CHICAGO BEARS BOTCH A CHANCE TO MAKE CALEB WILLIAMS HAPPY, OF COURSE
A dismal franchise must have the back of a potential all-time quarterback — or so they claim — but when Williams asked the Bears to avoid using the franchise tag when his deal expires, he was told no
The association between Caleb Williams and the Bears is backwards. It’s slanted in his direction far beyond any painted fingernails. The NFL franchise, which has won one Super Bowl in 58 years of trying, exists only to keep him happy. If he is not happy, the No. 1 overall draft pick might leave Chicago after four or five years, or sooner.
He owns them. They do not own him.
So explain what team president and CEO Kevin Warren is doing at Halas Hall. With more negotiating leverage than any rostered player in decades, Williams asked the front office to avoid using the franchise tag when his rookie contract expires. That means, he wants to cash in with the best possible long-term deal as a veteran — sooner than later — instead of being pushed into a cheaper tag designation. In all other cases within the league, a rookie is not granted such a guarantee request, but Williams might be the Bears’ first franchise quarterback in the modern era.
He has the right to demand what he desires. Warren should have said yes, as a way of committing to a player who might take them deep into the playoffs if not to another championship. He said no. Warren also could have considered tax strategies, in a report broken by Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio, in which Williams wanted to be paid as an LLC (a Limited Liability Company). Give him credit for creativity, along with his father, who has worked in commercial real estate. With a four-year contract worth $39 million in Illinois — including a $25 million signing bonus — he wouldn’t pay income taxes.
The Bears and the NFL said no, though the collective bargaining agreement didn’t invalidate the attempt.
Which might not matter, in the end. Maybe Williams becomes the C.J. Stroud of 2024. Maybe he’s on the lakefront throughout his career and helps Warren cut a new stadium deal with Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker. But already, as camp begins, the Bears did not agree to give Williams what he wanted. This should bug a fan who has swallowed an abysmal set of quarterbacks in a very long lifetime.
He may find out, eventually, what many of us already know about the McCaskeys and people who work for them. Regardless of his Heisman Trophy and his drop-dead college tapes, Williams is an employee who parks his car somewhere off Route 60 and shows up for work in Lake Forest. If he falls short, they’ll find yet another quarterback. In his mind, we want him to coddle a thought that the Bears are ultra-progressive and ache for him to win three titles and make the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
They are not ultra-progressive. They still worship 1985 like it was yesterday. They’re still about Butkus and Sayers and Payton and Ditka. Caleb Williams? General manager Ryan Poles had a chance to select Stroud last season and blew it, so Williams is next on the mantle. This is a franchise that acquired Jay Cutler and saw him turn to mush. This is a franchise that drafted Mitchell Trubisky and Justin Fields and saw them turn to double mush. Williams asked to be treated as a special player with special needs. He realized quickly he’s just a dude who takes the center snap.
“I’m not handling that,” Williams said over the weekend at a Caleb Cares Foundation event. “My lawyers and attorney and everybody, the head of the Bears, everybody up there up top is handling that. That's not my position that I'm handling.”
He knows the passers he is expected to outplay are earning monster contracts. Detroit’s Jared Goff signed for $212 million, with $170 million guaranteed. Green Bay’s Jordan Love will earn a similar number, if not more. Teams take care of their supermen, from Patrick Mahomes to Joe Burrow, from Lamar Jackson to Justin Herbert. Williams has yet to play a down in the preseason. Don’t tell him that. He wants what his business senses command.
To have a legendary career in Chicago, the Bears must have his back. They can’t be fighting him on contracts, as they’ve done in the past. They have lucked into a player who could be one of the league’s premier faces for two decades.
But they are quite capable of forcing Williams to eventually find a new team. I spent 17 years in that market and saw players come and go in all sports, and at this point, the Rams await him. He played in Los Angeles at USC. He has met owner Stan Kroenke and knows coach Sean McVay. The franchise needs life as Matthew Stafford floats through his twilight.
The Chicago media want to celebrate him. Said the Sun-Times, in an online piece: “Thanks to Caleb Williams, the Bears have a raging case of hope.” I say he’s already pissed off at the Bears.
I know better.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.