Caleb Williams went #1 overall to the Chicago Bears on April 25th. Nobody was shocked. He had been the heavy favorite pretty much since the scouting combine. Most draft experts felt he was the best of the quarterback prospects, and it wasn’t all that close. Yet, not enough people have discussed this fact. They have not acknowledged an incredible fact about how the 2024 draft unfolded that made what Williams accomplished even more impressive.
Think about this. Each of the six quarterbacks selected in the 1st round this year had a wide receiver join them. Five of those six saw at least one of those receivers go in the 4th round or higher. The only one who didn’t. That’s right. It was Williams.
Caleb Williams
- WR Brendan Rice – 7th round
- WR Tajh Washington – 7th round
Jayden Daniels
- WR Malik Nabers – 1st round
- WR – Brian Thomas Jr. – 1st round
Drake Maye
- WR Devontez Walker – 4th round
Michael Penix
- WR Rome Odunze – 1st round
- WR Ja’Lynn Polk – 2nd round
- WR Jalen McMillan – 3rd round
Bo Nix
- WR Troy Franklin – 4th round
Think about that. Williams had two 7th round wide receivers and no offensive linemen even drafted and still managed to throw 30 touchdowns last season for USC.
Caleb Williams earned the respect and admiration he received.
This isn’t a misbegotten hype job. The kid carried a frankly bad USC roster to a 7-5 record. They had no weapons in the passing game, no protection, and no defense. Yet they still had a winning record and lost two games despite putting up 30+ points. Anybody with common sense should see how much of a difference-maker Williams was. He didn’t play “hero ball” so often because he felt like it. He did it because the guys around him made it necessary. That is about to change in Chicago.
He already had two Pro Bowlers waiting for him in D.J. Moore and Keenan Allen. Chicago quickly added to the fun by grabbing Rome Odunze 9th overall. This is easily the deepest group of receivers the Bears have had in modern franchise history. It is unquestionably the best group Caleb Williams will have ever thrown to. If he could do what he did last year with future NFL backups, there is no telling how much fun it could get with a trio of studs out there running routes.
That’s all fine. But it’s all past. Williams has landed in one of the most stacked offenses a QB drafted at number 1 could ever possibly find himself in. It’s a far better situation than Young or CJ Stroud landed in last year. There is no reason it shouldn’t click. Instead of rehashing how bad his college offense was last year, the writers should focus on how good this offense in Chicago could be. And they should be preaching P-A-T-I-E-N-C-E, instead of talking about the past. New QB, two new WRs, new TE2, new RB 1, new OC, new playbook… Read more »
@Slip Knotz Before anyone gets too happy about the Miller Moss break out game in the Holiday Bowl, take a moment to reflect on 5 weeks of practice and rest time for a clearly tired and relatively untalented team. I’m not trying to take anything a way from Moss. He was splendid with the same team that gave Williams a case of the red ass for the last half of the season. Nothing about the USC game other than the TD passes was remarkable by the way. The defense still almost gave up the season avg of 34 points a… Read more »
Easy to see CW win Rookie of Year Honors and Offensive Rookie of the Year. He is stepping into an almost perfect place to play his position. The offense will likely generate 30 plus points a game even with a rookie QB. The defense is looking like it will be even better than last year and if R Poles signs a DE to complement Sweat between now and the start of the season, this defense will be a game changer in games. I believe CW will throw for 4200 plus yds, 32 plus TD’s, only 4 int’s, rush for 486… Read more »
Finally, some excitement going into a season for the first time in a long time. Yes, we are always excited to see who makes the cut, who plays, who plays well, but deep down we know we don’t have enough to compete at the highest levels. We may be a little deficient on the defensive line or the interior of the offensive line, but we for the first time have weapons on both sides of the ball. Legitimate weapons, legitimate position groups that are much stronger than other team’s position groups. Yes, it’s a rookie QB, yes we haven’t seen… Read more »
Blah, blah, hey the Bears might finally have a QB who will pass to the receivers wide open in front of him. Hey, the Bears might actually have a legit OC after being down for several years. Then you have all these folks jumping on the Bears saying they didn’t do enough for the last QB, well they had a whole team to rebuild and decided to go with where the draft was strongest at and just maybe they didn’t feel the QB they had was what they wanted. I haven’t looked at the schedule, but I hope the Bears… Read more »