IF CALEB WILLIAMS BLOWS OFF CHICAGO, THE BEARS ARE SCREWED FOR LIFE
The one quarterback who could solve a team’s eternal problem liked the wrong tweet, preferring a suggestion that a chaotic Justin Fields remain while receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. is selected No. 1
In recent times, it’s possible no college quarterback is better suited for the NFL than Caleb Williams, with greats raving about his astounding plays. And in the all-time memory of football, no team is in dire need of a quarterback more than the Chicago Bears, whose franchise player at the position wore a leather helmet in the 1940s and whose only Super Bowl champion QB — Jim McMahon, the one and only — follows me on a website that I don’t read.
Yet in what qualifies as a big scoop these days, Williams used social media to suggest he doesn’t want to play in Chicago. Anyone who thinks he’s toying hasn’t been monitoring, as he also delivered a fresh message that he wishes to join the Pittsburgh Steelers. When someone named @spennyschaum22 sent a robust missive on X — “Only one option for the @ChicagoBears in the 2024 @NFL draft. It’s not @CALEBcsw, we want @justnfields. The answer is @MarvHarrisonJr” — there was a massive response from Williams.
He liked the tweet.
If true, which comes weeks after his father suggested Caleb could ditch an organization he doesn’t respect, the Bears could be struck by yet another dastardly blow at the most important space in sports. It’s his official site, all right, with his name, his screen name, his 83,500 followers and verbiage: Caleb “Superman” Williams (and) “Hakuna Matata” Scholar at University of Southern California. It comes after a pinned tweet where he writes, “I’m Not a Businessman; I’m a Business, Man!” Hot damn that he agrees with @spennyschaum22, reflecting what I always thought as a Chicago columnist: The Bears are a dead end for quarterbacks in the personal vein of the city’s baseball futility, where the Cubs and White Sox each have managed just one World Series victory in 219 collective seasons of trying.
We’ve seen quarterbacks fail for no reason, including Jay Cutler, who appeared on “Inside the NFL” as I wrote this. We’ve seen others break team records and fall upon dreadful moments, such as Erik Kramer, who tried to commit suicide and has written a new book. It’s possible Williams wants no part of a blind alley at Soldier Field, a cold place where the Bears won one Super Bowl in 1985. This would reflect the words of his father, Carl, who refuses to let his son play for a slaughtered team and spoke to many men who agreed — including the USC coach, Lincoln Riley, and how his two other Heisman Trophy winners, Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray, struggled because of where they were drafted.
“The worst possible team, the worst organization in the league — because of their desire for parity — gets the first pick. I mean, I've talked to Archie Manning — his career was shot because he went to a horrible organization,” Carl told GQ. “I’ve talked to Lincoln, and Kyler struggled because of where he was drafted. Baker struggled mightily because of where he was drafted. The organizations matter. He’s got two shots at the apple.” At the time, Williams spoke of Caleb returning to school, but now, he might be trying to determine which team selects him — the way it worked out for Eli Manning, who itched for the New York Giants instead of San Diego, and John Elway, who picked Denver over Baltimore.
If Caleb and Carl are jockeying with the draft order, this will cause utter tumult in Chicago. Fans can’t even land a gifted quarterback when the draft order has the Bears likely picking No. 1 overall, owning the choice of the 2-13 Carolina Panthers. For all the wacky stuff offered by local media — that Justin Fields might be worth a long-term contract after another weird, inconsistent, injury-plagued season — the optimum choice for the Bears is to trade Fields, hire a head coach with offensive creativity and draft WIlliams. If I were running the Halas Hall show, as I once did, I’d throw money at Detroit’s offensive coordinator, Ben Johnson, and see if the Wandering Williamses like him.
But I swear Chicago has become so horrid in sports that people are settling for mediocrity. Why else would anyone retain Fields, entering his laborious fourth season, when you refreshingly can dump him and restart the QB role with a rookie contract? When media people suggest the Bears select receiver Marvin Harrison Jr., they’ve forgotten the issue: You actually want Fields throwing the football to him?
Assuming Williams is establishing his path, general manager Ryan Poles does have options. The best would be Jayden Daniels, the Heisman Trophy winner, who used his 6-4 frame to throw for 3,812 yards and 40 touchdowns while running for 1,134 yards and 10 touchdowns. The next-best would be Drake Maye, who played at North Carolina, which alarms fans who know the Bears once passed on Patrick Mahomes to choose Mitchell Trubisky, who played in Chapel Hill. All while Williams dismisses Chicago … and becomes a superstar elsewhere.
In especially rough years for the Bears, the quarterbacks were so wretched that I brought Sunday’s New York Times to the press box. Fields is a different breed, but in the end, he’s as maddening as all of them. He must go. And if Poles want to keep his job much longer, he’ll catch a plane and have a long talk with Williams. Imagine if the Bears allow another Mahomes to rule the league.
Besides. Doesn’t Sid Luckman, who passed away 25 years ago, want to move on from his franchise designation at this point?
###
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.