Bear Digest

Caleb Williams Dislike for Chicago Shot Down

Another voice has come out saying the Chicago Bears would be as welcome a destination as any for USC QB Caleb Williams with the draft's first pick.
Gene Chamberlain|
Caleb Williams Dislike for Chicago Shot Down
Caleb Williams Dislike for Chicago Shot Down

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Chicago Bears

If a player can't count on his coach to say a few good things about him then who else can he count on?

USC quarterback Caleb Williams has his coach in his corner. This is his head coach and not former quarterbacks coach Kliff Kingsbury.

While it's expected USC coach Lincoln Riley would say plenty of good things about Williams when he appeared on ESPN's Pat McAfee Show, he also went out of his way to slap down the unsubstantiated rumor Williams would not want to come to Chicago and wanted, instead, to go to the Washington Commanders.

"Yeah I think it's a total smoke screen," Riley said. "I mean, I think it's people playing a game."

While Williams would be returning home if the Bears traded down and sent him to Washington second overall, Riley doesn't think the home-town factor is even big.

"Knowing Caleb, like, location-wise, I don't think he cares one bit where he's at," Riley said. "Like, all these franchises are in really good cities. There's advantages to anywhere that you could go. He wants to win. He wants to be a guy that's playing in this game (Super Bowl) that's getting ready to come up this week and I think for him it's less about location and it's just more about getting in the right situation where he knows he can contribute, to develop and do the things that he needs to do to help a franchise be successful. And that's it."

Riley knows Williams a bit better than Kingsbury, who worked with him just in 2023 at USC. He was the Oklahoma coach one season when Williams played there, then Williams transferred to USC when Riley became Trojans coach in 2022.

The argument could easily be made for the Bears being a better place for Williams even if Williams is from Washington DC.

The Bears obviously are closer to becoming a winning team than the Commanders after they went 7-10 last year and won five of their final eight games.

"He's got a one-track mind that way," Riley told McAfee and A.J. Hawk. "So no, I don't think theres any truth to that at all.

"The guy wants to win, he's a competitor. Certainly, I know he would love to go first overall. As any competitor, who wouldn't. But At the end of the day its about winning for him and nothing else."

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.

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