There are several ways to look at the revelation about Caleb Williams and his father having initial trepidations with the Bears prior to the 2024 draft in Seth Wickersham's book about NFL quarterbacks.
One is that by convincing Williams things were going to change in Chicago regarding how the Bears developd quarterbacks, GM Ryan Poles may have cost the franchise a chance to draft rookie of the year Jayden Daniels.
But he did convince Williams and his father, Carl, that things would be different, the draft came and Williams is QB. End of story, or at least it should be.
Another take on it is that Williams' father really had little grasp on the reality of the situation at hand and that Caleb is one very sharp, shrewd businessman because he was willing to accept what was deemed to be a challenge and come to Chicago.
The book says Carl Williams was looking into ways to circumvent the draft process, possibly have his son sit out a season or even do what the Mannings did with Eli or what John Elway did and threaten not to play.
Doing something like that not only can earmark a player as a greedy troublemaker, but also is costly even at a time when college players get NIL money. That NIL money is chump change compared to what they make in the NFL.
Even a player with $10 million already in NIL money from college like Williams wasn't going to be able to make up for lost time, salary, potential endorsement money and other business concerns caused by sitting out a year. That option was entirely stupid and Caleb saw this.
Besides, Williams already was labeled as different because he painted his fingernails. All he needed was the prima donna label stuck on him if he sat out a season.
The report said his father also complained about the draft. That's not dealing in reality, either.
The draft is in effect as part of an entirely constitutional negotiated collective bargaining agreement with a union, and anyone who doesn't like it needs to convince the NFLPA not to accept it the next time there is a contract negotiation. The draft achieves a competitive balance, and this maintains interest in the league. It makes a lot of money for players in the middle of it and at the end of it who might make virtually nothing without it because of the team nature of the sport itself.
The great Caleb Williams reboot
All of that is so much ancient history, though, and it actually was reported to some extent prior to the draft. Some of the details in the book are titillating but essentially the same as what was known.
What is important about all of this is how Williams' second season is affected by what has gone on with the Bears in his first year, the debacle known as Matt Eberflus and Shane Waldron.
There are real concerns here that stem from the first season.
Could what happened last year leave Williams scarred and unable to stand up to challenges?
This does seem unlikely, mainly because he still came through last year's joke of a coaching staff with impressive numbers and kept battling.
Enter Ben Johnson. The new Bears coach appeared on The Herd Thursday with Colin Cowherd and addressed this.
"You talk about fears and I don't see it quite the same way," Johnson told Cowherd about Willliams. "I see this as what a great opportunity we have to do something that really has never been done. There hasn't been a 4,000-yard passer here in this franchise and I think Caleb is going to be the first one, and one of many years, many seasons to come where he's able to accomplish that feat.
"So I see a chance for greatness here for him. He's been communicating that way. and he feels the same way."
The clock not only got reset for Williams with this coaching staff, but it's a complete reboot.
Ben Johnson's take
"I don't know what's been going on prior to him joining the organization but he is very proud to be a Chicago Bear," Johnson said. "That's what our conversations have included. He's really excited to get to work right now and be the best version of himself for 2025.
"There's no question we're going to face adversity. We want to see growth from here (lower) to here (higher) over the course of the season and it's not going to be linear growth. It's going to be a little bit of ups and downs and stairsteps along the way, but we want to see from Game 1 to Game 17 that we're getting better as a whole. And that's not just him that's us as a team as well."
Why would a team want a player who crumbles in the face of only one season of adversity with poor coaches?
If that happens, maybe the player isn't worth keeping around and wouldn't really have much potential to realize anyway.
Johnson summed it all up best.
"That's what makes coaching fun is when the hiccups occur, when the adversity strikes, how do we respond to it?" Johnson said. "That's when you find out who you are as a man."
From what's reported in Wickersham’s book, Carl Williams is the one who could have used a talk with Johnson because his idea was apparently to keep his son from going through adversity.
That’s not happening in the NFL regardless of the team that drafts a player.
