'They're young superstars': Caleb Williams, Drake Maye deliver fireworks but Bears QB does just enough to top Patriots

CHICAGO — On the surface, quarterbacks Caleb Williams and Drake Maye appear quite different. Williams unapologetically wears his emotions on his sleeve for the Chicago Bears and dons his fashion-forward fits everywhere. Meanwhile, a soft-spoken Maye still has a bit of a Southern drawl, and his “aw, shucks” demeanor in front of a mic belies his intensity on the gridiron for the New England Patriots.

The 6-foot-1 Williams is 3 inches shorter than Maye. Williams’ escapability wowed in the pre-draft process. Maye’s prototypical size and traits made him a sparkly prospect.

They were separated by only two picks in the 2024 NFL Draft, plus there’s an even smaller gap between their somewhat parallel NFL careers, and, as Bears backup signal-caller Tyson Bagent told Yahoo Sports postgame, “they’re more similar than not.”

“Same draft class, top-three picks,” said Williams’ center, Garrett Bradbury, who snapped the ball to Maye all last season during the Patriots’ run to the Super Bowl, “and they’re young superstars. They really are.”

The off-script playmaking of Williams and Maye makes them two of the top offensive creators in the sport. It was the premier attraction during this week’s iteration of Thursday Night Football, a game in which Williams’ Bears and Maye’s Patriots at one point combined for seven scoring drives in an eight-possession span.

The lone exception was a Patriots series that ended with a Maye interception in the end zone. On a night when both he and Williams piled up more than 300 passing yards while stoically navigating an abundance of pressure, that turnover was a distinguishing factor in Williams outdueling his longtime counterpart in Chicago’s 30-24 victory.

“Great quarterback. He’s been a great quarterback for years,” Williams said at the podium, when asked about trading blows with Maye. “When that happens, you want to go out there, and [be like], ‘Let’s go get one. Let’s put the score back up. Let’s match that from there.’ I think we did just that.”

To effectively seal the game, though, the Bears needed insurance, not an equalizer. A fourth-quarter drive that began with Williams zipping an eye-catching throw and wide receiver Rome Odunze making a jaw-dropping grab on third-and-9 ended with Cairo Santos drilling a career-long 58-yard kick, which is tied for the third-longest field goal in Soldier Field history.

Santos’ clutch kick gave the Bears a nine-point advantage with 1:34 to go. New England tacked on three points afterward but couldn’t recover a last-ditch onside kick.

Odunze rebounded from committing offensive pass interference in the second quarter on a pass he couldn’t haul in that could have resulted in a touchdown, and Santos bounced back from plunking the right upright on a 53-yard attempt earlier in the fourth that would have also put the Bears up two scores.

“You find out what you’re made of,” head coach Ben Johnson said postgame. “And I know we got the right guys in this locker room, that they can handle anything that’s thrown their way. They have a lot of belief in each other, too. I think that’s a really big part of it — they know that even when things get a little bit funky or haywire, that we can right the ship and get it going back the right direction real quick.”