Quarterback Caleb Williams needed to play for the Minnesota Vikings, and his household tried to avoid being drafted by the Chicago Bears, earlier than the previous USC standout accepted his destiny because the No. 1 total decide to the Windy Metropolis within the 2024 NFL Draft, in keeping with a brand new e-book.
“Chicago is the place quarterbacks go to die,” Carl Williams, Caleb’s father, advised creator Seth Wickersham for the upcoming e-book “American Kings: A Biography of the Quarterback” months earlier than the 2024 draft.
“Do I want to go there?” Caleb Williams puzzled aloud to these he trusted. “I don’t think I can do it with [former Bears offensive coordinator Shane] Waldron.”
Carl Williams consulted with labor attorneys and brokers and thought of whether or not his son may signal with the United Soccer League and change into an unrestricted NFL free agent in 2025 to have the ability to decide his staff.
He even spoke with Archie Manning, whose son Eli Manning as soon as compelled a draft day commerce between the Chargers and Giants, whereas in search of a manner across the league’s collective bargaining settlement.
“I don’t want my son playing for the Bears,” Williams advised a number of brokers in 2024, in keeping with the e-book.
Finally, Caleb Williams warmed to the thought of turning the franchise round after Bears GM Ryan Poles held agency and Williams took a pre-draft go to to the staff’s facility.
Now, a yr later, the hiring of Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson because the Bears’ new head coach is anticipated to take Williams’ growth to the following degree.
Thursday’s revelations from the brand new e-book, nonetheless, are a public relations nightmare for Chicago.
The group wants Williams to rally the locker room and the franchise with higher manufacturing and command of the staff’s efficiency and future.
The truth that he and his household doubted the Bears to this magnitude — and coveted taking part in for a division rival — will weigh closely on the discourse in and across the membership till Williams can play effectively sufficient to silence the noise and reaffirm his dedication.
The e-book says that Williams hit it off with Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell on the 2024 NFL Mix and advised his father: “I need to go to the Vikings.”
However Poles advised the Williams’ that he was drafting Caleb “no matter what.”
The Williams’ then thought of going after the Bears publicly, much like what Jack and John Elway had completed with the Baltimore Colts in 1983. However in the long run, Caleb Williams stated: “I wasn’t ready to nuke the city.”
He knew it might solely make issues worse if the Bears drafted him.
The optimistic view of this new info is that Chicago no less than fired the incompetent teaching employees that Williams and his father dreaded previous to a disappointing rookie yr.
At instances, Williams stated he would watch movie alone, with no instruction or steerage from head coach Matt Eberflus or Waldron.
“No one tells me what to watch,” Caleb Williams advised his dad. “I just turn it on.”
Nonetheless, the brand new e-book, which particulars what it means to be a quarterback at numerous ranges, has made Johnson and Williams’ effort at turning the Bears round in 2025 far more difficult.
Now Williams will probably be beneath an much more intense microscope to show he’s all in.
