Can Caleb Williams and the Bears usher in a new era in Chicago sports?

All we see of Sid Luckman are black and white photos and grainy videos.

The greatest quarterback in Chicago Bears history, who retired in 1950 after leading the team to four NFL championships, played in an era so far removed from today's game that he can't be compared to any modern quarterback, let alone one of our own.

But if Bears rookie Caleb Williams lives up to the huge hype that has accompanied his arrival in town, you'll likely see and hear a lot more from Luckman this year. If Williams is truly the right fit, the Bears can put behind them a past that has haunted the organization for over seven decades.

Just as the Cubs broke the Billy Goat curse in 2016, Williams can end the Sid Luckman curse.

If not, well, that's too scary a scenario to think about right now.

Suffice it to say, there is no black or white in this Bears season, which begins Sunday against the Tennessee Titans at Soldier Field.

Either Williams is as good as promised and the Bears can at least contend for the playoffs, or it's the same old Bears, a franchise still stuck in Sid Luckman's time warp.

Gradual improvement? Beginner's mistake?

Nobody wants to hear about it. The possibility that Williams might struggle, as most rookie quarterbacks do when they get to know the league, is not even mentioned in a whisper.

When former New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick recently downplayed Williams' preseason stats, saying “there were some highlights, but they weren't that good,” he was labeled a grumpy old man rather than a Hall of Fame coach who would go on to provide his analysis.

What does he even know about quarterbacks?

Rarely has a rookie in the NFL changed the fortunes of his team overnight. But that's exactly the task Williams has taken on, and failure is not an option.

The player with the first pick in the 2024 draft took over the starting position before the start of the preseason and is now expected to repeat the season that Houston Texans rookie CJ Stroud put together last year: 4,108 passing yards, 23 touchdowns and an appearance in the postseason.

Considering no Bears quarterback has ever thrown for 4,000 yards in a season, that's a lot to ask. But that's just the beginning. Once won't be enough.

It's Caleb's era. It's Caleb's town. It's Caleb's time.

If there was any doubt about those expectations, they were answered on the first episode of HBO's “Hard Knocks,” when Williams was introduced with the same theme song, “Sirius” by the Alan Parsons Project, that was used to introduce Michael Jordan and the six-time champion Bulls. The suggestion that Williams would be the Jordan of the NFL was perhaps unfair, but not unexpected in this day and age when everyone is waiting for the next GOAT.

Just three years ago, Justin Fields burst onto the scene as the next potential “greatest Bears quarterback since Luckman.” While he didn't fail miserably, he certainly didn't succeed. Fields has been given much of the blame for the Bears' ineptitude since 2021, when they went 16-35 overall under coaches Matt Nagy and Matt Eberflus.

After an 0-4 start last year, Eberflus seemed on his way to becoming a former head coach, but the Bears battled back to stay 7-6 on the road to the optimism surrounding Williams' arrival. We knew then that signing Williams was a possibility and had about 10 months to dream about what he could accomplish as a Bear. The optimism has spread like a fire, fueled by a city thirsting for something new.

The Bears' projected jump from a sub-.500 team to a playoff-worthy team was perhaps to be expected after a busy offseason for general manager Ryan Poles and a relatively relaxed schedule.

New weapons like wide receiver Keenan Allen, rookie Rome Odunze and tailback D'Andre Swift should ease Williams' adjustment period in his rookie year. An improved defense with Eberflus in command and Montez Sweat on offense from day one should keep the Bears in the game so Williams can do his thing. They even drafted a punter — a punter! — to improve special teams.

It all sounds so simple.