The Bears showed how much Caleb Williams already means to them after Azeez Al-Shaair's hard hit

So far in his young NFL career, there's no indication that the other Chicago Bears players actively dislike Caleb Williams, but we haven't seen a perfect example of how much they care about the first pick in a game, either.

Houston Texans defensive lineman Azeez Al-Shaair learned this lesson quickly on Sunday night.

After Al-Shaair took Williams down with a hard hit out of bounds on a long first down near the Bears sideline, it felt like the entire offense (the entire team?) thoughtlessly rushed Williams out of the way and ALSO did it very smartly. (Note: Al-Shaair clearly hit Bears running back Roschon Johnson, but was not penalized.)

Just remember that Williams had not even played two complete games at the time of this game. And the Bears are already The something like that for him.

That speaks volumes:

Williams is still a huge work in progress. It will likely take some time before he truly lives up to the hype as a rookie quarterback. The fact that the Bears are willing to go out on a limb for him like this says it all. They clearly believe he can do it because he's already their guy.

This article originally appeared on For The Win: The Bears showed how much Caleb Williams already means to them after Azeez Al-Shaair's hard hit