For a player to earn the distinction of being selected 1st overall in the NFL Draft, you'd expect for that player to check a number of important boxes. Fortunately, for the Chicago Bears, their recent #1 overall pick Caleb Williams, checks many of them. Obviously, on-field performance is the big one, and the Bears will certainly be hoping that Williams won't resemble a rookie for too long, but how successful a player is on the field is often linked to how inherently competitive they are.
It turns out Caleb Williams checks that box too.
Following Chicago's first day of mandatory minicamp on Tuesday, Bears tight end Cole Kmet, coming off the best season of his young career in 2023 — 73 catches, 719 yards, 6 touchdowns — took to the podium and shared with the media members in attendance a recent story about Caleb Williams that seems like a good indicator that the young QB is made of the right stuff.
Cole Kmet isn't the only player on the Bears roster who sees it. Even on the other side of the ball, Williams' Bears teammates are taking note.
“He’s competitive,” said linebacker Tremaine Edmunds, according to Alyssa Barbieri of Bears Wire. “As a rookie, he’s doing some things that are good to see. That’s the thing that gets me most excited and I think gets our team most excited.”
Now, there will surely be people out there who hear about a story like this one and say something along the lines of, “Well, that doesn't mean anything. Golf isn't football.” To that I say you can't have it both ways. We can't simultaneously criticize guys when they aren't maniacal competitors, celebrate some guys when they are — you've heard the Michael Jordan Ping Pong story, haven't you — and then say something like this “doesn't mean anything.” It means something.
Caleb Williams' performance at Bears OTAs
Prior to being selected 1st overall by the Chicago Bears, Caleb Williams was given a sage piece of advice by seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady:
“There was a difference between being a star and being a champion. … Every day of practice was important. You know why? Because when I was on the Patriots and we had 20 years winning, every day was a big day. I treated a preseason game, I treated a regular game like it was a Super Bowl. So when I got to the Super Bowl it was just another day for me.”
Thus far, Williams has been lauded for both his competitiveness and his willingness to learn, and because of that, reports of a few rough days against the Bears defensive starters doesn't sound too many alarm bells. If the end of last season was any indication, then the Bears should expect to have at minimum a top ten defense this year. So the fact that Caleb Williams gets to hone his craft against a unit so talented will pay dividends down the line.
For now, it's the little things that Williams needs to work on. Bears head coach Matt Eberflus noted specifically that one of the areas he expects to see improvement throughout the summer is with Williams' cadences and command of the huddle.
“Something we still have to work on, as you guys saw today, is the cadence,” head coach Matt Eberflus said Tuesday, according to Josh Schrock of NBC Sports Chicago. “We saw guys jump offsides – I think there were half a dozen of the time – so that’s something that needs to be worked out. That is something that needs to be addressed, and worked on, and improved on here in the next couple of days. We’d like to get that cleaned up.”
Something like this may seem simple, but Cole Kmet explained why it's been an issue not just for Caleb Williams, but for many young quarterbacks coming into the league.
“It’s kind of like you’ve got to find your own voice when you come to the league. It’s so interesting because in that position like taking a snap under center and saying a cadence is something you would think would be so normal. But most guys aren’t doing that until they get to the league now. Most guys are doing the clap, you look to the sideline and you see the play. It’s no different than a receiver doing it. All those operational things are things that you don’t do now until you get to the league.”
One of the Bears newest weapons, wide receiver Keenan Allen, echoed what Cole Kmet had to say.
“By the time we get to training camp, he'll be well oiled on what we got going on and spending time with the offensive linemen, with the OC, and like you said, just understanding his voice and how he wants to say it, his rhythm, how he wants to go through it. By the time we get to training camp, probably a week or two in, we should be solidly ran.”
That's the hope for the Chicago Bears, and given how competitive Caleb Williams is, there's good reason to be hopeful.
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