Excerpts from Seth Wickersham’s upcoming book, (American Kings: A Biography of the Quarterback) recently detailed the extent to which Caleb Williams originally preferred to wind up with the Vikings rather than the Bears during last year’s draft. The 2024 No. 1 pick spoke on the subject at the outset of OTAs. 
Wickersham’s book notes how Williams’ father sought out ways to avoid heading to Chicago given the franchise’s history of poor QB development. A Combine meeting with Kevin O’Connell and the Vikings, by contrast, created a strong desire for Williams to begin his NFL career in Minnesota. Of course, that proved impossible when the Bears – who only hosted one quarterback prospect last spring – informed the former Heisman winner they would select him first overall.
“There hasn’t been a 4,000-yard passer [in Bears history],” Williams said when reflecting on his initial trepidation about joining the team (via Patrick Finley of the Chicago Sun-Times). “There’s all these different things that come up. Being able to have those thoughts is, I think, fair.”
The 23-year-old made it clear in his remarks that his thoughts on the situation shifted following his top 30 visit with the Bears. Williams turned his attention away from seeking out ways to avoid being drafted by Chicago and instead focused on helping end the team’s struggles. Things did not according to plan in 2024, but plenty of time remains for improvement individually and as a team to take place.
“I think you think about all of the options and you look at the history and the facts and all of these different things,” Williams added. “Those are thoughts that go through your head in those situations. All of those are thoughts. And then after I came on my visit here, it was a… deliberate and determined answer that I had: I wanted to come here.”
The Oklahoma and USC product was sacked a league-leading 68 times during his rookie campaign. The Bears have re-shaped the interior of their offensive line this offseason, one in which skill-position players (tight end Colston Loveland, receiver Luther Burden) were added with Chicago’s first two draft picks. Especially with Ben Johnson now in place as head coach, expectations will be high for the team’s offense in 2025. Williams’ development will be a central factor in the Bears’ success on that side of the ball, and a strong showing in Year 2 would of course help lead to questions and speculation about his pre-draft approach subsiding.
I mean, he was completely vindicated. Waldron & Eberflus sabotaged him. The interior offensive line was god awful. Ryan Poles signed off on it all. He was right. This franchise tried to kill him last year.
Bears could’ve made a run at Jim Harbaugh or Sean Peyton, two of the best in the business. They didn’t. They stayed with Eberflus. Ryan Poles signed off on that too.
Yeah they did none of that
They went out and got
Keenan Allen
Rome Odunze
Gerald Everett
Deandre Swift
Drafted Oline in the third round
Brought in former rams center Shelton
They gave Williams far more weapons help and additions than they ever gave Justin Fields.
They tried to give Williams as much help as they could.
None of those weapons matter if you have a dope in charge of the team. Coaching probably lost them 3-4 obvious games. That should never happen.
Also don’t matter if you have a rookie QB who holds on to the ball too long.
His oline gave him an above league average pocket but back in college he held on to it far too long too 3.21 seconds and 3.44 seconds at usc. Which made him one of the slowest throwers in the nation.
Him carrying over that bad habit also hurt his team. Cause the NFL moves a lot faster and guys close a lot quicker than in college.
I know your mindset can’t be changed but to call his O-line last year above average is insane.
“ His oline gave him an above league average pocket”
His oline did things well they didn’t do some things well. They weren’t the worst oline. Pfn ranked them 14th saying
“ The Bears’ OL was asked to block for the fourth-longest time of any unit last season (3.09 seconds). That contributed heavily to a 10.7% sack rate (last in the NFL) because their 35.4% pressure rate was 18th. We saw that replicated whether it’s against the blitz or not, suggesting it might be a general problem in Williams’ game.
Chicago also ranked 15th in PBWR, which is respectable. Similarly, the run-blocking numbers were fairly solid (0.91 RBYBC/rush, 15th), so it’s ambitious to blame the offensive line for this season’s collapse.”
Sure you can blame Waldron and Eberflus but Williams had the weapons and oline to be successful. You can’t solely blame coaches last year esp when Williams holds onto the ball too long and has since USC.
