There was something about the way Caleb Williams walked in, so at ease yet full of confidence.
If Williams was uptight about his second meeting with his future employer, it sure didn’t show that Monday evening in mid-March. Instead, at an exclusive club in West Hollywood, the 22-year-old quarterback oozed presence, charisma, joy.
Two nights before USC’s pro day, the Chicago Bears invited Williams and a handful of Trojans teammates to The Bird Streets Club off Sunset Boulevard for a get-to-know-you gathering zeroed in on the consensus No. 1 prospect in the NFL draft. General manager Ryan Poles reserved a private room with one table inside and another outdoors, creating a casual setting to eat, mingle and interact.
Almost immediately, everyone in the Bears seven-person traveling party — including Poles, coach Matt Eberflus and offensive coordinator Shane Waldron — noticed Williams’ comfort.
“It was like he had been there before,” assistant GM Ian Cunningham said. “Because, of course, he had.”
As a budding star who spent his last two college football seasons in Los Angeles, Williams was no stranger to Hollywood hot spots. Nor did he seem averse in any way to being the center of attention.
For the Bears, this was an important meeting during a pivotal point of their predraft vetting process. They already had established that Williams had the physical tools and quarterbacking gifts worthy of the No. 1 pick. But on the first night of a three-day visit to Southern California, the focus shifted to Williams’ personality, deportment and wiring.
Cunningham took particular note of how quickly Williams helped break the ice, not only engaged in the dialogue but effortlessly steering and commanding it.
“Caleb sat at the head of the table and began carrying on a conversation like he had known us for a while,” Cunningham said. “It was natural.”
Williams also showed enough familiarity with the menu to order one of his favorite specialty sushi rolls for the group. Cunningham thought “it was just OK.” But Williams’ confidence even to recommend it resonated.
Over the next several hours and the two days that followed, Williams’ magnetism drew the Bears in further. Poles was impressed — and stunned — that Williams never stole a glance at his phone, never seemed tempted to respond to a text or check the time or fire off a photo for one of his social media accounts.
“It was a pretty big indicator to me of his maturity and how intentional he is and how in the moment he is,” Poles told the Tribune. “He showed that ability of just having adult conversation and really presenting himself in the way he wants to with limited distraction. You see that matters to him.”
During a lengthy classroom meeting with Eberflus on the USC campus, Williams shared the story of his football journey, then sat attentively as Eberflus flooded him with details of the new Bears offense.
“You could really tell he was a sponge,” Eberflus said. “He wants to learn. He’s not one of those guys where, when you start talking, he’s talking over top of you. He was listening, absorbing the information and then giving it back.”
That entire visit on Williams’ home turf proved momentous for the Bears. What originally seemed like a challenging process of understanding the quarterback’s character and motivations went remarkably well, with Poles and Eberflus concluding — rather easily — that Williams is an intelligent, passion-fueled leader with an intense focus on football.
“There’s just a feeling you get when you’re around him,” Poles said. “That part, for me, has been really cool.”
That was a big reason the Bears chose to go all-in on Williams, drafting him at No. 1 with confidence that he will become the organization’s engine for a long run of sustained success.
Poles, though, didn’t push his chips forward without an involved and detailed vetting process. Nor did the Bears submit Williams’ name as the top pick with eyes closed and fingers crossed, hoping that maybe, with the right bit of luck, this will all turn out positively. There was and is a master plan at Halas Hall, engineered by Poles and shaped by Eberflus, to make this latest QB reboot work.
As Poles explains it, his plan is intricately layered with the aim of pushing Williams forward as a quarterback and leader while surrounding him with requisite resources to handle all his responsibilities. That’s everything from absorbing the details of the playbook to embracing his duties as the hub of energy in the locker room to handling the nonstop media crush that will surround him.
“It’s deeper than just game day,” Poles said. “It’s deeper than training camp. There are so many different things he has to be prepared for.”
Poles — who became an NFL GM four months after his 36th birthday — speaks from experience when he emphasizes the need for Williams to fully grasp all the obligations of being a franchise quarterback, particularly in a passionate football city with a vast conglomeration of media.
“We have to train him to be a CEO,” Poles said. “Because with all these successful championship-caliber teams, you have a head coach, a GM, a president and an owner. And then you have your quarterback. He’s going to represent one of those figureheads. And a lot of these guys don’t know how (to handle that).
