Bear Digest

Another Comical Take on Why Bears Shouldn't Draft Caleb Williams

Analysis: Ridiculous reasons why the Bears shouldn't select Caleb Williams keep on coming and this one from NFL Network is laughable.

Gene Chamberlain

Caleb Williams watches proceedings at the combine at the beginning of March.
Caleb Williams watches proceedings at the combine at the beginning of March. / Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
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It could go down as one of the worst takes on Caleb Williams coming to Chicago, if not among the worst on someone going anywhere in the NFL.

It probably would be the worst take, if not for the way Cole Beasley criticized the USC QB for painting his fingernails and why Dan Orlovsky urged the Bears to take some other QB because he saw the Notre Dame game film.

This new, next-worst take is NFL Network's analytics expert Cynthia Freelund getting right in line with ESPN's Olrovsky by calling for the Bears to draft Jayden Daniels.

Except her reasoning has nothing to do with one game when Williams played poorly against Notre Dame, which was the basis for Orlovsky's silliness. It doesn't even have to do with something that has happened on the field in any game.

She believes it would be better for Williams. So the Bears apparently should just trade the pick to the Commanders.

That's nice. The Bears should be all in for making Williams comfortable by trading him to Washington. That's what it's all about, after all.

Wow.

This can't be made up. The Bears should take Jayden Daniels, she said.

"Which would mean the guy who (Kliff) Kingsbury coached last year at USC would be available for a reunion," she said. "I think a lot of these quarterback-to-team situations are best done when you have more people there to support the player. And this would be the most supportive move that you could possibly make.

"They obviously know how to work together. They had success at USC. Caleb Williams showed you a lot of what he can do there."

Yes, he sure did.

He won the Heisman. Except, he won the Heisman when Kingsbury wasn't an assistant at USC. Kingsbury was coaching the Arizona Cardinals at the time.

And what was that success they had, exactly, last year? It was a 7-5 record and a finish so poor it threatened to derail Williams' status as the top pick in the draft for a while. It was why Orlovsky was pointing at the Notre Dame game as an indictment of Williams' football career.

Kingsbury and Williams together didn't do what coach Lincoln Riley did with Williams and with receivers like Jordan Addison the previous year. They didn't really come close. So why should the two of them duplicate last year's "magical" time together?

As for not thinking Williams will have support, the Bears went out of their way to bring in an offensive coordinator, trade for a receiver, sign a tight end and tinker with their offensive line in an attempt to support a rookie quarterback. They even sent Justin Fields and Uno, his French bulldog, packing to Pittsburgh to make room for Williams and his English bulldog named Supa.

The Bears defense came on strong in the second half of last year and showed it's capable of supporting a quarterback on their end better than when Justin Fields was trying to get a grasp on what Luke Getsy wanted from the position in 2022. They look like a top 10 defense.

How is Washington going to support him on offense, defense or special teams? This was a team that lost to a winless Bears team last year 40-20 ... at home. Then they got rid of half their standout defensive line and gutted the roster.

It's not the city of Washington, where Williams is from, and there is no Kingsbury, who was already run out of the NFL once. But the Bears should be able to welcome Williams quite nicely.


Sending quarterbacks where they have friends and former coaches to help them along? Well, let's get them a rattle, rattle, pacifier, crib and playpen too.

Maybe the Bears should hire Dennis Simmons as offensive coordinator and fire Waldron then. Simmons was passing game coordinator for Williams at USC two years, including when he won the Heisman, before Kingsbury got there as a "senior analyst" for a 7-5 year.

Who was the guy on the Kansas City Chiefs' roster in 2017 who made sure Patrick Mahomes came in and felt so much at home that he would go on to become three-time MVP?

Who were the quarterbacks who have had this luxury of their former college assistant for one year coming with them to the NFL as their offensive coordinator that support this theory, anyway? Some proof could help.

Maybe that's why the Bears and Justin Fields failed together. They didn't bring in one of Ryan Day's assistants to help their QB?

As for sending the QB where he was from, then wouldn't that mean J.J. McCarthy should be the QB the Bears draft and not Daniels?

Instead, Daniels should be drafted by the Rams or the Chargers because he's from San Bernadino. That would make him much more comfortable.

Why should the Bears get Daniels, anyway? They don't have one of his LSU coaches on staff.

The Panthers would get Drake Maye then. He was born in Charlotte.

Of course none of this makes any sense.

There is a dispersal of talent known as the draft and players go where they're wanted and needed according to this. They have since 1936.

No one is going to change it because Cynthia thinks it would be nice for Caleb to have an offensive coordinator he had for one college season, when the Trojans won seven games.

Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

BearDigest.com publisher Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.

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