With the No. 1 pick in the 2024 NFL Draft next week, the Chicago Bears are expected to select former USC quarterback Caleb Williams. Chicago traded Justin Fields to the Pittsburgh Steelers earlier this offseason and will be starting over at the most important position in football. The Bears hope Williams will be the leader who can get this franchise back into championship contention.
During a recent appearance on “The Pivot Podcast,” Ryan Clark asked Williams what he would look forward to in trading Los Angeles for another major sports city in Chicago.
“I love Los Angeles, Los Angeles was great,” Williams said. “Now I want to play in one place for 20 years and chase one guy, No. 12. I want a place that loves ball. That’s all I’ve heard about Chicago so far, which is exciting for me…”
Williams is considered the best quarterback prospect in this class, and perhaps the best prospect overall, regardless of position. Now, he wants to continue Tom Brady’s legacy, defined by success and longevity. The greatest quarterback of all time, of course, played 20 seasons for the New England Patriots and won six Super Bowls. In 2020, he signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and won a Super Bowl in his first season away from Bill Belichick. Brady retired for the second time at age 45 and left the game with seven rings.
Before he can continue Brady’s historic marks, Williams will have to go through the learning curve that almost every rookie quarterback faces. That’s exactly what a young quarterback did last year, as CJ Stroud of the Houston Texans completed 63.9 percent of his passes for 4,108 yards, 23 touchdowns and just five interceptions. His 273.9 passing yards per game led the league and he became the youngest quarterback to win a playoff game in NFL history. He took Houston from worst to first in the division, something Chicago hopes Williams can do in 2024. Recently, former NFL general manager Rick Spielman said on the “With the First Pick” podcast that Williams had a 95% chance or more to accomplish something similar to what Stroud did in 2023.
The 2022 Heisman Trophy winner set USC single-season records for passing yards (4,537) and passing touchdowns (42), then set the program record for yards per attempt in 2023 with 9.4. Williams also became the first FBS quarterback since Patrick Mahomes to record 30-plus passing touchdowns and 10-plus rushing touchdowns in consecutive seasons.
There are high expectations surrounding Williams’ impending arrival in Chicago. Perhaps he has higher expectations of himself than anyone else.
