CHICAGO – Beating the Dallas Cowboys is always nice. It shows that Jerry Jones can buy a $28-million home and a 357-foot yacht (a football field plus endzones), $100-million worth of art, a helicopter, a jet, AT&T Stadium and the world’s largest HD video screen. But he can’t buy wins.

The NFL is a cartel, but it’s not Jones’ cartel. He’s just a member. And right now is there anybody who would trade billionaire Jerry’s quarterback, Dak Prescott, for the Chicago Bears quarterback, Caleb Williams? After the Bears’ Sunday 31-14 beatdown of the `Boys at Soldier Field? Don’t think so.

The NFL is built around great quarterbacks, and the dream is always to get one. You snare a Tom Brady or Patrick Mahomes or Aaron Rodgers or Peyton Manning, and you’re looking at domination. Consider that between those four superstars are 19 Super Bowls appearances, 13 Super Bowl wins, 10 Super Bowl MVP awards, and 14 NFL MVP awards. There are many hundreds of NFL quarterbacks who have none of those things, not even close.

So the big takeaway from the Bears first win this season is the joy for Bears fans of seeing, and maybe believing, that Williams could be that rare quarterback talent. Who knows, does he have Super Bowl championship capability? He might.

You look at his game stats—19-for-28 passing, 298 yards, four touchdowns, no interceptions, a 142.6 passer rating—and you think, in time, with development, with maturity, with coach Ben Johnson’s guiding hand, maybe. It also was astounding he didn’t get sacked for the first time in his career. “Yeah, it’s pretty cool,” Williams admitted postgame. “All kudos to the big boys up front.”

But kudos to him, too. Sacks are as much an awareness issue as they are a blocking issue. The 2025 Cowboys have a lousy defense, and they didn’t have pass-rushing terror Micah Parsons (traded to the Packers; good job, Jerry). But what we saw in Williams was what Johnson has been driving into him since the start: Look fast, read fast, pass fast. If it’s not there, dump it.

The 68 sacks Williams took last year were a warning that if he didn’t start making quick decisions, his uniform would soon be a body bag. The reason for the joy over Williams’ play comes because the Bears have been searching for a transcendent quarterback almost forever. Back through Jay Cutler to Erik Kramer to Jim Harbaugh to Jim McMahon to Bobby Douglass to Billy Wade to Ed Brown to the apparent and actual real deal—Sid Luckman, who first played for the Bears in 1939—Chicago has been on a quarterback quest.

The fear was Williams was a middling talent, no more than another first round miss like Justin Fields and Mitchell Trubisky. He might yet prove to be that. We don’t know. But whipping the Cowboys, with their name and their wealth, sends his arrow skyward.

The 19-play drive he engineered for a touchdown Sunday was dull and time-consuming, but it showed Williams’ ability not to make big mistakes—almost as important as making big plays. His earlier flea flicker touchdown pass to wide receiver Luther Burden was a marvel of arm strength and athletic brilliance. The ball traveled 62 yards in the air—from short right field to home plate in baseball. There have been few quarterbacks in history who could have launched such a pass while being rushed from all corners and not crow-hopping forward for power.

The toss back to Williams at the start of the play from running back D’Andre Swift was high and slow, like an underhanded free throw. It had Caleb’s gonna get slaughtered written all over it. But Williams snatched the ball, spun the laces and almost instantly threw a soaring missile down the left sideline while nearly flat-footed. Astounding.

“I think it’s God-given ability, I guess, to be able to get it out that fast,” Williams said. Even that fast, who can throw a ball that far with accuracy? So thanks, God. Glad to know at least one outsider is a huge Bears fan.

And sorry, Cowboys and Jerry Jones. It’s possible the Bears have a real superstar at quarterback and you don’t. Jerry, you bought your team back in 1989 for $140 million, and now it’s worth roughly $13 billion. That’s a nice 9,300% increase on your investment. Buy another yacht, I suppose.

But that 32-team cartel you’re in won’t let you buy Caleb Williams. Sometimes money’s no good.

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