“I didn’t come in trained to be a GM. No one gets trained to be a head coach. It’s ‘Hey, you did a really good job coaching your side of the ball or you did a really good job evaluating players. Now go lead a lot of people.’ But it’s a different job. And being a (franchise) quarterback in this league is a different job. So we have to be on top of training him on how to do those things.”
‘Break the cycle’
In Poles’ words, this is his big swing to “break the cycle,” to reroute the circular highway of Bears quarterback futility with a scarred fan base knowing all too well the emotional landmarks around that recurring loop — from hope and optimism to mediocrity to frustration to separation/divorce.
“Even through the building,” Poles said, “you can feel it. Like, yeah, it’s time now to turn the page.”
If such forward-looking energy feels familiar — and even a bit scary — to Chicagoans, it’s because the Bears have attempted such a page-turn more than once.
Poles’ predecessor, Ryan Pace, had a plan for turning Justin Fields into the star QB the franchise has never had. That vision, though, never became reality. Pace, along with his hand-picked coach, Matt Nagy, were fired after Fields’ rookie year. Eventually, Fields was traded after three flash-filled but inconsistent last-place seasons.
Before Fields, Pace drafted Mitch Trubisky at No. 2 with high hopes and big ideas for how to lift him to new heights. But that experiment fizzled also. Despite being part of two playoff teams and making one Pro Bowl appearance, Trubisky struggled to make a true QB1 breakthrough, didn’t earn a second contract with the Bears and has changed teams three times since.
Leaguewide, of the 32 quarterbacks selected in the first round from 2011-20, just 56% made it to a fifth season with the team that drafted them. Only 12 have won a playoff game with their original team.
Those are the odds stacked against Poles. And with all the conviction he has expressed in how the Bears will guide Williams through the earliest stages of his NFL career, Poles also left many around the league scratching their heads when he chose to turn a prospect as highly regarded as Williams over to a defensive-minded coach in Eberflus with no established track record in developing quarterbacks who was also overhauling his offensive staff.
Where the Bears see a dependable plan, other see a high-stakes experiment.
Still, Poles is convinced he has built the infrastructure around Williams to make the growth process smoother. In addition, the organization has unified behind the GM’s blueprint for nurturing and bringing out the best in Williams. And if Williams is to become the star the Bears believe he will be, the team’s vision for molding him is worth exploring.
Teaching what counts
The March meeting with Williams in Hollywood wasn’t the Bears’ only big breakthrough in California this offseason. In January, after firing offensive coordinator Luke Getsy, Eberflus set out to unite with a new play caller and overseer who could enliven an inconsistent offense and, most importantly, become a catalyst for quarterback growth.
Eberflus interviewed nine candidates for the job but was most drawn to Waldron, who spent the previous three seasons as the Seattle Seahawks coordinator under coach Pete Carroll and four before that on Sean McVay’s Los Angeles Rams staff.
The Bears already are convinced they have felt a natural click between Waldron and Williams, something Eberflus believes has been the result of pairing a passionate teacher and an engaged student with an appetite for football knowledge.
“It’s a great combination,” Eberflus told the Tribune. “When you have an elite teacher like Shane, he’s able to make the complex simple and the irregular regular. And he’s been able to do that with a complex offense. You can really feel that.”
During Waldron’s initial interview with the Bears in Los Angeles, he quickly won over Eberflus with his offensive vision, sharp communication skills and, in Eberflus’ words, “his ability to make things clear and concise in his presentation.”
No matter whom the Bears chose to be QB1 for 2024, they felt strongly Waldron would be an incredible teacher with a demonstrated ability to adapt — to skill sets and personalities and ever-evolving on-field dynamics.
In Seattle, Waldron won games with Russell Wilson, Geno Smith and Drew Lock as his starting quarterback, three players with different levels of achievement and differing needs in the way they are coached. With the Rams, Waldron spent three seasons working closely with Jared Goff.
“As you’re teaching,” Poles said, “Player A might need things one way while Player B might need it a different way. Shane understands that.
“Then, too, it’s his adaptability inside of a game: ‘Well, this is not working the way we hoped. So now what’s the adaption to get this thing going?’ It’s all across the board. Shane has that.”
