Caleb Williams Defends Commitment to Bears Amid Criticism
Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams publicly addressed his commitment to the team on Wednesday, defending his decision to join the organization that selected him with the number one pick in the 2024 draft.
After the Bears’ second OTA practice, open to the media, Williams gave an opening statement of nearly four minutes to express his feelings about the team, in relation to the pre-draft process.The controversy arose from excerpts of Seth Wickersham’s upcoming book, “American Kings: A Biography of the Quarterback”, which revealed that Williams and his father, Carl, had considered ways for the former Heisman Trophy winner to avoid being drafted by the Bears.
Williams admitted that the book excerpts have been a “distraction” in the last two weeks, so he decided to speak about it publicly for the first time.
During his press conference, the 23-year-old spoke about the team’s history of struggles at the quarterback position and how, “as everyone knows, it’s a fact that there hasn’t been a 4,000-yard passer in Chicago.”
Williams didn’t deny his initial skepticism about the Bears’ history in developing franchise quarterbacks and the “thoughts” and “ideas” that he and his family contemplated about where his NFL career might begin.
Williams stated that after visiting the Bears in April 2024, his desire to join Chicago was strengthened.
I wanted to come here and be the guy and be a part and be a reason why the Chicago Bears change this,” Williams said. “The last thing that was said in all of that I think is the most important, is that I wanted to be here. I love being here.
Caleb Williams
The Bears had a 5-12 record during Williams’ rookie season, which coincided with the firing of offensive coordinator Shane Waldron in Week 11 and the departure of head coach Matt Eberflus three weeks later. Williams threw for 3,541 yards, 20 touchdowns, and 6 interceptions (the fifth-highest single-season passing production in franchise history), but was sacked 68 times, the most in the league, and finished 31st in QBR (46.7).
Despite his reservations about the Bears before being drafted, Williams said there wasn’t a moment he “knew” the season was going to be a failure. However, his father told Wickersham that he believed “Chicago is where quarterbacks go to die.” Williams said he appreciates the support and guidance he receives from his father, but that Carl Williams doesn’t speak for him.
“I actually call my dad quite a bit,” Caleb Williams said. “He has ideas and he’s a smart man, so I listen, I always listen. I’m very fortunate to be in this position in the sense of playing quarterback, but also very fortunate to have a dad with a very strong mind. We talk very often, my mom and dad are my best friends, so being able to have conversations with them to understand that everything they say also reflects on me.Wickersham’s book also highlights the disconnect between Williams and Chicago’s former coaching staff. At times, the book said, Williams would watch film by himself, with no instruction or guidance from the coaches.
“No one tells me what to watch,” Williams told his dad. “I just turn it on.”
The quarterback laughed while referring to that as “funny.”
“It wasn’t that I didn’t know how to watch film,” Williams said. “It was more or less the sense of … learning ways to watch film and be more efficient. Learning ways to pick up things better. So that was a funny one that came out, that in context, in how that was trying to be portrayed, didn’t get portrayed that way.” Bears coach Ben Johnson spoke last week about his own desire to change the perception around quarterback development in Chicago. The first step in doing that is working with Williams to improve the quarterback’s body language in games. “There’s adversity that’s going to hit every team every season,” Johnson said. “You don’t know when it’s going to happen. We might lose a few games. We might have some turnovers, and yet, just the wherewithal — we’re steering the ship, we’re going the right direction, it’s not ‘woe is me.’ We are going to take everyone around us, we’re going to elevate them and we’re going to look to forge ahead to what’s next. And so, it’s not dwelling on the past. Whether it’s last season, last play, last game, we learn from it, we grow and we move on. Our body language needs to reflect that as well.”
