individual performance against top defenses
    • Off-field and on-field issues
    • Leadership

    TTProfil

     

    Caleb Williams is slightly below the NFL standard height but has a good muscle mass distribution. He is an elite athlete with excellent quickness, good acceleration, and the speed to attack the intermediate level, though not sufficient for long runs and finishes. 
    He has a great ability to evade and change direction in tight spaces.

    Williams has an exceptional arm, capable of delivering high velocity on short and intermediate throws, but less so on long throws where his balls tend to float. His accuracy on deep balls is generally disastrous; in his 6 major games of the season against top defenses, he completed only 8 out of 28 passes, so 28.6% (Arizona, Notre Dame, Utah, Washington, Oregon, UCLA).
    His mechanics are peculiar and inconsistent depending on the throw.
    When making quick short passes, his mechanics are solid, with good weight transfer to his front leg, shoulders and hips well aligned, and a relaxed finish – all generally okay. He can develop precision, velocity, and ball placement.
    He has the ability to throw from off-platform, but the problem is he does it far too often at the expense of his footwork. He has an ego about his arm, believing it to be elite and capable of anything, neglecting everything else.
    When throwing off-platform, which happens too often on rapid outside throws and on one step, on all intermediate, long, and moving throws, he loses a lot in precision.

    Caleb Williams a un footwork sur courant alternatif, ce qui lui permet de pouvoir naviguer dans sa poche et de s’en échapper en cas de pression mais surtout ce qui l’empêche de rester calme et de pouvoir scanner le terrain. Beaucoup trop souvent il panique sous la pression et cherche à sortir de sa poche sans raison apparente. On le voit beaucoup trop naviguer de gauche à droite au lieu de quand il a la possibilité de réattaquer sa poche de façon verticale.
    He is a great creator, capable of extending plays, yes, but he looks too much to create instead of staying in the pocket and taking what's presented to him. His constant search for big plays is problematic.

    His pre-snap process is at best average, but his post-snap process is very poor, likely explaining all these issues.
    He struggles to read blitzes or contain on RPOs, causing him to panic significantly. His inability to read the backfields, throwing passes into double or triple coverage, is concerning. When a defense like Notre Dame knows how to disguise its coverages, Caleb seems completely lost and in constant panic, preventing him from being aggressive on long zones and sometimes even intermediate ones. 
    The capacity for post-snap scanning is questionable; the only times I've seen him scan from left to right were against weaker defenses (Nevada, San Jose State, Stanford), and it wasn't consistent. All other times, he throws after one read, often in the middle of the field. The times he did a double scan, it was always in the same throwing zone. 

    I think Williams has poor pocket presence; he manages pressure poorly and takes too long to make decisions, leading to many sacks (30% due to holding the ball too long).
    His ball handling is also a significant issue, with 32 fumbles in 36 games, which is catastrophic.
    In motion, he runs with the ball in one hand instead of securing it in his arm. It's unbelievable that no one has advised him to change this.

    Caleb Williams is a prospect with elite playmaking capability outside the structure and is a superb athlete. He has shown he can have consistent mechanics on short throws, developing velocity and precision. However, Williams is more raw than we are led to believe. His football IQ and decision-making are worrisome; he is said to have an elite arm capable of what Mahomes does on long throws, yet his accuracy is random or poor.
    He has much to learn about reading defenses and managing the pocket.
    Williams has had big plays, significant highlights with inflated stats (44 to 62% of completed passes are short passes; in his 3 worst games, it dropped to an average of 56%), but looking deeper into his game reveals numerous issues.

    Now, unfortunately, there's everything happening mentally with Caleb or off the field, and it's the first time I'm discussing such issues for a QB since the beginning of TTP. The QB position is unique. Generally, franchises prefer somewhat bland but leading QBs to helm their team, and I don't think those are Williams' qualities.
    Between teammates' statements after a Bowl win and QB Miller's impressive performance stating, "Now we can play as a team," his nails painted with "F*ck [team name]," crying in his parents' arms after a defeat, or arguing with fans... it's a lot. Not to mention his issues with NCAA 24 game compensation, refusing to shake hands with Utah players or speak to the press after the UCLA game.
    His statement, “I’ve never been in this situation, where I’m 7–5 and there are no playoff hopes at the end of the season. I’m dealing with it emotionally, dealing with it spiritually and physically. ”
    might raise eyebrows. Whether you're okay with all this or not, it's a lot of distractions and not necessarily what's expected from a franchise leader.

    The best plan for a franchise might be to sit Williams down to calm things, guide him, and most importantly, help him progress on all the mentioned issues. If Caleb is managed by a solid support system, given his potential, it could click.
    Will he be managed like Jordan Love? That could be interesting, or will he be thrown into the fire behind an average or poor OL on Day 1 and watch him implode?

    I evaluate Caleb Williams as a 3rd round prospect considering what he presents on the field and his regression in 2023 (taking into account his attitude). We all know how it works with QBs, but perhaps we've never had as much combined for a potential bust at the position since he's considered a generational talent by some scouts.

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