To be clear, the 2023 Seahawks — with Smith starting 15 games and Waldron calling plays — finished behind the Bears’ all-too-ordinary offense in several major statistical categories, including total offense (21st), third-down efficiency (23rd), red-zone production (25th) and time of possession (32nd). So it’s fair to wonder if the Bears’ belief in Waldron isn’t just another overly optimistic leap of faith.
At the very least, Poles and Eberflus are betting on Waldron’s reputation as a unifier — among coaches and players. Quarterbacks coach Kerry Joseph, who followed Waldron from Seattle to Chicago, endorses Waldron’s sincerity in constantly soliciting feedback plus his ability to mold the offense around the quarterback rather than the other way around.
“That’s what coaching is about,” Joseph said, “and that’s one thing I love about working with Shane. We’re constantly exploring. What are the nuances within the offense we can use to help (our quarterback) be successful and put him in a great situation?”
Chain of command
To many around the league, Waldron’s fingerprints were easily identifiable on Smith’s career resurgence in 2022, a Pro Bowl season in which the Seahawks quarterback threw for 4,282 yards and 30 touchdowns on the way to Comeback Player of the Year honors.
Waldron lauded Smith for his consistent energy, focus and willingness to be taught — important qualities he also has identified in Williams. That’s why the Bears coordinator has been invigorated in recent months as he established an open back-and-forth with his newest student.
Williams, as advertised by his college coaches, has shown a desire for constant feedback and constructive criticism.
“I’ve seen a guy who doesn’t put up any defense mechanism when there’s a correction or a critique,” Waldron told the Tribune. “He wants to be coached hard. He wants to know the ‘why’ behind each individual play.
“And oftentimes it’s not the plays that are successful that you learn the most from but the plays that don’t work out. So Caleb is open to that teaching and wants to understand so that the next time a similar situation transpires, he’s able to attack it with a good, confident mindset.”
As early as rookie minicamp in May, Joseph learned to have his phone nearby deep into the night, awaiting the next text buzz with a question or thought from Williams. The rookie wanted to know why this specific play was being blocked as it was, why the progressions were ordered in the way they were, why a certain route combination had been designed.
Why, why, why.
The Bears have also talked extensively about establishing a firm chain of command with Williams, relaying just about everything through Waldron and Joseph. The former will be responsible for providing big-picture insight on the offensive system, defensive looks and situational football, while the latter will focus heavily on fundamentals and footwork.
Even with other QB overseers at Halas Hall — including passing game coordinator Thomas Brown, assistant quarterbacks coach Robbie Picazo and offensive assistant Ryan Griffin — Poles has been unwavering in establishing Waldron and Joseph as the point people for Williams.
“It’s not like no one else can look at him or talk to him,” Poles said, “but we’re going to be very intentional with limiting the voices for him. Because the last thing you want for a young quarterback is to have a thousand different people sharing different ideas. That can get really confusing.
“That’s another intentional piece we’ve added to make sure there’s a level of consistency and dependability so that he’s not getting all different types of stuff.”
Help wanted
Poles’ experience in Kansas City — he was an integral part of the Chiefs’ 2017 quarterback hunt that landed three-time Super Bowl MVP Patrick Mahomes with the 10th pick — taught him important lessons about surrounding a young quarterback with a wide range of people across the building to help catalyze growth. Teammates. Coaches. Support staff.
On that front, Poles made several additions this offseason that he believes can indirectly benefit Williams’ emergence.
Ted Crews, the new chief administrative officer and special adviser to Bears President and CEO Kevin Warren, arrived from Kansas City after spending 12 years with the Chiefs. As that team’s executive vice president of communications, Crews learned a little something about helping a star quarterback and the league’s “it” team manage the spotlight.
In addition, rather than investing in an established veteran backup quarterback, Poles and Eberflus hired Griffin as an additional assistant coach, hoping he can be a sounding board and source of wisdom for Williams. Griffin finished his 10-season career as an NFL backup in 2022 and spent this spring earning MVP honors in the Italian Football League.
During his playing days, Griffin spent two seasons with Drew Brees in New Orleans and two more with Tom Brady at Tampa Bay, gaining valuable insight into the preparation habits and mentalities of two of the best quarterbacks ever to play.
