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Troy Aikman Draws Attention for Caleb Williams Commentary in Bears Victory
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- Troy Aikman Draws Attention for Caleb Williams Commentary in Bears Victory
The same Chicago Bears fans who will ride and die for quarterback Caleb Williams have found their newest target: ESPN analyst and Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman.
Bears fans on social media exploded at Aikman on Monday night, blasting the three-time Super Bowl champion for his commentary regarding Williams. A glance at X/Twitter shows no shortage of Bears fans accusing Aikman of an anti-Williams bias during Chicago 's thrilling 25-24 victory over the Washington Commanders — and head coach Ben Johnson joined them on Tuesday.
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"It sounded like from that game the other night, a few people weren't particularly pleased with how we are winning right now," Johnson joked on ESPN Chicago.
The anger and outrage didn't only come from the typical X user with 15 followers, nine of whom are bots. An account proclaiming itself to be the "Caleb Williams Fan Club" shared a video of Aikman breaking down Bears receiver Olamide Zaccheaus 's fourth-quarter drop, and the post already had nearly 740,000 views as of Tuesday evening.
There's one problem: Aikman didn't criticize Williams during the clip in question, and much of his perceived anti-Williams bias feels like the Bears and their fans reaching.
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What Did Troy Aikman Say About Caleb Williams?
After watching the aforementioned clip numerous times, here is an exact, word-for-word transcript of what Aikman said when analyzing Zaccheaus's drop.
"This is, everything's perfect except the catch," Aikman said. "It just gets on him, it hits up on his high shoulder pad, the breast plate. But here he comes across the field, and you can see there's, I mean, it's going to be a footrace. There's, there's nobody there on that side of the field."
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Second-year quarterback Caleb Williams has the Chicago Bears at 3-2 and riding a three-game winning streakGeoff Burke-Imagn Images
The most important thing there is Aikman's first line: "Everything's perfect except the catch." At no point during that moment did Aikman pin any of the blame on Williams. Just because Aikman didn't praise Williams' throw or how he read the field doesn't mean that he believed the quarterback was at fault.
However, that's not to say that Aikman didn't call out Williams during the game. Let's rewind to late in the first quarter, when Williams failed to connect with Zaccheaus on a 2nd-and-20. The play marked Williams' first incompletion after starting 6-of-6 for 56 yards.
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"He's been off tonight," Aikman noted, adding that Zaccheaus "did the right thing" on the play.
The clear sentiment on social media is that Aikman was overly harsh on Williams in a way that bordered on unnecessary. That in itself is fair, but Johnson and Bears fans need to relax, too. We've heard Joe Buck and Aikman critique Tom Brady or Patrick Mahomes plenty of times, whether it was an early-season game or the Super Bowl. No player should be safe from announcers, especially not on a nationally televised game.
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And if Johnson and Bears fans don't like it, they may want to remember that Aikman's comments came during an impressive Chicago victory. Of course, that's if we were advising them.
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This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Oct 14, 2025, where it first appeared in the NFL section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
