© Kimberly P. Mitchell / USA TODAY NETWORK
Caleb Williams Takes on the Assignment of Reviving Bears
First pick Caleb Williams arrives at the 89th NFL Draft looking to lead the Bears into a new age of offense.
Of course it was Caleb Williams.
It's been Williams since Day 1.
The Bears targeted Caleb Williams as their quarterback of the future since very early in the offseason and Thursday night handed the card to commissioner Roger Goodell in Detroit with the USC quarterback's name on it.
Curiously, it took them almost six minutes to get the pick to the commissioner and Williams let out a wild scream when he reached the stage.
They have officially entered a different dimension of football and left 1940s style ball behind with a former Heisman winner throwing passes.
Williams' name and the mention of the Bears being on the clock set Lions fans in Detroit off, but they'll have to live with a passing threat in Chicago now twice a year. It took them C
The Bears selected a quarterback No. 1 overall in the draft for the first time since Oklahoma State's Bob Fenimore in 1947 and the hope is it ends a run of disappointments at the position dating back decades.
Actually, Jim McMahon, their only Super Bowl winning QB in 1985, might have been their last effective consistent winner at the position, with the possible exception of one season when Erik Kramer set franchise passing records. McMahon definitely was the last first-rounder they took who got the job done.
Even McMahon had to live with an offense geared for running the ball and the franchise's MO has been the ground game.
A passing attack seemingly neglected forever will now have a passer they hope can be their first 4,000-yard passer. They are the only team never to have a QB throw for 4,000 yards.
The question will be whether they can properly develop him while he starts immediately as a rookie in a new offense under coordinator Shane Waldron. Also, they need him to be quicker getting rid of the ball.
The Bears have a quarterback who threw for 10,082 yards with 93 touchdowns and 14 interceptions (66.9% completions). And he can scramble. Though not as fast as predecessor Justin Fields, he is nimble and keeps his eyes upfield looking for targets as he moves.
Williams had to compensate last year for a defense that allowed 34.9 points a game, the second-most points allowed by a Power-5 conference team. Williams did it well enough for the Trojans to finish 7-5.
Playing with adversity was the question mark about Williams but being backed by a defense giving up five touchdowns a game is adversity. And Williams still led USC to 41.7 points a game.
The big questions facing the Bears as they try to transition with a rookie quarterback and still try to compete for an NFC North title are whether they can rein in Williams from holding it too long while trying to make big plays and if he can quickly adjust to a new offense.
It's his first new offense since he went to Oklahoma as a freshman and started running coach Lincoln Riley's Air Raid style attack. Then the two went to USC and he stayed in the offense.
Born Caleb Sequan Williams in Washington D.C., the new Bears field leader played high school football at Gonzaga and his best passing season came as a sophomore when he threw for 2,624 yards and 26 TDs. The next year he had 1,770 yards and 19 TDs but ran for 838 yards and 18 TDs. His final year got wiped out by COVID-19 and he committed to Oklahoma.
Williams couldn't initially dislodge Spencer Rattler from starting quarterback in 2021 but came on with the Sooners down 35-17 against rival Texas and led a wild 55-48 comeback win. He then made his first start, threw for 295 yards and four TDs to beat TCU and his career in college began to soar.
With the Bears, he will be armed with veteran wide receivers DJ Moore and Keenan Allen, tight ends Gerald Everett and Cole Kmet and running backs D'Andre Swift and Khalil Herbert. It's safe to say very few of the QBs chosen first since the AFL-NFL merger had so solid of a situation as to land with a 7-10 team on the rise, one that finished with five wins in its last eight games of 2023.
Now it's up to Williams to prove he is what the Bears thought, and for them to prove they know what to do with a quarterback now that they seem to really have one.
Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven
