Bear Digest

Caleb Williams as Good as Advertised

Bears coaches, personnel people and wide receiver Keenan Allen turn out to see USC's expected top pick in the draft throw at the school's pro day.

Gene Chamberlain

Caleb Williams as Good as Advertised
Caleb Williams as Good as Advertised /
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 As these workouts go, it wasn't enough to scare anyone off of Caleb Williams.

When there's no place else left for you to go but down, that's always the big fear. But Williams got past his pro day at USC without being trashed by critics for a poor effort, and certainly it was better than what people saw or didn't see at Ohio State from wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr., who didn't work out at all.

The probable first pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, Williams displayed leadership with former Trojans teammates working out and showed off his own talent for his possible new team. That would be the Chicago Bears.

"I missed a couple passes down the field, deep ball-wise, vertical, and then I had, I think one or two, I think one behind my receiver," Williams told NFL Network's Steve Wyche after the pro day workout. "So, work on those things."

The entire workout is scheduled to be replayed at 7 p.m. Wednesday on NFL Network.

The Bears sent a large group of personnel people and coaches to the USC workout including GM Ryan Poles, coach Matt Eberflus, assistant GM Ian Cunningham and offensive coordinator Shane Waldron.

They also had one new member of the team in attendance. Wide receiver Keenan Allen was in the neighborhood because he lives in California and has met Williams before, so he popped by to see the passer who could become his teammate near the end of April with the first pick in the draft.

"It was great, it was great," Williams told Wyche about the veteran receiver being there. "So I've known Keenan for a little bit now, hung out. He was at the Chargers at the time, obviously. Now he's at the Bears (in exchange) for, like I said, he's here (motioning forward) for a fourth-round pick, which is crazy.

"He's a beast, good guy, also good to be around. He can give you an awful lot of knowledge."

The measurements given from the pro day workout for Williams were different slightly than the official ones at the combine. Instead of the 6-foot-1 1/8 inches he measuerd at the combine, he was 6-foot, 7/8 of an inch. He was 217 pounds, which was 3 pounds heavier. Also, his hand was measured at 9-7/8 inches, which is 1/8 of an inch larger than at the combine.

At the combine, Fields had his wingspan measuerd at 75 7/8 inches and arm length at 32%.

All of these are fairly average except his height and weight. He is in the lower 20% for height and lower 25% for weight at all combines according to Mockdraftable's listings of all combine weights and heights.

At the end of the workout he completed a deep ball to USC teammate Brenden Rice, son of Jerry Rice, and then even showed off his punting ability by punting the ball over 40 yards. The deep pass appeared to travel about 66 or 67 yards in the air.

Next up for Williams are top-30 visits. The Bears had dinner with him the night before his workout and reportedly he'll make a visit to Halas Hall soon. 

The pro day workouts make scheduling those visits difficult because personnel people need to be at Halas Hall. And this is the heaviest stretch of pro days around the country.

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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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