Caleb Williams 'Bucket List' Ranking Among the Drafted QBs

SI.com's Albert Breer compares Caleb Williams to the other QB draft prospects since he began covering the NFL and puts him in one of two upper echelons.

Caleb Williams' status among QB prospects over two decades is lofty according to SI's Albert Breer. / Darren Yamashita-USA TODAY Sports

It's a bucket list, but not that type of bucket list.

Bears GM Ryan Poles popularized this term in regard to personnel two years ago when he spoke about how they classify free agents in certain "buckets," a nice way of saying levels.

Sports Illustrated columnist Albert Breer has borrowed the Poles phrase and used it to describe where he rates quarterback Caleb Williams in relation to all quarterbacks drafted since he began covering the NFL almost two decades ago.

In his weekly mailbag column while answering Bears fan Bryan Orenchuk, Breer went all the way back to the 2006 draft and said he has placed the best quarterbacks into two buckets.

In bucket No. 1 were "Matt Ryan, Matthew Stafford, Sam Bradford, Cam Newton, Robert Griffin III, Jameis Winston, Marcus Mariota, Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold, Joe Burrow, Jayden Daniels and Drake Maye."

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Considering all the quarterbacks who have been drafted since 2006, this placement of Daniels and Maye in one of the top two buckets seems a bit generous, but Patriots and Commanders fans will like it.

Then there was his bucket No. 1: "Andrew Luck, Trevor Lawrence, Caleb Williams."

To all of the negative Bears fans or those beaten down by years of getting their hopes up only to be dashed, and even to those Justin Fields fans who are still upset the team somehow did their guy wrong, Breer says Williams is right there with Andrew Luck and Trevor Lawrence as the best he's seen come through the draft process.

"That’s the simplest way I can illustrate how Williams is seen," Breer wrote. "He's the best quarterback prospect in at least three years, and maybe in 12."

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