Facts are hard things for Bears fans to understand when they are in the midst of yet another offseason championship run.
Give them until November. They’ll be either quiet or calling for everyone to be fired by then. 😁
You just can’t refrain from being a flat out Packer ankle biter. Sad.
Guilty as charged. 😂 But… also… where is the lie above? You show me Bears history since your terrible ownership fired Lovie Smith for going 10-6. (Which, by the way, was 13 years ago!) I’ll show you exactly what I said above. Lots of annual offseason chatter. Lots of annual quiet crying in Bears Fan Beers by 11/1 the following season.
Ok. Peace. I get it. Honestly, most Bear fans are not in denial of the team’s history, but jumping on them now, before the season, is not a clear headed choice- even for a Packer fan. I was never at any point, a believer in Ebeflub. He literally cost them games. I think McCaskey was behind the hiring and decision to keep him last season. But I believe Warren/Poles convinced him to finally step aside and it resulted in Johnson/ Allen. No, I don’t know how it will go, but I think with Johnson there is serious opportunity for growth in Williams and a much improved offense. Allen has a great track record as a DC. We’ll see. And of course, I’m a Packer hater and want them to lose every game- but I don’t post it (well, yeah, I just did :), cause mostly, I’m a fan of the game. Cheers!
I love the continued slight against Williams while ignoring the obvious…
‘Drafted Oline in the third round’.. who was drafted injured and did not see play until they threw him into the deep end at LT in his first game..
‘Picked up Shelton’… who help little when the Guards both sucked. That is when he wasn’t getting pushed into the backfield. Yeah, they did wonders for the Oline last season..LOL…
Got Deandre Swift, who thought he was 260 pounds running into piles of guys instead of the open field any other direction in front of him… Yeah, great pickup…
Lets also ignore the silly offensive play calling which was so predictable fans could see what was called before it was run, and the inept defense (when it mattered the most) too.
I mean watch the games, don’t just sit there and stare at stats.. By the way, if Eberflus manages his defense, and clock, correctly and Stevenson knows where he is supposed to be instead of taunting Washington’s fans, the Bears likely make the playoffs last season.
Did Williams make rookie mistakes? Absolutely, he was trying to make things happen when he has to throw the ball away. Can he clean it up from last season? He should be able to given where they drafted him, but time will tell. But he also showed flashes of being a good QB (which people conveniently leave out).
The real laugher is this book.. Who cares? I mean besides people who already hate Williams? (and goofball packer fans who apparently have the Bears living rent free in their heads 24×7.. worry about your own team)
Williams is here until he is not, Poles is here, until he is not.. Instead of having high highs after the draft and low lows if the expectations do not get reached, how about people just sit back and watch the games?
Guess you missed the whole
Ranked 14th out of 32
Had to block for 3.09 seconds (4th longest time required out of 32 QBs)
Only allowed about 35% pressure against normal looks and blitz which ranked 18th out of 32.
But sure Caleb Williams wasn’t the issue. The oline being a top 15 unit was.
Per ppl with more insight than you-
The Bears’ OL was asked to block for the fourth-longest time of any unit last season (3.09 seconds).
That contributed heavily to a 10.7% sack rate (last in the NFL) because their 35.4% pressure rate was 18th.
We saw that replicated whether it’s against the blitz or not, suggesting it might be a general problem in Williams’ game.
Chicago also ranked 15th in PBWR, which is respectable. Similarly, the run-blocking numbers were fairly solid (0.91 RBYBC/rush, 15th), so it’s ambitious to blame the offensive line for this season’s collapse”
Read that final sentence for us
“So it’s ambitious (stupid) to blame the offensive line for this seasons collapse”.
Bears gave Williams tons of weapons and a decent oline. Coaching alone wasn’t the issue. Caleb Williams brought over bad habits from his USD days holding onto the ball too long trying to make plays.
So after all that, what’s your point? Besides being shed of some of the worst coaching I’ve ever witnessed, are you saying he wasn’t good or won’t be good? Cause if you’re saying he can’t/won’t improve under Johnson’s tutelage, then your case fizzles out. Just sounds like hater talk.
