Caleb Williams is the NFC Offensive Player of the Week for his performance in the Bears' 31-23 win at Atlanta on Sunday. Pro Football Talk's Myles Simmons wrote that Williams' return was successful and that he helped pilot Chicago to the victory. Yahoo Sports carried the same line. None of the feed summaries we have says why he was out or how many games he missed.
Windy City Gridiron's Sam Householder supplied the detail. Williams completed 30 of 36 passes for 305 yards and a touchdown, with a 111.2 passer rating. Householder called it a career-best completion percentage and Williams' first 300-yard game of 2026. He also reported that this is Williams' second Offensive Player of the Week award, and that Jay Cutler is mentioned alongside him. The excerpt cuts off before saying what the Cutler comparison is, so we can't say more about it. Our own tables have Cutler's 2017 season at 2,666 passing yards and 19 touchdowns over 14 games.
The box score shows how the day went. The 83.3 percent completion rate came with a lot of pressure. Williams was sacked four times for 35 yards, and Chicago was penalized 12 times for 133 yards. The Bears still ran 73 plays to Atlanta's 50, held the ball for 40:08, and converted 9 of 17 third downs. The Falcons lost three fumbles, and Chicago turned the ball over once. Williams fumbled once and recovered it. He also had four carries for 3 yards and threw no interceptions.
This was the best of Williams' three regular-season starts this year. Against Minnesota on Sept. 20 he was 15 of 26 for 138 yards with an interception and a 56.2 rating. A week earlier at Carolina he was 21 of 29 for 269 yards and two touchdowns, a 124.1 rating. Across the three games he is 66 of 91 (72.5 percent) for 712 yards, three touchdowns and one interception, with a 101.5 rating. He has been sacked nine times, and he has 110 rushing yards and two rushing scores.
Chicago is 4-2 and third in the NFC North, riding a one-game winning streak. The Atlanta win followed a 31-7 loss at Green Bay on Oct. 11, and before that the Bears beat the Jets 23-12 on Oct. 4.
The award comes with a short turnaround. The Bears host New England on Thursday, Oct. 22, in a game that gives Williams a chance to string together back-to-back strong outings. He has not done that yet this season.
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