Troy Aikman thinks Caleb Williams should keep his head up. In a difficult first year as the Chicago Bears’ signal caller, Williams faced an uphill battle against the Minnesota Vikings Monday Night Football.

On ESPN’s national broadcast, Aikman Williams gave some encouraging words. Aikman reflected on his own rookie year after he was the first overall pick in the draft, like Williams. Aikman started eleven games as a rookie in 1989 and lost all eleven. Just two years later, he began a series of nominations for six consecutive Pro Bowls.

“This is the time of year when the college season is coming to an end,” Aikman said when discussing Williams’ rookie year with Chicago. “It’s been a long year. And you have the year (the Bears) are having, they’re just a lot longer. What you worry about as a young quarterback, and I went through it, I was 0-11 as a starter and (Williams) had a much better rookie season than I did.

Aikman shared his only concern for Williams moving forward and hoped the losses and difficulty moving the football wouldn’t dent the rookie’s confidence.

“We watched him on the sidelines, he was grimacing and in tremendous pain,” Aikman continued. “When I watch him, you can tell he’s a defeated guy. I mentioned that he hasn’t been through anything like this at any point in his career and there’s concern about a rookie quarterback losing confidence.”

Williams looked defeated on the bench after taking a hard hit from Vikings linebacker Jihad Ward.

With Monday’s 30-12 loss to Minnesota, the Bears fell to 4-10 this season. Williams completed 18 of 31 passes for 191 yards and a touchdown. The road won’t get any easier for Chicago in the near future as they return home to play the Detroit Lions (12-2) on December 22nd.