Additionally, Poles noted with a laugh, it was Griffin who served as Brady’s, um, crutch after the G.O.A.T. emerged from the Buccaneers tequila-lubed Super Bowl boat parade in February 2021 a bit wobbly.
“You can go find the pictures,” Poles said. “That’s Ryan Griffin holding (Brady) up.”
Poles’ research convinced him that behind the scenes, Griffin was a valued leader for the 2020 Buccaneers team that won the Super Bowl, a trusted resource for Brady and a glue guy in the locker room. The hope is he can become similarly reliable for Williams.
Poles also is proud of the addition he made in mental performance and leadership coordinator Andy Riise, a former college fullback and retired Army lieutenant colonel.
Riise spent time in Iraq and Afghanistan, has a background in psychology and has become a respected mental skills coach in the sports realm, including a stint with the Cincinnati Reds. Poles believes Riise can help Williams with “overcoming adversity and dealing with expectations, criticism and feedback.”
When Williams came to Lake Forest for a predraft visit in April, his itinerary included a meeting with Riise.
“Andy has been through hard and came out the other side of it,” Eberflus said. “He has a really unique way of working with the guys. Plus he has a heart of service. And that’s what we’re all about here with guys really extending themselves to help our players be their very best. Andy is going to be a great addition for Caleb.”
Center of attention
On April 25, the day Williams was announced by Commissioner Roger Goodell as the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft and bounced onto the stage in Detroit’s Hart Plaza with a howl of excitement, it seemed as if his every move was being watched and documented, spun into a story or social media post or viral video.
Before the draft that night, Williams spent more than 30 minutes on the red carpet in front of the Fox Theatre, progressing patiently through a procession of rapid-fire interviews. In the three hours after he was selected, the avalanche of obligations included but was not limited to:
- An on-stage live interview with ESPN
- An NFL-led backstage photoshoot
- An interview with Bears play-by-play man Jeff Joniak delivered to the team’s official draft party at Soldier Field with Williams beamed in as a hologram
- A brief meeting with Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin
- A prearranged video call with many of his USC teammates
- A conversation with “Good Morning America”
- A stop inside an EA Sports booth to play Madden
- A Zoom call with reporters at Halas Hall
- A formal seven-minute news conference with on-site media in Detroit
Williams also did in-person, one-on-one interviews with five Chicago TV stations plus a side-group chat with several Bears beat writers in attendance.
On his first night as a Chicago Bear, that was a snapshot — and a sneak preview — of what it is like to be an NFL headliner in a demanding era in which content is everything and everything is content.
For the Bears, managing the barrage of media requests and demands on Williams’ time will be a nonstop chore, a responsibility that now falls squarely on the shoulders of Aaron Clark, who has been with the organization since 2016 and was promoted this offseason to become the director of football communications.
The Bears, with Clark and Crews at the forefront, also are pushing to train Williams, as charismatic and engaging as he is, to understand what it means to be a figurehead and one of the most influential voices for an NFL charter franchise in one of the league’s largest media markets.
That’s something Williams’ predecessor, Justin Fields, didn’t always master, at times prone to enervated weekly news conferences in which he was slumped, monotoned and seemingly impatient with the proceedings. That didn’t always sit well inside Halas Hall.
The spotlight on Williams figures to be brighter than it was on Fields and will intensify if the Bears again become legitimate championship contenders.
To his credit, Williams has leaned into that part of the job with polish and enthusiasm.
“I have kind of put myself in this position many times before I became a Chicago Bear on the 25th of April,” he said. “So it’s just kind of seeing it (all) before it happens. Like I said, you just keep progressing. I understand the position I am in and you keep going.”
Added Poles: “A lot of this is really natural to Caleb. But there are some blind spots we have to keep him aware of.”
‘It all runs through him’
The Bears’ peripheral plans with Williams, of course, will mean very little if he can’t quickly evolve from a green and eager rookie into a top-tier NFL starter. To that end, Poles remains proud of the supporting cast with which he has surrounded Williams.
Understanding that every young quarterback benefits from having proven playmakers and sound protection but frequently doesn’t get either, Poles has built his offense into one that should be able to support a rookie quarterback right away.
