NEWSLETTER
It’s officially official, folks.
We are now in our Caleb Williams QB1 era.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s words made it true.
“With the first pick in the 2024 NFL Draft … the Chicago Bears select Caleb Williams.”
This is where the fun begins.
CALEB WILLIAMS (ROUND 1, PICK 1)
Sheesh! And here I am thinking I did a lot during my college years.
Save for winning a national championship, Caleb Williams did just about everything you could do while on campus.
The Oklahoma Sooner and USC Trojan put up a 23-10 record in the 37 games (33 starts) Williams made as a collegiate athlete. He threw for 9,782 yards, 93 touchdowns, and just 14 interceptions. For good measure, Williams added 27 rushing touchdowns. Caleb Williams has been the projected top pick for the better part of two years. So much so that even in a down year, Williams still threw for 3,333 yards and 30 touchdowns — against only five interceptions.
This feels like a good place to re-share a reminder that the Chicago Bears have not had a quarterback throw for more than 3,000 yards since Mitchell Trubisky did it in 2019. We’ve endured some lean times at quarterback. Caleb Williams figures to change that moving forward.
CALEB WILLIAMS HIGHLIGHTS
THREE STRENGTHS, THREE WEAKNESSES
STRENGTHS
WEAKNESSES
RELATIVE ATHLETIC SCORE
Relative Athletic Score grades player measurements on a 0-10 scale and compares them to their contemporaries. It is a unique way to give some of these prospects some more depth and perspective.
Sorry, friends. But there will be no RAS score for Caleb Williams:
WHERE HE FITS
Starting quarterback in Week 1. No ifs, ands, or buts about it.
The Chicago Bears have never had someone with Caleb Williams’ résumé. They’re rarely in a position to draft that caliber of prospect. When your franchise is painfully mediocre, it just doesn’t get opportunities to take high-profile quarterback prospects. I’m not even being hyperbolic here. I can count only one time when Chicago’s football team was in a position to draft the No. 1 quarterback prospect on the board. That was in 2017. But I’m so over-discussing that draft. The past is the past. it is time to let it go.
Caleb Williams is a special prospect. He throws darts all over the field and from all sorts of different angles. Williams has shown the ability to make plays with his legs with the occasional scramble. His highlight reel is something different. There are criticisms that he plays “hero ball” too much. And I get it. But if he can play “hero ball” to the tune of a 6.6-to-1 touchdown-to-interception ration, then I think I can get on board with that from a Chicago Bears QB.
I’m not even sure what is left to write about Caleb Williams at this point. Williams arrives in Chicago as the most talented quarterback prospect this franchise has ever gotten its hands on — ever. With all due respect to Jim McMahon, Justin Fields, Jim Harbaugh, Mitch Trubisky, and countless others, Williams is on a prospect tier above all others. And that is one of the many things that makes this pick so much fun. I’m so ready to see how it plays out.
In addition to all the on-the-field goodness we’ve seen from game tape and highlights, I’m also digging the vibe Caleb Williams is giving off. Williams seems to be someone players gravitate to and want to play for in the future. He is quick-witted to dunk on haters and have fun with fans. It feels as if his entire life has been building toward this moment of being the No. 1 pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. That moment is here. And Caleb is ready for it.
The way I see it: If Chicago Bears General Manager Ryan Poles nails this pick, then Caleb Williams will be the team’s starting quarterback for the foreseeable future. And if that is the case, then our long-awaited football savior will have arrived. All will be right in our football world.
