Why Bleacher Report’s 2024 Re-Draft Shouldn't Swap Caleb Williams for Drake Maye

No matter what happens, Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams and New England Patriots passer Drake Maye, the No. 1 and No. 3 overall picks in the 2024 NFL Draft, respectively, will be forever linked. In many ways, their careers will be judged partly off of what the other accomplishes, though both have clearly achieved success in their second seasons, with Williams winning the Bears a playoff game and Maye about to battle for a shot at the Super Bowl this afternoon.

That’s why it’s incredibly interesting to see Bleacher Report’s 2024 NFL “Re-Draft” swap the two players out to the other’s team, sending Maye to the Chicago Bears at No. 1 overall and Williams to the Patriots as a consolation prize at No. 3.

“The Chicago Bears decision to pick Caleb Williams looks a lot better after two years than it did after Year 1. That being said, it's hard to pass up on a player who has been a legitimate MVP candidate in his second season,” BR’s Alex Ballentine writes of his decision to mock Maye to the Bears in this revisionist history. “Williams was No. 1 on most big board, but Maye had some fans as QB1 in the class. Thus far, Maye is making a strong case. Both quarterbacks have led their team to the playoffs and brought new life to their franchises. However, Maye's consistency and second-year leap gives him the edge in his re-draft.”

Williams, meanwhile, gets some love as a “franchise-altering” talent who got too much criticism for a rough first season, despite slipping past his hometown Washington Commanders at No. 2. (If we were really evaluating this draft, there’s no way the Commanders would’ve passed on Williams for Jayden Daniels, even though he did make an NFC Championship game in his first season.)

On one hand, let’s not take this too seriously. Re-drafts are just fun exercises for engagement purposes when there’s nothing much to do.

That said, let’s talk about this for a second.

Because there’s a strong argument that Maye has put up consistently superior tape to Williams not just this year, but last year as well. Certainly this season, Maye has made himself no worse than the runner-up for MVP, and his accuracy combined with elite big-play potential will have him in that coveted “top-five” conversation for years to come. No one should scoff at the idea that Maye might always have been—and might yet be—the best quarterback of this class.

But—call me crazy—but I’m not changing the Williams pick for any reason at this point.

Yes, Williams is a highly unfinished product from a mechanics/accuracy standpoint, which at times hampered Chicago’s offense. But how can you watch this man rack up seven comeback wins, including one in the playoffs, and make two of the greatest postseason throws you’ve ever seen and fix your mouth to say you’d rather have someone else? And that’s not a knock on Maye, either.

Just as Maye can get even better once the Patriots build out the roster around him more—let’s be honest, he arguably did more with less talent than any quarterback in the NFL—Williams still has a tremendous amount of unexplored potential within him. 2025 was just a starting point, both for Williams and for his partnership with Ben Johnson, which could last for a very long time. If this is the “worst” he is under Johnson, that should terrify the NFL.

Whatever his flaws, Williams is the guy for the Chicago Bears, just as Maye is for the Patriots. Swapping them is fun on paper. But in reality, they both ended up right where they belonged, and I don’t think most Bears fans want to see anyone else but him under center going forward.

If fate is kind to us in the future, maybe we’ll see these two duke it out at least once for a Lombardi Trophy.

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