REPORT: Caleb Williams reacts to ‘unexpected’ Justin Fields move.
Caleb Williams’ response to the ‘surprise’ Justin Fields deal first appeared on NBC Sports Chicago.
Caleb Williams and the Bears have been on a collision path since early in the pre-draft period.
The Bears came to the 2024 NFL Scouting Combine with Williams at the top of their list. Their initial goal was to welcome Williams for a top-30 visit shortly after the combine to gather his medical information and solidify a decision to move on from quarterback Justin Fields.
The top-30 visit was rescheduled for early April, but Bears general manager Ryan Poles wanted to give Fields a fresh start and clear the way for Williams as quickly as possible.
On Saturday, March 16, four days before Williams’ pro day in Los Angeles and three weeks before his visit to Halas Hall, Poles made a transaction that sent Fields to the Pittsburgh Steelers for a conditional 2025 sixth-round pick.
The timing of the move surprised Williams, but it signified the Bears’ obvious desire to make him the first overall pick in the 2024 NFL draft.
“I was in the car. I was driving to a business meeting. I’m listening to music. I’m bobbing my head. I probably got on Drake. I’m chilling,” Williams said on the latest episode of “The Pivot.” “I’m in West Hollywood driving to a business meeting and all I see is my phone explodes. Whether it’s actual regular fans or whether it’s ESPN or whatever the case may be. I pick up my phone, and it’s going off, and I’m trying to figure out because it went from nothing to maybe a couple texts to phone [makes text notification noise].
“I end up calling a couple people and was just like, ‘Welp, we know where their mind and heart is at in this instance.’ Let’s prepare and get ready and handle things accordingly and still do our due diligence on the situation and things like that. In that moment, it was kind of like, ‘Wow.’ Because I didn’t do my top-30 visit yet. They didn’t have my medicals and things like that. They have it all now and I had a good time on my top-30. But it was interesting right then in that moment because it was just so unexpected in that instance.”
The Bears spent two days with Williams in Los Angeles before his pro day, taking him to dinner with numerous veterans when he came to Halas Hall for his top-30 visit.
When the quarterback vetting process began, Poles explained that getting the appropriate guy into the building was crucial. Williams’ unusual talent is obvious on tape, but his demeanor has consistently pleased the Bears during the pre-draft process.
“When you talk to his teammates, they don’t like him; they love him,” Poles said of Williams at the NFL’s annual meetings. “His leadership; how he draws people together. He’s deliberate about his leadership. The same goes for the workers. I’m having trouble finding someone who doesn’t like him, let alone love him, and believes he can achieve great things.
The Bears’ decision-makers have been impressed by Williams’ ability to deal with everything that comes with being a star quarterback in the NIL era in Los Angeles while staying a grounded individual and an excellent teammate.
“I think how he prioritizes everything that’s going on in his life with the NIL,” Poles told NBC Sports Chicago. “Also with how he’s bringing his teammates together. You have situations where the guy is driving a sweet car, and he’s up in some penthouse with a really nice place in LA. You can isolate yourself and kind of be different than everyone else, but you feel like he’s bringing others along and kind of sharing what he has to kind of help bond the team together over the last few years. That’s important to see. It has been a cool kind of thing to unpack because it’s very different, right? You have to adjust your eyes a little bit.
“But at the same time, the main thing has got to be the main thing. There has got to be accountability. There has got to be intelligence. There has got to be a passion for the game. Some of those things, they are not going to change for how we try to identify the top level prospects.”
When the Bears traded Fields, they signaled their goal to choose Williams, and that vision will be realized on April 25 when Williams’ name is called first at the draft in Detroit.
When Williams’ name is called, he’ll officially begin his quest to break Chicago’s quarterback curse and catch Tom Brady in the one category that counts to him: Super Bowl championships.
“I want to play in one place for 20 years and chase one guy, number 12,” Williams told “The Pivot” of his upcoming move to Chicago. “I’m looking for a place that loves basketball. That is all I have heard about Chicago so far.”
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