He could still be good. Hes got skill. But let’s not pretend he wasn’t poor himself last year.
I am of the opinion that rookie QBs shouldn’t play at all. So I’m not going to bury the guy. He can develop. But I’m also not going to excuse his warts. They are clearly articulated above.
I’m pretty sure even Bears fans don’t require an explanation. I think very few people are offended that he didn’t want to go to Chicago.
Nobody should care.. I mean besides there were the rumors BEFORE the draft saying the same thing.. Its all old news, and only Williams haters will get off to this kind of crap.
I was not a fan of Williams before he was drafted, but the kid is tough (was sacked like 68 times last season, and got up from every one of them) and showed he can be good at times (despite the handicaps of no real offensive direction, predictable play calling, and an inept defense that cost them as many games as Caleb may have).
He made mistakes as all rookies do, lets all see if he learned from them and a new OC who knows what he is doing can make him great.
Clean up on aisle 18.
In all fairness, Poles is a former OL. He should know all those offensive playmakers don’t matter if you have a bad OL with a rookie QB. I think he was worried about his job security. If Bears signed Jim Harbaugh or Sean Peyton, they would’ve canned Poles and brought in their own GM. The Odunze pick was wasted LY. Nate Davis and Claypool were busts. Other than the trade with Carolina for the 1st pick, Poles hasn’t done anything for this team.
But yeah Shedeur Sanders needed humbling lmao Caleb Williams literally wanted ownership in the bears, wanted lawyers to find work arounds in the cba to avoid being drafted by the bears by going to the CFL.
And as much hate as Deion gets Carl Williams told agents don’t let bears draft Caleb and went to meet Archie Manning to discuss how he got the chargers to trade Eli to the giants after Eli refused to play for the chargers cause Archie didn’t like how they had separate dinners with GM and owner.
All their concerns were valid though. Even with all the issues from last year, Caleb handled himself pretty well and never threw the blame on anyone else. His standard response was “I need to play better”.
Carl Williams, I think, was willing to be the villain to protect his son and make sure he had the best possible chance to succeed. It looked bad but any parent can understand doing what is needed to protect your kids, no matter how old they are.
What is done was done, it does not matter now. This is how the NFL works, there are no ‘backsies’. Williams came out and did pretty well considering the crap around him….
The only thing this book does is get Williams haters ‘harder’ and rake up BS that could only hurt the Bears in the locker room.. You have to wonder the agenda of the authors of this retreaded info are ( I mean besides trying to make a buck)
Poles has done almost everything right over the last 6 months which is weird to me. It definitely has me wondering how much say he actually had 2 years ago when “they” decided to keep Eberlose when clearly he was not a good HC.
I personally can’t blame Williams for his and his father’s attitude towards the Bears. I’m a long time Bears fan and I can honestly, without hesitation state that this organization is a dysfunctional and backward group. At times laughable. It appears that the organization is taking forward steps with what has occurred during the off season so far. It’s positive. But the Bears fan in me also whispers that this organization will find a way to screw up.
The problem with the Bears was their upper management, who answered to the owners. McCaskeys are stuck in running the team as they did in the 1950s. The mentality of don’t spend too much, anyone can be a HC, so be cheap, and players and coaches just come and go. They’re another ownership group that’s cash poor, but paper rich.
But William’s father need to stay out of it. Caleb is supposed to be a grown man and doesn’t need daddy talking for him. Demanding equity in the team? UFL? All daddy cares about is how much money Caleb can make. Caleb is a cash cow to him. It’s not good enough to be a #1 overall draft pick in a big market? When money is your first concern, being a great QB isn’t. I don’t see how anyone can root for Caleb. From what I saw LY Caleb has too much attitude and is still immature.
Ownership since Papa Bear has just not had a clue about the game. Warren/Poles finally convinced them to let them make the big decisions. There’s no guarantees, but they have a far superior coaching infrastructure now than they’ve had since the Jim Finks days. If they lose, it won’t be coaching that lets them down.
It does not matter now, its in the past. I mean if people hate Williams, I guess this helps people hate him more (if thats possible)?
