Weird that he's talking to Eberflus who wouldn't play Williams in a preseason game but has him named the starter already. Will he sit out the preseason then face NFL speed for the first time on opening day? That should work well lol.
And I often think of that 28 INT performance by rookie Peyton Manning when listening to all the current hyperbole about how qb's just need the right coach, right team, right this, right that, and lots of TIME then somehow they'll be great. Sorry, but a lot of these kids don't have what it takes and no amount of patience or anything else will get it for them. OTOH, a guy who does have it can overcome a shitty start because he's driven to succeed and he's got all the tools.
What I see nowadays are prospects who get drafted way higher at qb than they would have 20 years ago, and who don't have all the tools but are getting thrust into situations where, as Saban points out, expectations are so high that they become just one more added burden on kids who in fact will never be superstars even if everything goes just right. And I think if some of them were drafted lower and given more time, it's true they could be decent journeyman types. But the current hype machine wants to sell every kid as a future star and that's just not realistic given their actual abilities.
Reality is qb is the hardest position in all of sports, and the number of guys who have the rare combination of physical, mental and emotional skills to do it well is a tiny little number. That's why average, unproven guys now command enormous salaries - that and the fact that they've evolved the game into passing all the time with little thought to running, which is why qb's are gold and rb's are soybeans, to use a commodities analogy. The game was previously more balanced between run and pass and salaries reflected that. They now reflect the unbalanced situation in which we find ourselves.