The World Waits for Caleb Williams
The USC quarterback has been the best player in college football for a very long time, and now turns his eyes to the pros
The beauty of college football is that it’s fleeting. Players come and go. A program defining player may emerge in September and leave campus by January. True freshmen rarely make an impact in their first season, and the truly great players often leave after year three, turning their eyes towards the pros. You are not supposed to be the best player in the sport for very long.
You aren’t supposed to have a college career like Caleb Williams.
The Oklahoma Sooner-turned-USC Trojan-turned-Heisman winner has been the number one pick in the 2024 NFL Draft since 2021. He was something special from the start. Thrust into a Red River Shootout with his Sooners trailing the deeply hated Texas Longhorns 28-7 in the first quarter, he took a 4th and 1 read option play 66 yards for a touchdown that flipped momentum. He never looked back. He led the Sooners to a 55-48 win over their rivals, etching his name into Oklahoma history and left no doubt as to who would be the starting quarterback a week later. He’d mark his first career start with 5 touchdowns in a thrashing of the TCU Horned Frogs.
Williams had the college football world in his grasp. The sport revolved around him. The new kid, the prodigy. Some compared him to Patrick Mahomes, some compared him to Johnny Manziel, and some to Baker Mayfield - each legends of the sport in their own right. But Williams is truly unlike any of them, or any other quarterback prospect we have seen.
The way he moves, so uncertain but so in control. He’s almost drifting, floating, dancing between tacklers. Each of his appendages seems to have a distinctly different yet controlled movement once he gets into space. He’s creative yet decisive. Quick and fast, but calculated. He has the footwork, processing ability and raw strength to stand in the pocket, but he doesn’t need to. He can play backyard football with the best of them, and seemed to always have a creative solution to whatever problems his offense faced. Williams can throw with velocity and touch. From normal and abnormal angles.
The young quarterback followed Lincoln Riley, the head coach that brought him from Washington D.C. to Norman, west in 2022. He went Hollywood, joining a USC program that provided the bright lights his talent deserved. He had a chance to wake a dormant giant. Bring the once proud Trojans back to the peak of Mount Olympus.
Williams’ USC career is interesting in that the spotlight it received was not congruent to the success his team had. He was, far and away, the most recognizable face in college football in the earliest days of the NIL era. A casual college football fan might know who Williams is without being able to name a single other national star. He won the Heisman in 2022. While LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels won the 2023 edition, it was still Williams whose name was in the headlines every week. The player who owned segments on the morning talk shows and weekly podcasts. College football has belonged to Caleb Williams since the moment he dove into the endzone against the Longhorns.
But the Trojans themselves, disappointed. Williams never played a College Football Playoff game. The most important game he ever played in was a shocking loss to Tulane in the 2022 Rose Bowl. USC had College Football Playoff hopes entering 2023, but were the fifth best team in the Pac 12.
Many pinned the lack of team success on Williams, even though he continued to play at an elite level. But we are always looking for the newest and shiniest thing. A lot of people have become tired of Williams. Prospect fatigue is a real thing. Sometimes we turn on guys because we are tired of hearing about them for six months before the draft. We’ve been hearing about Williams for three years now. Out of nowhere, many of us - including myself - started to doubt him as QB1.
And then there’s the fact that Williams himself is so different than other quarterbacks has seemed to irk some. Williams isn’t a macho man, constantly trying to prove to us how tough and cool he is. He is the opposite. He paints his nails. He isn’t afraid to cry after a tough loss, wearing his emotions on his sleeve. He didn’t back down from wearing a dress for a GQ cover shoot last summer.
Where some have seen this as a sign of Williams not being “tough enough” to play in the NFL - betraying underlying homophobia, if we are being honest - it is truly a sign of his confidence in himself. The comments about Williams apparel have been a constant since he took over as the Sooners’ quarterback, but he’s remained unfazed. A weaker willed player would cut these things out, wanting to appease detractors. Williams instead drowned out the noise and continued to be the player he is.
The same confidence that allowed him to brush off comparisons to Michael Jordan at the NFL Combine last month is what makes him comfortable painting his nails and wearing a dress. Hate him or love him, it doesn’t matter. His game speaks for itself.
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Williams’ stats just off the page. He averaged more than nine yards per attempt and completed around two-thirds of his passes in each of his three college seasons. He has never thrown more than five interceptions in one season, and three of the five he threw in 2023 came in one game against Notre Dame.
The young quarterback is remarkably consistent. Last year’s Notre Dame game is the only true “bad game” he played in his college career. Throwing 93 touchdowns to just 14 interceptions over three seasons is incredible.
