The Chicago Bears and quarterback Caleb Williams are off to a hot start after putting up 59 points against the Carolina Panthers in Week 1.
Williams looks as good as ever, finishing the game with a staggering 72.4% completion percentage with 269 passing yards, two passing touchdowns, 65 rushing yards, and two rushing touchdowns.
“Obviously, this is going to be our kind of worst game,” Williams said after the win despite the impressive offensive performance. “I know points don’t necessarily show that, but execution, the blocking, the penalties, all these different things.”
Well, if what he says is true, that almost certainly means he’ll win the MVP award this season, right? Can the case be made this early in the season that he’s already in the MVP race?
The Case for Caleb Williams to Win MVP & His Current Odds
There’s a case to be made that Caleb Williams is already in the MVP race after just one week.
On September 11th, ESPN had his odds to win MVP at 12-1, which was tied with Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott as the 6th-best odds in the NFL, with quarterbacks like Brock Purdy, Patrick Mahomes, Justin Herbert, Joe Burrow, Lamar Jackson, and Josh Allen in front.
After the impressive start in Week 1, Williams’ odds have skyrocketed to third (+700) according to DraftKings [as of September 14th], which is tied with Lamar Jackson and behind Josh Allen (+500).
How scary will Chicago be this season? 👀
🐻 Caleb Williams To Win Regular Season MVP (+900)
🐻 CHI Bears NFC North Winners (+225) 🐻 CHI Bears Super Bowl Winners (+2200)
Now, how does MVP voting work?
Since 2022, 50 ‘NFL MVP Voters’ get the privilege of putting five players on their ballots.
The votes are tallied based on a system:
| Votes | Points |
| First Place | 10 |
| Second Place | 5 |
| Third Place | 3 |
| Fourth Place | 2 |
| Fifth Place | 1 |
The votes are not public, and they are submitted before the start of the playoffs.
Last season, Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford won the award with 366 points, with New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye missing out with 361 points.
Quarterback isn’t the only position that’s able to win either. San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey received 71 points last season, and the last non-QB to win MVP was Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson back in 2012.
Williams Receives Strong Message After Week 1 Performance
There’s the perfect formula of having a great offensive-minded head coach and an array of offensive weapons for Caleb Williams to become the NFL MVP.
Ted Nguyen of The Athletic wrote about how Williams looked like an MVP candidate in the game against the Panthers, saying, “Caleb Williams and the offense looked absolutely incredible. The running game looked great and D’Andre Swift looked even more decisive than he did last year, carrying the ball 18 times for 124 yards and three touchdowns. Williams completed 72 percent of his passes and looked like an MVP candidate. Johnson told Pompei that his team wanted to break the league’s scoring record; they might have to to be successful, and they have the arsenal to do it.”
The fact that the Bears scored seven touchdowns, and Luther Burden, Rome Odunze, and Colston Loveland have zero of those TDs is crazy! It goes to show how Chicago really does have an arsenal of offensive players who have proven they can put up points with Williams throwing the ball.
It could be an overreaction since there’s only a one-game sample, but it’s not like the Bears offense wasn’t electric last season.
Is Chicago Bears QB Caleb Williams in the MVP Race? What Are His Odds?