NFL Combine: Caleb Williams Opens Up Amid Speculation and Assumptions

The former USC quarterback is owning the NFL draft process on his terms as he seeks No. 1 selection.

The Caleb Williams experience arrived at the NFL Scouting Combine as the elite quarterback prospect, who has said surprisingly little, revealed quite a bit in front of cameras for the first time since his USC Trojans career ended. That follows an interview with ESPN earlier in the week that clarified that Williams would be O.K. going to the Washington Commanders or Chicago Bears depending on how the NFL draft shakes out. That comes after rumors that Williams and his family may put his thumb on the scale à la Eli Manning 20 years ago to determine where he wants to play.

“A lot of things are coming out right now,” Williams said. “You have rarely seen me speak ever. As y’all know, I don’t really go out and speak much, but this was, you know, this was important to me that I wanted to put something out before I came here. Especially with all the noise and things like that that’s been brewing and things like that. Before I came here and then now since I’ve been here, a bunch of stuff comes out, but just wanted to put something else everybody knew exactly where it was coming from.”

To understand Williams is to understand that he and the team around him, led by his father Carl, are purporting him to be not just any quarterback prospect, but a singular tour de force at the position on and off the field. To some, it comes off as arrogant; to others, it’s simply a young man and his family understanding their worth in the modern landscape of athletes as total brands. It’s why rumors of his father asking about equity in individual franchises raised eyebrows during the fall, but it’s understandable when you consider the lens Williams is viewed in. It shows up in subtle ways, too, like Williams wearing a pair of Asics instead of the standard issue NOBULL Combine workout attire. Williams is opting out of workouts at the Combine—which isn’t rare, as contemporaries Jayden Daniels and Drake Maye aren’t throwing either—but what is rare is Williams opting out of medical testing in Indianapolis.

Williams will not work out during the NFL Scouting Combine and will go through medical testing during individual team visits :: Trevor Ruszkowski/USA TODAY Sports

“So for the medical stuff, I’ll be doing the medical stuff, just not here in Indy,” Williams said. “I’ll be doing that at [the individual team visits after the Combine]. You know, not 32 teams can draft me. There’s only one of me. And so the teams that I go to for my visit, you know those teams will have the medical and that’ll be it. … I didn’t feel the need to go out and throw. I played around 30-some games, I believe. Go ahead and watch real live ball with me and see how I am as a competitor.”

It is continued ownership of the process whether it rubs some teams the wrong way or not. It’s clear there’s a strategy behind the way Team Williams operates. Their star navigated the public part of this NFL job interview deftly, shaking hands and introducing himself along the way as he was shuttled from interview to interview with everyone from ESPN’s Laura Rutledge to a surprised camera woman at Sirius XM. Onlookers see the earrings and the smile; you can understand how a certain type of person and team will be taken aback but how a different one may fall in love. For now, what mostly matters is what the Bears think about Williams as they hold the No. 1 pick. And it is important to him to be picked first.

“I don’t think that I’m not gonna be number one,” Williams said. “I think I put in all the hard work, all of the time, effort, energy into being that. I don’t think of a Plan B. That’s kind of how I do things in my life. I don’t think of a Plan B, stay on Plan A and then when things don’t work out, find a way to make Plan A work.”

He did, however, clear up that he wasn’t leaving an intentional clue as to where he wants to play in a recently changed social media profile picture.

Caleb Williams changed his Instagram profile picture to a photo of himself as a kid wearing a shirt with a Bear on it.

Coincidence? pic.twitter.com/74HZ7iNEzj

— The GOAT House (@GoatHouseNFL) February 2, 2024

“It was not intentional,” Williams said. “I didn’t see the bear on the front. But you know, it was kind of funny when I saw the reports about it.”

In a draft process that will continue to be polarizing, it seems like that will be one of the few unintentional things Williams does before he walks across the stage in Detroit to shake commissioner Roger Goodell’s hand.