The NFL draft can obviously impact the players who have been drafted, but teams change significantly as well, and some players on current rosters are impacted as well. For instance, any move that the Chicago Bears make will impact Caleb Williams. This has led to some analysts to declaring Williams a loser in the draft.
Did Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams come away worse from draft weekend?
Ryan McCrystal of Sharp Football Analysis went through some winners and losers and he is listing Williams as a loser.
"Sam Roush, at least in the short term, will just be used as a blocking tight end. And Zavion Thomas was one of the biggest reaches of the draft and is likely only a return specialist. The addition of a legitimate weapon could have elevated Williams’ ceiling, but instead, he likely remains a low-end fantasy starter"Ryan McCrystal
This is a fair thought, especially just in the context of draft weekend. There is no way that Sam Roush is going to provide anything significant to the passing attack this year. He is essentially a third tight end who will replace Durham Smythe for blocking snaps. This could help the overall offense, but it will help the run game more than Williams, which is not great for fantasy football analysis.
The big issue comes down to Thomas, though. McCrystal is joining a lot of national analysts who are viewing the Thomas pick as a reach. He does not see Thomas having any role on offense and being just a special teams option. That would obviously hurt the value of Williams.
Chicago is not only losing D.J. Moore, but they are also going to be replacing Olamide Zaccheaus. Luther Burden and Colston Loveland are expected to get more targets, which will replace what was lost with Moore. The Bears brought in Khaliff Raymond for the role that Zaccheaus held, but other people familiar with Ben Johnson believe there is not much upside to his addition.
Loveland and Burden already had targets of their own last year, so they can only take on so much. It is fair to think that Raymond and Thomas could make or break whether Williams is better or worse than the season prior. So, fantasy football analysts see this as a loss, and do not see Williams with better skill players.
If there is any winner, it might be Burden. The Bears added a more threatening tight end than a receiver, and if Thomas does just play special teams like so many are projecting, he is going to get more targets than Moore saw last year. There is a legitimate chance that Burden walks away from the 2026 season as the Bears' leading receiver in almost all significant categories.
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