When Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams slid on the wet turf at Soldier Field, suffering a non-contact hamstring injury in the fourth quarter that left him screaming in pain, unable to put weight on his right leg, a wave of horror went through the fanbase. Perhaps Williams knew what was going through their heads, because he gave the fans a thumbs-up while being carted off to the locker room. Later, the sight of him walking with a slight limp – but without any crutches – sparked hope for the team. But everybody wasn’t happy with the way Williams handled the injury.

Former NFL linebacker Will Compton, for one, took to his X to make the case that Williams shouldn’t have screamed like that and “get carted off for a hamstring.” The fans put Compton on blast for this post, and he doubled down with another video – first commending the Bears, and then slamming Williams.

“Listen, Caleb is a superstar. I think the Chicago Bears are a very good football team,” Compton said. “But the moment that happened yesterday, I was damn near in tears for Caleb. I dropped to my knees yelling at the sky, ‘God, no, not Caleb Williams.’ This city doesn’t need this right now because you guys are a damn good football team. I was p—-d for everybody. Then [Adam Schefter] tweeted, this is a hamstring, not Achilles. And it’s just like, ‘Holy s–t, that’s the greatest news of all time based on what we saw on the field.’ I calm down a little bit, I have my come to moment, and I’m like, ‘Hang on a second, we getting carted off for hamstrings now?”

Compton made the case that if Williams’ injury is a Grade 3 hamstring tear needing surgery the very next day, then Williams’ reaction is justified. Compton even cited former Washington Commanders DT Kedric Golston, who had a horrible injury in the 2016 season’s Week 1, and “laid there like he was dead.” But if Williams’ injury isn’t that severe, his reaction should’ve been different.

“But if this is grade one, grade two, if I’m a teammate and I walk in the training room, I check on my boy, Caleb. I look to the doc, and I’m like, ‘What are we talking about? We got to get surgery, right? Based on what we saw yesterday, surgery today.’ They’d laugh, probably stop me. ‘No, he can miss a couple of weeks. We’ll see how it goes this week.’ In that moment, I’m scanning back to Caleb, and I’m gonna say, ‘We getting carted off the field for hamstrings now? We getting the ambulance and we’re doing all the theatrics, and we’re getting called off the field for hamstrings now?’

“And honestly, we’ll probably laugh together because that’s just the boys being boys. It’s a man’s game. You can’t be getting carted off for hamstring injuries. That can’t happen. Again, grade three, surgery today or tomorrow, that’s a different animal. But if we’re talking hamstring strain, that just can’t happen, man.”

Now, the severity of Caleb Williams’ injury was still up in the air when Will Compton made his case. The fact that Williams didn’t need a crutch in the locker room also hinted that he was going to be okay. And as per the latest reports, it looks like Williams is going to be just fine.

“Bears QB Caleb Williams avoided any major injury to his hamstring Sunday, tests confirmed today – and the team isn’t even ruling him out for next Monday’s game against the Eagles, sources tell @ringer @netflixsports,” NFL insider Tom Pelissero reported on X. “A massive sigh of relief in Chicago.”

Considering this latest update, Compton’s case becomes even stronger. But whether it was “theatrics” or not, Caleb Williams did look like he was in excruciating pain when he went down on Soldier Field. Now, it looks like Chicago can really breathe a sigh of relief as they wait for their QB to take the field once again.