It's time to grade the fundamentals and not the flashes with Caleb Williams

Caleb Williams-to-Rome Odunze seems like one of those classic connections just waiting to happen. They seem to bring out the best in each other. When Williams looks for Odunze, it's like Jay Cutler throwing to Brandon Marshall. When he's looking for anybody else, it's like Cutler throwing to Devin Hester.

The Bears' 2024 first-round draft picks came through again with a titillating throw-and-catch in an early key moment against the Vikings on Monday night. On third-and-five from the Vikings' 30-yard line on their opening drive of the season, Williams was flushed out of the pocket, rolled hard to his right and, quickly running out of room, fired a pass on the run to Odunze, who made a nifty catch while falling out of bounds and somehow managed to get both feet inbounds for a 17-yard completion that kept the drive alive at the Vikings 13. Two plays later, Williams scrambled for a nine-yard touchdown to give the Bears a 7-0 lead.

There's still plenty of work to do, though. There are times when Williams doesn't look for Odunze when he should. Like earlier in the first series when Odunze was wide open down the middle. And other times he hangs Odunze out to dry with a bad ball. And Odunze has some work to do as well as far as being dependable catching the ball.

But when it clicks, it's often a thing of beauty. They connected in a similar fashion on the game-winning drive against the Packers in Week 18 last year — with Williams again throwing on the run and Odunze making the catch as he was falling out of bounds for a 15-yard gain to midfield. Or the 15-yard gain on fourth-and-three on the desperation game-tying drive against the Vikings at Soldier Field.

Those are the kind of plays that elicit hope and excitement that the Bears finally have the elite quarterback they've been looking for. And then the next play happens. Or the fourth quarter happens. Or something happens to bring everybody back down to earth.

It's an all-too-familiar cycle. Bears fans saw it for eight years with Jay Cutler and that was three quarterbacks ago. Cutler made throws few quarterbacks in the world could make. And then he'd make a bad decision or lose focus or have a receiver slip on the turf or some other bad break and the ensuing interception nullified the amazing throw. Same thing with Mitch Trubisky and — to a lesser extent — Justin Fields.

Williams has made just 18 NFL regular-season starts and only one in Ben Johnson's offense. But already, it's time to stop "grading the flashes" with Williams. We know he can make spectacular plays. His ability to throw accurately with unusual zip while avoiding pressure is a trait that can strike fear into even the best defenses. But as we've seen with Cutler and others, that means little if he can't master the basic functions of Johnson's offense, including much simpler throws that require timing and quick decision-making.

Johnson already seems past the point of marveling at Williams' spectacular throws and focusing on the inconsistency that undermines them.

"It was up and down. We had mixed results," he said matter-of-factly Tuesday when asked about Williams' performance against the Vikings. "There were some things he did that were top notch and I would put him up there with some of the best in the NFL. He had a couple of throws with guys in his face that he delivered on target that were very tough.

"I felt he did a good job evading when he felt pressure. And yet there were still some that we would like to have back. there were probably three or four that we counted on tape that ... that we would want back."

Johnson is still fully on board the Williams train — though perhaps recognizing it's a bigger job than he might have anticipated. But fundamentals and accuracy and executing those quick-hitters that are designed to put the offense in favorable down-and-distance situations and the defense on its heels are more critical to the development of the quarterback and the offense than those spectacular throws to Odunze. It's hard to say what metric measures Williams' success in that area. The 70% completion bar seems like a pretty good indicator. It was an optimistic goal to start training camp. It becomes more critical with every snap Williams takes.

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