This is the stinking truth. I love when you're out on remote in Alaska. Look at that picture. I can just picture Alaska outside your window there. How cool. Is there a bear out there? Well, there's somewhere. There's some bear. We're going on a nature explore here with the grandkids a little bit. But yeah, we were all over the place yesterday, all through the woods. You could see where animals had laid down. I think a family of moose.
had laid down. So all this grass is all completely matted down. And we're hiking around. The grandkids are absolutely loving it, getting to see my dad. So they're a great grandfather. So really cool, really cool stuff. Good time to be here in Alaska. It's beautiful. Absolutely gorgeous. All right. I got to tell you this story. This is so funny. So you've created a bit of a firestorm with Chicago Bears fans over your Caleb Williams is not a good quarterback comment. OK, safe to say. Yeah, that works. You know what? That lines up. Yeah, that lines up. So the other day, Sunday, I'm out minding my business, grilling late afternoon, got a little pork tenderloin going. And all of a sudden I hear, hey, Evans.
I look up and neighbors walking by tell Schlereth that we bears fans aren't happy with him. So this guy's a bears fan. And then he references another bears fan that lives up the street. He's like, I heard about Schlereth Caleb Williams comments. I got people from all over the country. Friends from all over the country are texting me and calling me and asking me what the hell's going on in Denver with Schlereth and Caleb Williams. So congratulations, Mark. You've managed to tick off another fan base. Yeah. Chicago bear fans not happy with me right now. And you know, it's really, it's really interesting.
Because, you know, obviously I get a lot of people going, well, he obviously hasn't watched the games. He's just looking at the stats. And I'm like, no, no, no. I'm watching the coach's film. I'm studying, you know, I'm studying the plays and I'm studying not only the plays, the concepts, the timing, just everything. And what people don't understand is me saying he's not yet a good quarterback because he's not. When you start looking at just when you start looking at drops, like his footwork in shotgun is atrocious. I mean, absolutely atrocious, which.
In the West Coast offense, a lot of times what offense coordinators would tell you, I've heard this my whole life, is you throw the ball with your feet. So when your feet are not set, when your feet are not in rhythm, when your feet are not orchestrating, you can't be accurate. So I go back to a comment, I think it might have been right after the season, with Ben Johnson talking about Caleb Williams, his quarterback, said we should be completing 70% of our passes. You know, now a lot of Chicago Bear fans will reach out to me and say, well, he threw a lot of balls away. Well, that may be true, but did he throw the ball away after he missed the first read?
Like that would be my question to you guys. Or was it after he missed the second read? Or did he have a blitz come at him and instead of, you know, standing in the face of the blitz and throwing the open receiver, he just bailed out of the backside of the pocket? Like all those things are true when you study the film. And so he is one of, if not the most dynamic athlete in football, or at the quarterback position, maybe I should say. Maybe Lamar Jackson's more dynamic than him. But when it comes to playmaking ability outside the pocket, when it comes to extending the play, when it comes to doing all those things, he's phenomenal. Let me ask you a question, Mike. Just answer this for me if you would.
How many world championships, how many Super Bowls did Lamar Jackson, how many has he won? You know the answer, none, yeah. Yeah, zero. And so ultimately, my point with Caleb Williams is not that he can't be great at some point. He's not great now. My point with Caleb Williams is he's got to do the quarterbacking things better. He's got to do the boring better. He's got to create those things.
on a more standard basis, like on a play-in, play-out basis. He's got to be able to do those things before he's going to be a good quarterback. He's a dynamic athlete. He's an unbelievable playmaker. He does all those things exceptionally well. But in my opinion, and this is based on not only years of playing, but years of watching this game, to win championships, and I think that's what it's all about. It's not just to create highlights on SportsCenter, but to create championship windows and moments, you've got to be able to do the boring well. And I keep going back, Mike, to the comment I had from Byron Lefwich.
when he was the offensive coordinator of Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the first year of Tom Brady in Tampa when they won the world championship. He said, hey, man, if the number one read in the offense is the flat and it's the most boring throw you have, but that's what you're supposed to do, Tom Brady does it 100 out of 100 times. Those are the things that have to be done for you to be a great quarterback in the National Football League. But see, here's where I got to point. Here's where I need to push back on you, okay? Because you're talking about Tom Brady. You're talking about Tom Brady when he was like in year 20, okay? When you say something like Caleb Williams is not a good quarterback, it seems like it's a little bit harsh to me because it's two years. Show me the second-year quarterback who is doing all those things that you're just talking about. It's hard to find. It's unusual. And it feels like to me, you're trying to grade.
