Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams could be heard screaming in pain after suffering a dramatic non-contact injury, later requiring assistance to leave the field.
Williams, 24, crumpled to the turf during the 4th quarter against the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday, September 20, while attempting to scramble when the Bears were in the red zone.
After trainers helped the quarterback to the sidelines, Williams was placed on a cart and taken to the tunnel. He managed to pump his arm and give a thumbs up to the crowd at Chicago’s Soldier Field while he was being escorted to the locker room.
The Fox broadcast later announced that Williams injured his right hamstring, but no other updates about the severity of the injury or his status were made immediately available.
Bears’ backup quarterback Tyson Bagent came into the game in Williams’ absence, but was not able to successfully lead Chicago on a game-winning drive. The Vikings won, 9-3.
Former NFL team doctor David J. Chao, who now assesses football injuries in real time on social media, described Williams’ ailment as “a significant injury.”
“Unfortunately this is a hazard of wet weather,” said Chao, referencing the rainy conditions in Chicago during the game. “Wet weather allows fewer high ankle [injuries], fewer knee injuries. But more muscle injuries. Especially worrisome [in the] early season with acclimation. We’ll have to see how the tear is, but it certainly looks like Caleb Williams is going to miss some time.”
While the weather conditions made it tough for any offense to get going on Sunday, Williams and the Bears were coming off an emphatic 59-37 victory over the Carolina Panthers in Week 1, Chicago’s highest point total in a season-opening game in team history.
“That’s how we want to look each week,” Williams told reporters after the win on September 13. “That’s who we want to be each week.”
Williams added, per The Athletic, “It happens over time, it happens through training camp, [organized team activities], it happens with the week’s preparation that we have. It happens when we have an open communication throughout the week about what works, what doesn’t work, wide receivers and tight ends and all of that.”
Bears head coach, Ben Johnson, gushed about his third-year quarterback after the Panthers win.
“I could kind of tell last night, we were doing our quarterback meeting one last time, and I mean, he was on top of it,” Johnson told reporters.. “Everything he was rattling out, just where Caleb’s eyes need to be, what Caleb’s thinking. I slept really well with that in mind.”
The Bears return to action on Monday, September 28, to host the Philadelphia Eagles.
