Super Bowl champions show that teams don’t need an “elite” quarterback to win it all — and why Caleb Williams already gives the Chicago Bears a legitimate championship path.
I find the dialogue surrounding quarterback play to be one of the most frustrating aspects of the sports industry.
Fans and media members alike have a tendency to strip all nuance from the conversation, reducing quarterback performance to a binary judgment: good or bad, elite or bust. And in doing so, we’ve eliminated the gray area that actually allows for meaningful discussion and analysis.
Labels like “elite” get thrown around as if they’re the only metric that matters, while mainstream media shifts its opinion on quarterbacks on a week-to-week basis. One regular season performance can completely reshape the national perception of a player’s talent, and that kind of volatility has made quarterback discourse toxic.
It’s long past time we change the way we talk about the position.
This problem shows itself most clearly every draft cycle. With each incoming rookie class, young quarterbacks are immediately judged against the very best players in the league. It has become almost intuitive to believe that if a young quarterback doesn’t look like Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, or Patrick Mahomes right away, a team should be prepared to move on.
Organizations and fanbases are constantly chasing a so-called “generational talent,” despite the fact that by definition, those players are only supposed to come around once in a generation. The endless search for the next Mahomes is not only an unfair way to evaluate young quarterbacks, but it’s also a disservice to what Mahomes himself has accomplished.
The reality is simple, even if it’s uncomfortable: even when you’re drafting first overall, it is highly unlikely that your quarterback will become an NFL superstar. But that doesn’t mean the pick failed, and it doesn’t mean a team is doomed. Maybe—just maybe—it can all be okay.
We’ve now seen two straight Super Bowl champions led by quarterbacks who were clearly a tier below the league’s elite. And even pointing that out has become controversial.
Saying that Jalen Hurts or Sam Darnold isn’t an “elite” quarterback often gets interpreted as an insult, when it shouldn’t be. It’s fairly inarguable that there are at least five, and probably closer to ten, maybe more quarterbacks you’d take ahead of either if you had your pick of the litter. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t good players. In fact, it doesn’t mean much at all beyond this: they’re quarterbacks you can win with. That fact has been proven in the most definitive way possible.
The Tom Brady–New England Patriots dynasty, followed by Brady winning another Super Bowl in Tampa Bay, overlapped with Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs’ dominant run. Together, those eras convinced much of the NFL world that you must have the very best quarterback in football—or at least one of the top few—to have any real shot at a Super Bowl.
But as the league settles back into reality, and as the Chiefs experience some organizational regression, we’re seeing football return to what it has always been. You don’t need perfection at quarterback. You need someone who is good enough, surrounded by an exceptionally well-built team.
The Seahawks and Eagles understand this better than most. Neither organization sold out by chasing quarterbacks at the top of the draft. Instead, they built strong foundations through smart drafting and targeted free agent spending, then capitalized when opportunities presented themselves.
Whether it was selecting Jalen Hurts in the second round or signing Sam Darnold when the market aligned, they found solutions that fit the roster rather than forcing the roster to fit the quarterback.
The Seahawks enjoyed three straight winning seasons with Geno Smith under center because they built something bigger than the man at quarterback. As the roster improved, they upgraded at head coach and eventually at QB, raising their ceiling all the way to a Super Bowl appearance.
And that brings me to the Chicago Bears.
The last two Super Bowl champions should be genuinely encouraging for Bears fans, because they reinforce a reality Chicago is already living in: the Bears have a quarterback who is good enough to win a Super Bowl.
It’s not a stretch to say that Caleb Williams is already a more appealing long-term option than either Jalen Hurts or Sam Darnold. He had a better season than both in 2025, even if surface-level box score watchers point to completion percentage in an attempt to downplay his impact.
There are still areas of Caleb’s game that need refinement, and that’s to be expected. His second year in Ben Johnson’s offense should bring further development, particularly when it comes to playing on time and within structure—areas where he showed meaningful improvement late in the season.
He’s still young, still growing, and one of the very few quarterbacks in the league who legitimately possesses a ceiling as a top-three talent. Caleb Williams makes throws that almost no one else on the planet can make, which is precisely why he was selected first overall.
But the most important takeaway is this: even if Caleb never becomes the best quarterback in football, he’s already good enough.
He’s good enough to lead a top offense, to go toe-to-toe with elite teams in the postseason, and to win a Super Bowl if the stars align around him.
If a handful of passes had been caught in the Divisional Round loss to the Los Angeles Rams, Williams would have found himself playing the Seattle Seahawks in the NFC Championship Game. The Bears would have been underdogs, but they would have had a real shot in that game.
The Bears’ path forward is clear. The focus now is building a more complete roster, particularly on the defensive side of the ball. They’ll invest resources into the defensive front through the draft, and they’re in position to do so because the offense is young, sustainable, and under contract.
Chicago hit on major free agent additions to the offensive line and put together an excellent 2025 draft class. When you have a young quarterback, elite pass catchers like Rome Odunze, Luther Burden III, and Colston Loveland on rookie contracts, and an offensive line that isn’t going anywhere, you give yourself the flexibility to build a truly well-rounded team.
That’s how Super Bowl contenders are formed.
So when it comes to Caleb Williams—and what he “needs” to become—the Bears are already playing with house money.
Every year, there will be organizations that repeat the same mistake the Minnesota Vikings made by moving on from a quarterback who is good enough in pursuit of something better. It’s refreshing to know the Bears don’t have to make that mistake.
Caleb Williams should be Chicago’s quarterback for the next decade, breaking every franchise passing record along the way. He’s the most talented quarterback this organization has ever had, and the league is finally relearning a simple truth: the grass isn’t always greener, and football is still the ultimate team sport.
Jalen Hurts and Sam Darnold are proof of that. They’re not elite—but they are Super Bowl champions.