He passes the eye test on film, too. Williams has an NFL arm, with the raw power to hit throws downfield and outside the numbers. He also has the finesse to drop lobbed passes right on top of receivers. When in structure, he is a great decision maker. Williams does not put the ball in harm’s way, reads defenders well, and can play with the anticipation and decisiveness necessary to succeed at the next level. His release is rapid, too. The ball gets out of his hands before defenders have a chance to react.
He plays with eyes in the back of his head. His pressure recognition and pocket feel is excellent. I don’t think I found a single play where he was tackled by a defender he didn’t see.
The one flaw in his game emerges when he plays out of structure. As mentioned, Williams plays backyard football like the best of them. He might like playing that style a little too much, though. He has the ability to create a highlight every time things breakdown around him, but he sometimes doesn’t need to. At the college level, he’d often turn down the easy play and instead go the hard route. He needs to learn to just scramble for the first down and get out of bounds, not linger around the line of scrimmage, waiting indefinitely for the home run to open up downfield. Instead of juking around defenders, he could just throw a check down sometimes.
He got away with it at the college level, however. While you assume NFL defenders will be faster, smarter and take better tackle angles, he will likely embarrass at least a few linebackers and defensive ends in the NFL.
At 6’1, 214 lbs, Williams is a little smaller than a lot of teams want at quarterback, but he makes up for it with everything else. He is truly the most complete quarterback prospect we have seen in a long time.
Williams is, without a doubt, going to be the top overall pick in the 2024 draft. The Chicago Bears would be fools to pass up on the generational prospect. Williams met with Bears officials last week, having dinner with them in a meeting that many believe solidified his status as the first pick of the draft.
His arrival in Chicago will be met with both jubilation and skepticism. With cheers of the arrival of a new savior for the downtrodden franchise, but also with fears that he may be next in a long line of disappointments at quarterback.
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Chicago is a city of superstars. One of the most important sports cities in the American canon. Where Jordan won six rings and became a global hero. Where the ‘85 Bears rampaged their way through the NFL and into history. Where the hometown kid Derrick Rose became a national hero and Patrick Kane turned the downtrodden Blackhawks into a dynasty. Home to Wrigley and Soldier Fields. Being the face of Chicago sports is a heavy burden to bear.
It is a burden the Williams’ successor, Justin Fields, did not do well carrying. Fields was never the college football star that Williams was, but he is an Ohio State legend in his own right. He led the Buckeyes to a CFP National Championship game with play similar to that of Williams. Fields also dazzled with his feet. While the pair of quarterbacks are very different players – Fields does not have the same arm as Williams, and while an equally great athlete is not great out of structure and does not make as many throws out of the pocket - they are both a part of a newer age of quarterbacks. Guys who want to leave the pocket and use their feet more.
But Fields failed, as did Mitch Trubisky before him. His rushing ability was amazing, on par with the likes of Lamar Jackson. Fields just couldn’t figure out how to function at the NFL level, though. He wasn’t creative enough to get himself out of trouble, and not confident enough in himself as a passer to keep his eyes downfield when he exited the pocket.
One thing Fields did have, though, was support. Bears fans rallied around the young quarterback. He was loved in the locker room. Despite his poor play, he was well regarded by the media. People love Justin Fields.
The position could not be any more opposite for Williams, however. The most hated top prospect in a long time. A player whose future teammates are already showing toxicity to before he has even been drafted. Everyone already wanted Williams to fail at USC, and now even more so in the NFL.
Williams will, however, have a lot of support on the field. Fields was drafted to a horrible roster, and while it improved over his three years in Chicago, it was never as good as what Williams is walking into.
The Bears offensive line is no longer terrible. It isn’t great, but it is good enough. Veteran superstar receiver Keenan Allen joins the Bears standout 2023 acquisition DJ Moore to form an elite pair of receivers. Former Detroit Lions and Philadelphia Eagles stand out D’Andre Swift joins as a versatile weapon out of the backfield. The defense should be better. Everything is set up for Williams to win, and to win immediately.
The Bears haven’t won a Super Bowl in nearly 40 years. In that time, the Bulls and Blackhawks had dynasties. The Cubs broke their near-century long streak of futility, and even the White Sox won a ring. The Bears should be up next up.
Chicago has never had a true franchise quarterback. A team who is still looking for an adequate replacement to Jay Cutler more than a half-decade later. The stage is set for Williams to smash every franchise passing record in his rookie year. He could become the greatest quarterback in Bears history in year one.
The expectations of Williams in the NFL are sky high, just as they were for him in the NCAA. But if there is anyone adept at blocking out the noise and just playing football, it’s him.