A week before OTAs begin for the Chicago Bears at Halas Hall, there has been plenty of talk about Caleb Williams.
This isn't uncommon, especially since he's the Bears' starting quarterback. But most of the discussion around the 23-year-old isn't about the upcoming season or anything relevant now, but instead what the former USC Trojan thought about the Bears’ organization before the draft.
ESPN's Seth Wickersham revealed details regarding Williams trying to avoid playing for the Bears in an upcoming book.
Wickersham shared some of Williams’ thoughts he expressed with trusted individuals.
“Do I want to go there? I don't think I can do it with [former Bears offensive coordinator Shane] Waldron.”
The book is scheduled to be released in September and also features quotes from Williams’ dad, Carl, who also vocalized his discomfort with the Bears’ organization to several agents in 2024.
“I don't want my son playing for the Bears,” Wickersham wrote.
The Williams family even discussed the possibility of Williams playing in the United Football League and becoming an unrestricted NFL free agent in 2025 to avoid going to a city that Carl described as “Chicago is the place quarterbacks go to die.”
Honestly, the optics don't look great, but who cares? This isn't anything against Wickersham, who did a great job researching, interviewing, and writing the book. All of these thoughts were gathered before Williams was drafted No. 1 overall to the Bears.
His mindset has changed, and that was revealed after Williams had a predraft visit to the Bears’ facility.
“I can do it for this team,” Caleb told his dad. “I'm going to go to the Bears.”
Let's be honest. Were Caleb and Carl wrong about their reservations about the organization? Last season, head coach Matt Eberflus and offensive coordinator Shane Waldron were fired, and Williams played behind an offensive line that eventually needed three new interior starters. It's a credit to Williams that he still threw for 3,541 yards and 20 touchdowns without missing a single game.
Wickersham also highlighted that Williams, at times, “would watch the film alone, with no instruction or guidance from the coaches.”
“No one tells me what to watch,” Caleb Williams told his dad. “I just turn it on.”
During the NFL Scouting Combine, I ran into Waldron and tried asking him about his lack of film watching, which Taylor Doll first brought up on her podcast “Making Monsters.” Waldron declined to comment.
We don't know if Williams attempted to ask for help when watching game tape, but the structure that was in place during the 2024 season clearly wasn't the best way to help develop a young quarterback.
The hope now is that Ben Johnson and his staff can correct all the mistakes that impacted Williams in his rookie season. The first step is identifying problems and then creating solutions.
Johnson joined Colin Cowherd on “The Herd” Thursday afternoon to discuss how Williams doesn't lose faith when turbulence occurs during the season.
“It’s going to be a little bit of ups and downs, stair steps, along the way, but we want to see from Game 1 to Game 17 that we’re getting better as a whole,” Johnson said. “That’s not just him, that’s us as a team as well. I’m excited. That’s what makes coaching fun. When the hiccups occur, when the adversity strikes, how do we respond to it? That’s when you find out who you are as a man.”
Williams had every right to feel the way he did about the Bears prior to joining the organization, and he will undoubtedly be asked about these comments, along with Johnson, at some point throughout OTAs over the next few weeks.
But all of that doesn't matter now. What matters is that Williams is working with Johnson to find a way to turn this franchise around.