I was not a Williams fan before the draft, but after this year I think I was wrong and he can be a good QB (at least) as there were flashes of a good QB there. I think people see what they want to see and ignore the rest (which there is a lot of): Iffy OL, Inept OC and scheme, Inept RB, Inept HC, inept (at times) defense which one player literally cost them a game.
Did Williams make mistakes? Absolutely. However if the D shows up when it mattered in a few of those close games, and that screwball DB does his job, the Bears are in the playoffs.
As for attitude and immaturity? Cite examples.. I mean I saw a kid out there handling himself the best he could, in post games he constantly talked about what he could do better, and even when he said ‘we’, everyone was thinking the same thing. Yeah he got visibly upset, when the play was not put to him in time to get it run, all QBs do, Brady did too, was he immature? (and no Im not comparing Williams to Brady in terms of his performance).
He wanted to run a play but the inept staff did not listen and yeah he could have handled that better, but again it was a clown show in that org last season.
Before writing him off, how about seeing what a really good OC can do with him both on and off the field?
There aren’t many players I root to fail. We watch sports to see success. The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat kinda thing. Watching the Bears not have a good QB is miserable. So I prefer to want Caleb to succeed. But I can’t if he’s all about the money, demanding equity in the team, and pouting that he’s being drafted #1 overall by Chicago. Try being a good NFL QB first. Granted the offensive coaching staff and OL were bad LY. Remember when Williams threw his 1st TD pass to Odunze and they celebrated so much it cost them a penalty on the XP? That should never happen. And of course the hail mary….those were red flags of weak coaching.
As for examples of his attitude, you saw it when he was on the sidelines making faces. Sure it was frustrating, but don’t get an attitude for the fans and other team to see. Don’t have daddy talking to the media for you. That’s immaturity. Caleb just gives off the spoiled, entitled athlete syndrome, who believes he’s destined for greatness at the NFL level without ever having proved anything. If you want a comparison, I’ll root for Purdy anyday over Williams.
I dunno. I think a rookie throwing for 3,500 yards with a passer rating around 87 is pretty impressive. Y2 will be the litmus test.
You can’t please some people, they are not happy unless their ‘demands’ are met. Williams could win a SB throwing for 500 yards and 5 TDs and they would still whine about him somehow.
Same with Fields, but yet many of the same people likely complained Trubisky did not get a chance to be better.
You are right though, lets see what a truly revamped Oline and OC with a new scheme does with him.
“There hasn’t been a 4,000-yard passer [in Bears history],”
The Bears having 37 inductees in the Hall of Fame and 8 league championships didn’t register with Williams and his dopey father.
It’s a what have you done lately business. The Bears have struggled maintaining winning and just playing good football.
What do the Vikings have to show for their sporadic good seasons?
The Vikings have a far superior and respect coach to begin with. That should be obvious to even the most casual NFL fan. Over the last 10 seasons they have 99 wins, 64 losses, 1 tie and 3 NFC North Division wins.
I think at this point, people see what they want to see, and they just look at trash pieces like this book to ‘validate’ their view on the player.
Williams was worried about his kid, it does not make it right, but what is done is done. He is a Bear and I see nothing from last season showing he or his dad was trying to sabotage his status on the Bears or the Bears in general. But things like that do not matter to those who have some weird hatred for the kid.
He has to get better, clean up his mistakes and be a better player. Now that the last clown show is gone we have to hope this next regime is not just a different clown show.
All this book did was get the haters harder, that’s it. What is stupid is that this was all really out back then but now that a book is out its ‘the sky is falling’.
I was watching one of the Toronto Maple Leafs playoff game this year. One of the announcers said to the effect ‘This is a storied franchise. Except their photos are only in black & white’. Pretty sums up the Bears as well; sorry!
This isn’t news. Every single person who follows the NFL thinks Kevin O’Connell is a better coach than Matt Eberflus.
“There hasn’t been a 4,000-yard passer [in Bears history],”
Yeah. This is a team that had rushers like Walter Payton and Gale Sayers. Plus, who cares about 4,000 yards, especially these days?