A week after torching the Carolina Panthers for 59 points, Caleb Williams and the Chicago Bears looked like a team hitting its stride behind Ben Johnson’s offense. That momentum stopped cold in the fourth quarter against the Minnesota Vikings, when Williams went down clutching his hamstring on a non-contact scramble, screamed in pain, and had to be helped off the field before being carted to the locker room with a towel over his head. When he removed that towel with tears in his eyes and gave that thumbs-up before entering the tunnel, it triggered instant fear of a season-ending injury.
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But when Monday’s MRI came back showing only a hamstring strain, not a torn Achilles or ACL, the conversation shifted from concern to criticism, and Pro Football Hall of Famer Shannon Sharpe was among those who couldn’t resist calling out Williams for his theatrics.
“We’re glad that it’s not as serious as it could have been. But the reaction that he gave, I thought the man was done half the season,” Shannon Sharpe said on the Nightcap podcast. “I said, ‘We’re about to put him on IR,’ and hopefully- they talk week to week about the potential that he could play.”
To argue further, the 3x Super Bowl champion cited the recent example of the New York Giants’ quarterback Jaxson Dart’s severe knee injury, which he sustained on Monday Night Football while playing against the Los Angeles Rams. Dart, who suffered an MCL and meniscus tear that requires surgery, walked off the field to the locker room under his own power.
For Sharpe, the contrast in their responses defines the entire argument: two quarterbacks, two wildly different reactions, yet only one suffered a season-ending injury.
“I said, ‘Oh my god.’ I said, ‘Oh, what had happened?’ You see Jaxson Dart? Jaxson Dart said, ‘Nah, don’t I get that stinking cart out of here,’” Sharpe added. “I ain’t getting on no cart.”
The injury happened during the fourth quarter with roughly seven and a half minutes left on the clock. Williams scrambled to his left on a first-down attempt, and as he cut upfield, he suddenly pulled up and reached for the back of his right leg before sliding to the turf. There was no contact from a defender on the play.
Williams remained down for several minutes as trainers evaluated him on the field, at one point rolling in pain, before he was eventually placed on a cart. As he was wheeled toward the tunnel with a towel draped over his head, he pumped his fist toward the Soldier Field crowd.
However, this wasn’t his first experience dealing with a hamstring injury. Back at USC in December 2022, he suffered what his coach at the time, Lincoln Riley, called a “significant” hamstring injury during the Pac-12 Championship Game, yet played through it for three more quarters rather than coming out.
Two years later, as a rookie with the Bears, Williams tweaked his ankle late in a loss to the Arizona Cardinals, stayed in the game, and downplayed it afterward as something he expected to be fine.
Neither moment involved the kind of visible emotion that defined Sunday’s injury.
As for when Williams might be back, the answer for now is simply week-to-week. Head coach Ben Johnson said Williams avoided a severe injury but will still “likely miss some time,” and has stopped short of ruling him out entirely for the Week 3 game against the Philadelphia Eagles. Johnson has not offered a specific target return date, saying only that the team would monitor Williams’ progress as the week goes on.
Given Johnson’s comments, the real question now is who will fill Caleb Williams’ shoes?
Williams’ primary backup, Tyson Bagent, remains in the concussion protocol, leaving the Bears thin behind their starter depth. That opens the door for 15-year veteran Case Keenum, who hasn’t taken a regular-season snap since 2023, to step in if Williams can’t go. Rookie Miller Moss rounds out the depth chart as a third option, giving the Bears a QB depth that looks far less settled than it did a week ago.
As of now, the situation remains under development, and the fans are left with no answers about who will lead the Bears against the Eagles in their Week 3 game.