Caleb Williams on a standard that applies to a five or six year veteran quarterback rather than a guy who's just in his second year. It feels like it's an unrealistic bar that you are putting on a second year quarterback in saying that he's not good. He's not supposed to be good. He's a second year quarterback. Yeah, there's there's obviously there's a ton of room for improvement. And that's one of those things that, you know, you're going to have to continue to do. The issue is this is the way he has played all the way back through college. And, you know, I mean, it's not like at USC. He had what was it? Lincoln Riley as a coordinator. So it's not like Lincoln Riley is saying, hey, man, just pull the ball, scramble around and make a play.
Like there's a system there that you have to operate in. And you're 100 percent right, Mike. You're 100 percent right. I mean, although, you know, Drake May was in his second year and he was runner up in the MVP voting. And so these are things that you would like to see a young quarterback execute.
on a on a better or more standard basis yes there's tons of room for improvement yes they're like he's a dynamic playmaker yes he's all of those things but he's still when it comes to the quarterbacking part of it he's still got a lot of room for growth and he wasn't like i said footwork wise um hanging on the front side of progressions when the front side is clearly not where you're supposed to throw the ball like you will look at a front side of a progression and you're trying to throw it safe you're trying to throw it versus access of cover three or access of quarters. And all of a sudden it's an access throw and we're anticipating whatever we're anticipating. We're anticipating this to be open. And all of a sudden you get a different coverage. You get a man-to-man or you get a cover two, whatever. So you need to get off of that and get to the backside. It's built in on the backside. And you see him hang, hang, hang on that stuff and he doesn't get off of it. So all those things are part and parcel of growing as a quarterback. But at this particular point in time, I'm not saying he can't be great. He may become the best quarterback in the history of the National Football League. I don't know.
From a dynamic playmaking standpoint, I think the problem that I get into with fans is they think that playmaking and being dynamic is the standard of the NFL. They think that wins championships. They go, oh my gosh, but did you see the play he made against Green Bay? And did you see this, that, and the other? And I'm telling you, I'm looking at the five or six plays that win the game that he doesn't make.
that keep drives a lot, that doesn't put our offense in harm's way. Those are the things that I'm looking at that he's not very good at. And again, Mike, to your point, that's part of growing as a quarterback. I'm not saying that he can't be great at those things at some point, but just right now he's not. But just being a playmaker and being athletic does not make you a good quarterback. It just doesn't.
All right, so let me make sure then that you're going to be consistent here. You got a lot of Bronco fans that watch this podcast. So what you're telling me then, because I put Bo Nix's numbers up against Caleb Williams' numbers in year two and a lot of similarities, and Bo's completion percentage came down from his first year to his second year. So the same criteria that you apply to Caleb Williams that leads you to say Caleb Williams is, quote, not a good quarterback. Are you going to say the same thing about Bo Nix, that Bo Nix is not a good quarterback?
Bo Nix was better than Caleb at doing the boring stuff. But he, as you know, and we do a radio show in Denver, I'm very critical about his footwork and his pocket presence at times. And so there are a lot of missed throws and missed opportunities in Bo Nix's game, just like in Caleb Williams' game. So from a quarterbacking standpoint, I think Bo Nix is ahead of Caleb Williams right now. And I think that's part and parcel because that's the way he played at Oregon at the same. So he's ahead.
But is he good right now from a footwork standpoint, from a climb in the pocket standpoint? His problem, Bo Nix's problem, is he becomes frenetic in the pocket, and he gets through progression so fast that he's oftentimes ahead of his receivers. So I would look at them differently. Caleb Williams, to me, is behind. His footwork is sloppy at times, especially in shotgun, but he's a little bit behind the play, where Bo Nix is a little bit ahead of the play. And so they both have issues that they have to clean up. And you've heard me talk about Bo Nix in the pocket on multiple occasions.
and how inaccurate Bo Nix has been occasionally, or how inaccurate he is at times, especially with the deep ball, because he just gets sped up. And so they both have issues within the pocket. They're both a little bit different with their issues. But yeah, they both have to improve dramatically inside the pocket for me to consider them being really good at those things, at the in-the-pocket, at the quarterbacking skills. Playmaking skills, they're both, I think they're both, there's no question Bo Nix is really good from a playmaker standpoint. Now, he's not Caleb Williams, because Caleb Williams is a freak show when it comes to that. But they both have tons of room for improvement from just a pure quarterback.