Over the past 17 months, Poles fortified the offense by trading for standout receivers DJ Moore and Keenan Allen, signing running back D’Andre Swift in free agency, extending tight end Cole Kmet and drafting right tackle Darnell Wright and receiver Rome Odunze with top-10 picks.
“All you can be is excited to get to be able to be here with people like that,” Williams said on the opening day of training camp. “Now we’ve got to work together, build a bond, build a trust between each other and go get it.”
Fate put a willing mentor inside Williams’ hotel for chunks of this spring. With Williams and Allen, a six-time Pro Bowl receiver, living out of The Forester down the street from team headquarters during their respective Cali-to-Chicago transitions, the two embraced their opportunities to hang out, to build a connection, to begin learning the offense together.
Interspersed with games of Monopoly Deal and viewings of the NBA playoffs, the duo did homework. Williams called out specific plays and Allen then drew them up. The two talked through the details of each concept, discussed terminology and ironed out the wrinkles of what can and should happen against difference coverages.
“I was just giving him the knowledge I was taught after being with guys like Philip Rivers and obviously Justin Herbert (with the Chargers),” Allen said. “It’s just making sure we’re seeing things the same way.”
Allen made it clear, both with words and action, that even with 11 seasons in the league and more than 10,000 career receiving yards, he had no intention of pulling rank on the rookie.
“He’s the quarterback. At the end of the day, it all runs through him,” Allen said. “I can see things how I see them. I can be an (expletive) about it, but that’s not me. That’s not the way I learn the game. That’s not the way I play the game.
“I cater to the quarterback. I’m trying to be his best friend.”
For Poles, those off-the-field connections should carry over when games begin and Williams starts feeling his way around in a more pressure-packed environment.
“I want to see him leaning on the talent around him,” Poles said. “It has to be comforting to know you don’t have to do everything on your own.”
Progress reports
After the final practice of organized team activities in June, Williams found himself, as he frequently does, in a reflective state. He was asked in general terms to describe his early connection with the Bears and expressed gratitude for all the team had put around him to help his career get off the ground.
Still, there was something deeper that had Williams’ belief in the Bears’ future mushrooming.
“Them being graceful and encouraging has been huge for me,” he said. “That’s what I would say has probably been the biggest thing.”
That grace and encouragement served as a vital early pain reliever for a boldly ambitious 22-year-old with perfectionist tendencies.
With a new offense dumped into his lap, Williams has worked hard to master the concepts of Waldron’s system. He has pushed to improve his command of the huddle and his cadence at the line of scrimmage. He has fought to create timing, rhythm and on-field chemistry with his new pass catchers.
“This whole process,” Williams said in June, “is just starting for me.”
That was a reminder the rookie has continued to give himself with every developmental speed bump or roadblock he encounters.
There have been moments this spring and summer when Williams has struggled. With everything.
Still, he has succeeded in feeling what he wanted to feel most early on: connection. With his teammates, coaches and bosses. Williams has been continually reassured by all the supportive phone calls and late-night text messages and side-of-the-practice-field words of support.
“It’s them just believing,” he said, “seeing the vision we all have and being graceful with me knowing I’m pretty tough on myself. But they see right through that and understand it. That has been big for me.”
In both directions, there has been an expression of trust and belief, prerequisites for even moderate-level NFL success. Williams continues giving the Bears everything as far as his focus, dedication and time investment. That has been his way of issuing an early indirect request to coaches and teammates.
Just stick with me through the turbulence.
The Bears, in turn, have reciprocated with that aforementioned grace and encouragement, allowing the quarterback to feel their conviction in him.
That personal touch has been part of the master plan and has helped Williams to plow through frustration. The quarterback’s self-critical nature will never go away. But Williams has been quick to balance that with confidence, perspective and “an understanding of where we are and where I am,” he said.
“The progression is key,” he continued. “(During) those bad times, it’s not a time to have self-doubt. That’s just a waste of time. It’s a time to keep growing, keep progressing and keep believing in yourself.”
‘He wanted the ball in his hands’
So much of the Bears’ long-term success hinges on their ability to bring the best out of Williams. As quickly as possible.
Coaches understand their responsibility in helping Williams identify and work on his weaknesses — from operational command to adapting to the speed of the NFL. The Bears also have vowed to accentuate the quarterback’s rare gifts — whether it be his elite arm talent or football intellect, his off-script playmaking ability or competitive hunger.
