By Matt Stuart | Published | No Comments
| QB – Caleb Williams | USC Trojans | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 Class: Junior Birthplace: Washington DC Height 6’1″ Weight 215 lbs. | 2023 STATS – (Passing) – 3,633 yards | 30 TD | 5 TD | 68.6% COMP. (Rushing) – 97 carries | 136 yards | 11 TD | ||
| PROS – Excellent footwork & vision downfield. Good top end speed for a dual threat QB, with an above average scrambling ability. Strong arm, with the ability to make any throw on the field. | |||
| CONS – Somewhat indecisive in his reads, which can lead to unnecessary sacks. Has a tendency to go for all or nothing plays (“hero ball”) a bit too often. Doesn’t have the “prototypical” height of some of the other QB’s in the class. | |||
While Williams may have had a slight down year in 2023 for the USC Trojans, he remains my highest graded quarterback in this draft class. When evaluating quarterbacks at the college level, I like to focus more on the things they don’t well, instead of the things that they excel at. The fact is that every quarterback in the class has something that they do a bit better than another, but when you focus on their deficiencies it gives you a better, more complete profile of the player, and more specifically how well their abilities will transfer to the next level.
With Williams, it’s not so much about all the things that he does well, but rather how few things he doesn’t do well. Williams is extremely polished at this point in his college career. He has enough game experience to where his tape starts to speak for itself.
Williams has elite arm talent and has above average velocity that allows him to make off platform throws with relative ease. I personally do not fall in love with arm strength as much as other NFL scouts do, I think there are far more important attributes that make a quarterback, particularly at the next level. Nonetheless, Williams shows good velocity on his throws, particularly on throws outside the numbers.
Excellent! When Williams takes his final step in his drop back, he almost always has his feet in the correct position to throw or adjust the pocket to his liking. His strong footwork puts him in perfect position to get rid of the football on time and his quick release should transfer very well to the next level. Some scouting reports have nitpicked Williams slight tendency to have a bit of a hitch at the top of his drop back. While that is something to nitpick, it has not affected his accuracy. And to be honest every quarterback has a little hitch to some degree or another. It’s whether it affects their accuracy that becomes the question.
Williams is not the tallest quarterback in the class, and as is always the worry with shorter quarterbacks, the concern becomes how well can they see the middle of the field. Williams is not quite as short as last years top pick Bryce Young, but he is probably closer to being right at 6′ rather than 6’1″ as he is listed. Still nothing on Williams tape gives me any concern that he can’t target consistently the middle of the field. Williams is not quite the anticipatory thrower as a quarterback like Tua Tagovailoa is, but he still has a good knack for placing the ball on time and on target when a receiver is coming out of their break or on a crossing route over the middle of the field. Williams accuracy, while not best in the class, is above average at the college level. And when you consider how often Williams attacks deep down the field, his strong completion percentage, above 68% this season, is even more impressive.
Williams is not the fastest quarterback in the class, but has above level straight line speed for the position. One thing that gets lost on many people when they think of quarterbacks that can scramble and exceed outside of the structure of the play, is not top end speed, but rather elusiveness. In my opinion, a quarterbacks elusiveness is more important than their overall top end speed. Patrick Mahomes is a perfect example of this. Mahomes is nowhere close to being the fastest quarterback in the NFL, but he has exceptional elusiveness and just off the page instincts of knowing how to keep a defender away from him long enough to get the ball completed down the field. Williams possesses those same innate traits. Williams just makes defenders miss when they are in the backfield and he keeps his eyes trained down the field where he can take advantage of a pass catcher working their way back to the quarterback or towards the sideline on typical scrambling drills.
If the play has completely broken down, Williams still possesses above average speed to get away from most defenders, and at the very least, get positive yardage before sliding or going out of bounds.
As I mentioned earlier, Williams does not possess prototypical size at the quarterback position. He is listed at 6’01” and 215 pounds in the USC media guide. College programs tend to inflate these measurable just a tad, as we saw last year with Bryce Young. Still, with Young going number one in last year’s draft, and being clearly smaller than Caleb, I do not believe Williams size will be an issue at all. As I have said many times before. You cannot build the perfect quarterback in a computer model. You have to take the best quarterback, regardless of whether they check all those physical characteristics of the “prototypical” quarterback. Furthermore, since Williams prefers to remain in the pocket, and has exceptional passing traits, I do not really see his slightly smaller build as any kind of detriment, nor should it be. Williams is not looking to run, like some other dual threat quarterbacks, he runs only as a last resort.
As I said earlier, when scrutinizing a college players, and especially when trying to predict how they will develop at the next level, I like to focus, not so much on what the player does well, but rather where the player comes up lacking. With Williams there are no major flaws in his game that jump off the page. That being said, there are some areas he will need to improve on. Williams has a tendency to scramble and run around in the backfield too long and doesn’t always know when to give up on a play. This tends to create that wow factor at the college level when quarterbacks are playing against much more simplified defensive schemes and obviously less talented defensive players in general.
In the NFL, Williams will need to be more decisive in his decision making. If the play is not there or nobody is open down the field he will need to quickly make the decision to throw the ball away, or simply take off an get what he can on the ground.
Williams has had a fumbling problems that have to some degree dogged him during his time in college. This year Williams fumbled the ball nine times. While only three of those fumbles were lost to the other team, this is definitely something to keep an eye on at the next level. While most people tend to focus only on a quarterbacks interception ratio, a turnover is a turnover.
Broadening the outlook on Williams a bit, he can have a tendency to want to play “hero” ball just a bit too often. Sometimes throws and just crazy off platform throw that can get you on the highlight reel in college, can put you in the doghouse in the pros.
Sometimes that gunslinger mentality can giveth and taketh away at the next level.
Overall Williams is my highest graded quarterback in the draft class. He just shows the fewest deficiencies in his game as compared to the other quarterback prospects in the class. At the end of the day, he just makes plays that leave you questioning if what you just saw was truly real. And that really is what we are talking about here. Can the quarterback make the plays that help his team win the game and Williams does that better than anyone else in the class.
