The Chicago Bears have reshaped their offense in order to provide second-year quarterback Caleb Williams and first-year head coach Ben Johnson with weapons all over the field. That has been the focus of Bears fans in the Windy City for weeks now as anticipation for OTAs and training camp are as high as ever.
What Williams, or the Bears, wanted to deal with at this time are any distractions from the work that is needed to be done on the field. Unfortunately, it appears as though that won't be the case in the build up to OTAs as an upcoming book has revealed some concerning details about how Williams, and his family, viewed Chicago as a landing spot leading up to the 2024 NFL Draft and what they attempted to do to prevent that from happening.
Seth Wickersham's upcoming book, "American Kings: A Biography of the Quarterback," details the lengths that Williams' father was willing to go in order to keep his son from ever playing for the Bears. As fans would expect, there are some damning quotes included as the Williams family was prepared to exhaust all options at the time.
"Chicago is the place quarterbacks go to die," Carl Williams, Caleb's father, told Seth Wickersham, author of "American Kings: A Biography of the Quarterback," in the months before the 2024 draft, via ESPN.
Carl Williams Looked at UFL as Option to Keep Caleb out of Chicago
Those conversations with Caleb's father extended to agents as Wickersham's book reveals Williams made it known leading up to the draft, that he did not want his son to play for the Bears' franchise.
"I don't want my son playing for the Bears," Williams told several agents in 2024.
To show how serious the Williams family was about this stance, the book reveals that Caleb's father inquired whether his son could sign with a team in the United Football League, then enter the NFL as a free agent in 2025 and pick his team. That was not a route that Williams pursued, but the quarterback's father, at least at the time, voiced issues with the league's collective bargaining agreement and how a top pick would likely be locked in with the franchise that selected them for up to eight years.
"The rookie cap is just unconstitutional," Carl Williams told Wickersham, later adding that the CBA is the "worst piece of s--- I've ever read. It's the worst in sports history."
Williams Initially Wanted to Play for a Different NFC North team
At one point in the draft process, the former Southern California Trojans standout met with Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell and Caleb came away from that interaction feeling that Minnesota was where he wanted to be. Per Wickersham's book, Williams told his father, "I need to go to the Vikings."
Williams' father was on board with his son's wishes, but the Bears quickly put any thoughts of that possibility to bed. Per ESPN, Ryan Poles informed the family that, "We're drafting you no matter what."
Caleb Williams Decided He Couldn't "Nuke the City"
The final card left on the table for Williams and his father to play was one that had some prior success but left Caleb open to the type of ridicule that would have followed him the rest of his career and, ultimately, put even more pressure on him to be an immediate success.
The Williams' were ready to pull out the John Elway playbook and throw the franchise and the city of Chicago under the bus to the point where the organization would feel as if they couldn't bring Caleb into the fold. While Caleb's father was on board with the idea, his son concluded that he couldn't put his family through that ridicule.
In addition, Williams did not want to put the city or Bears fans through something that would have turned nasty, as there is no way those comments would have been received in any other manner.
"I wasn't ready to nuke the city," the Bears quarterback told Wickersham, per ESPN.
Ultimately, it was a pre-draft visit to Chicago where Williams decided that the Windy City was a place he could call home and that taking on the challenge of revitalizing this franchise was something he could handle, and more importantly, wanted.
"I can do it for this team," Caleb told his dad, per ESPN. "I'm going to go to the Bears."
Excitement for the Future Under Ben Johnson
Like many other No. 1 overall picks who were thrust into the starting role at quarterback, Williams had plenty of struggles throughout his rookie season. Losing is a difficult thing to deal with when you have enjoyed as much success on the football field as Williams had prior to entering the NFL.
Those growing pains as a rookie should only help Williams as he moves forward in his career. The fact that Chicago has one of the brightest offensive minded coaches in the league calling the shots with Williams entering his second-year as a starter is not lost on Caleb and has him fired up for what is on the way for the Bears.
"Being able to be in this position, being able to have a first year the way I did, ups and downs, and then to be able come in here, be as confident as I was last year or possibly even more and to be able to get here with the group that we have, I really can't wait to get to work with these guys," Williams said, per ESPN.
"Him pushing me is key," he said. "I know that, and he knows that. ... I can't wait and to be able to help me learn more about ball because he's super smart, super sharp."
At the end of the day, winning trumps all else in the NFL and if Williams, Johnson and the rest of the roster can lead Chicago back to the playoffs then anything that was said, publicly or privately, leading up to the 2024 NFL Draft will be forgotten.