In particular, Poles is eager to watch Williams strain opposing defenses with his pocket poise and spatial awareness. “That,” the Bears GM said, “is his special sauce.”
The earliest scouting reports submitted at Halas Hall on Williams came from West Coast area scout Reese Hicks and senior national scout Francis St. Paul, two boots-on-the-ground evaluators who assured their bosses that they had identified Williams as a natural leader who was not only respected by teammates but incredibly well-liked. And when it came to examples of elite playmaking that would translate to the NFL? Well, where should they start?
In a passionate predraft video presentation at Halas Hall, St. Paul called up footage of Williams’ second career start as a true freshman at Oklahoma. Two weeks after Williams had come off the bench to author a wild, come-from-behind victory over rival Texas in the Red River Showdown, the third-ranked Sooners were clinging to a 28-23 lead at Kansas and facing a fourth-and-1 near midfield with a little more than three minutes remaining.
A running play was called to Oklahoma tailback Kennedy Brooks. But, as Brooks was stuffed by two Jayhawks defenders well short of the line to gain, Williams darted in, tore the ball from Brooks’ hands and pushed ahead for a gain of 5. St. Paul wanted everyone to take note of Williams’ instincts, his situational awareness, his winning mentality.
(Oklahoma finished the possession with a win-sealing touchdown in the final minute.)
“That, for us, was it,” Cunningham said. “It was great. That was a really good job by Francis of not just telling us but showing us that this is a kid who since his true freshman year knew the moment and he wanted the ball in his hands in big-time situations.”
That mentality is a big reason the Bears have felt so comfortable challenging Williams right out of the gates, naming him the Week 1 starter in the spring without hesitation or competition; pushing him to learn the offense at an accelerated pace; dropping him into practice battles more frequently against the first-team defense rather than easing him in with more reps against the twos.
The belief is that Williams is special on that level, that he can handle more than the average rookie quarterback. That also includes assuming heightened leadership responsibilities, in big part because the Bears know now Williams’ comfort in his own skin and magnetic personality will allow him to thrive inside the locker room immediately.
As consistently glowing as the reviews of Williams have been from his offensive teammates, the training camp endorsements from defensive players have perhaps been even more notable.
“The best thing with him from my own opinion is that he’s positive,” defensive tackle Andrew Billings said this week. “That’s something a quarterback has to be. When the lights are off, you’ve got to be positive. When the lights are on, you’ve got to be positive. When we’re up, when we’re down, I feel like things are going to roll off his shoulders and we’ll be able to keep going throughout the game.”
‘The perfect match’
For a franchise so often defined by its quarterback graveyard, the Bears are convinced they have a prospect in Williams with more talent, football savvy and potential than any of the 24 Week 1 starters the team has used during the Super Bowl era. With Poles and Eberflus at the forefront, they also remain confident that the detailed and customized development plan they have put into action can propel the quarterback and the organization to new heights.
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Any anxiety Poles may have had last winter about Williams potentially having high-maintenance tendencies or a sense of entitlement after being a college megastar in the era of multimillion-dollar name-image-likeness (NIL) opportunities have long since been obliterated.
“I was afraid this system had made him into someone who wasn’t reachable or coachable or wouldn’t take ownership,” Poles said. “But what I actually found was a pretty down-to-earth guy who absolutely believes in himself, has a ton of confidence in who he is and yet is relatable and can bring others along with him.”
Only time will tell if Williams eventually will stumble the way so many of his predecessors have — Fields, Trubisky, Jay Cutler, Rex Grossman, Cade McNown. Or perhaps he can indeed become the star quarterback who breaks the cycle.
At the outset, Poles and Eberflus feel optimistic they have set up the rookie quarterback and the organization for success.
“There’s a level of faith to it and a sense for just continuing to build the right way,” Poles said. “It’s about doing the right things to set yourself up to take advantage of opportunities.”
For the Bears, it’s easy to argue that there has never been an opportunity quite like this, with a quarterback prospect who has this much potential dropped into an environment that should catalyze a breakthrough. The stakes might never be higher.
“It feels like the perfect match,” Poles said. “It feels like it’s all coming together at the right time.”
And if it doesn’t …
