More and more often in recent years, with teams having increasing avenues to evaluate college talent, the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL Draft is essentially decided weeks before the event. That was the case this year with Miami QB Cam Ward and the Tennessee Titans, and it was true last year with USC QB Caleb Williams and the Chicago Bears, despite a very deep QB class.
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Once the Carolina Panthers finished the 2023 season with the worst record, Williams was essentially a lock to go to Chicago, who owned Carolina’s pick. Williams went through the process with the Bears without ruffling too many feathers and landed in Chicago without much fuss. But, according to new explosive details from an upcoming book, behind the scenes Williams and his family were scrambling.
Why were they scrambling? Well, if you’ve been watching NFL football for the last two to 60 years, you know that the Bears have never had an elite QB. They’re the only team in the NFL that’s never had a QB throw for 4,000+ yards in a season.
The Bears have had 31 starting QBs since 1999, second only to the hapless Cleveland Browns. As Caleb Williams’ father, Carl, put it so eloquently in the upcoming book by ESPN reporter Seth Wickersham: it’s where QBs go to die.
“Chicago is the place quarterbacks go to die,” Carl said. At another point, he told several agents straight up, “I don’t want my son playing for the Bears.”
Wickersham’s book, American Kings: A Biography of the Quarterback, is expected to come out on September 9. Wickersham also wrote a New York Times bestseller about the New England Patriots dynasty in 2021.
Caleb Williams was enamored with Kevin O’Connell
It’s not exactly surprising to learn that the Williams clan was searching all avenues for a way to avoid the QB graveyard in the Windy City. They were so desperate that they actually sought the advice of attorneys to figure out how to get around the NFL Draft through some loophole in the collective bargaining agreement (CBA).
They even considered putting Williams in the burgeoning United Football League draft to try and nullify Chicago’s selection of him and allow him to choose his own team the next year, somewhat similar to Bo Jackson’s situation in the 1980s.
Carl Williams was also worried about his son’s wages. He called the rookie wage scale “unconstitutional” and the current CBA “the worst piece of sh*t [he has]ever read.”
Caleb was also concerned. He said to confidants that he didn’t think he would be able to do what he wanted to do in the NFL with former Bears offensive coordinator Shane Waldron at the helm.
One guy Williams did really like, however, was Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell. It’s a common opinion about arguably the best QB guru in the league right now. The two hit it off at the NFL Combine that year, and Williams began to hope that they could work together.
“I need to go to the Vikings,” Caleb told his dad. “Let’s do it,” responded Carl.
Unfortunately, the Vikings and Bears are division rivals, so there was next-to-no chance of a trade occurring. Plus, Bears GM Ryan Poles was adamant that they would be taking the USC product No. 1 overall — no matter what.
The father-son duo briefly considered going full John Elway sicko mode and going on an anti-Chicago campaign. Carl even contacted Archie Manning to understand how he was able to get his son, Eli, to the team of his choice back in 2004.
In the end, Williams took the high road and landed where he landed. After a topsy-turvy rookie season, it seems the team is creating the perfect situation for Williams in Year 2. Ben Johnson is now installed as the head coach after head coach Matt Eberflus, along with Waldron, was fired during the 2024 regular season.
Johnson is one of the best offensive minds in the NFL, along with O’Connell. He knows what a QB needs. Williams was sacked 68 times last year, the third-most in league history. So, Chicago spent big on the offensive line in free agency. They also spent their first three picks of the 2025 draft on a TE (Colston Loveland), a WR (Luther Burden III), and an OT (Ozzy Trapilo).
It seems Johnson and Poles have created the perfect QB incubator in Chicago, though the Williams clan might always dream of what could have been with O’Connell and Justin Jefferson.
