Chicago Bears’ 2025 Week 5 statistical leaders, predicted—The Caleb Williams/Jayden Daniels Bowl II

Quarterback rivalries are made not born.

Like nobody guessed that when Peyton Manning called it a career at Tenneessee in 1998, his greatest NFL rival would be a 2000 sixth-round pick from Michigan by the name of Tom Brady.

Further rewinding, did anybody call the Troy Aikman/Steve Young blood battle? After Young began his career in the USFL, not so much.

Even further rewinding, when Terry Bradshaw was the first pick of the 1970 NFL Draft, nobody thought his greatest nemesis would be a dude drafted in the 10th round of the 1964 Draft, that being one Roger Staubach.

However, there’s a current budding quarterback duel that’s the exception to the rule.

Caleb Williams vs. Jayden Daniels: Round Two

When Williams and Daniels were drafted one and two by, respectively, the Chicago Bears and the Washington Commanders in the 2024 NFL Draft, we all knew that at some point in their parallel careers, their rivalry might be viewed as the millennial version of Manning/Brady.

The NFL Schedule Making Gods determined we need to get this battle started, and thusly pitted the Bears and the Commanders against one another in both Caleb and Jayden's rookie and sophomore years.

Bears fans won’t want to relive last season’s heartbreaker in D.C., so we’ll avoid it altogether and simply look ahead to their October 13 rematch at Northwest Stadium in the nation’s capital, and ask ourselves, Which of Chicago’s skill players will blow up the Bears box score in this potential payback thriller?

Running Back

Today’s NFL is geared towards offense, so it shouldn’t be particularly notable if a bell cow RB1 racks up a 100-plus-yard game.

Unless it's D’Andre Swift.

Last season, the Bears' lead back hit the century mark in a grand total of one game—that game being Chicago’s October 27 cluster**** against the Commanders.

Admittedly, almost half of Swift’s yardage total came on the 56-yard touchdown scamper seen above, but a 100-yard game is a 100-yard game, and Chicago’s first-year head coach Ben Johnson—having seen both the box score and the game film—will let Swift have another go at the Washington D.

Whether or not Swift can make any noise is up for debate, but the volume will be there, so do the math.

Wide Receiver

In his first clash with his theoretical rival, Caleb Williams had arguably his worst game of the season, as the Washington D held him to just 131 yards on 10-of-24 passing with zero touchdowns. To Caleb’s credit, he ran for 47 yards, but it wasn’t nearly enough.

If your quarterback has a brutal game, it always stands to reason that your wide receivers would have a brutal game. Rome Odunze was the best of the worst that afternoon in D.C., hauling in 41 yards on three receptions, both of which led the team.

So as was the case with Swift, the second-year pass catcher out of Washington will give us an encore atop the stat sheet.

Tight End

In the Week 3 edition of this series, I wrote: “The chances of Cole Kmet ever again topping Chicago’s weekly tight end statistical tote board are slim to nil, because A) he’s not as good as rookie Colston Loveland, and B) Kmet wasn’t drafted by the current Bears regime. Kmet and Caleb didn’t have it. Colston and Caleb will. Each and every week.”

I’ll probably be copying and pasting this paragraph for the next 12 entries.