Tag: Caleb Williams

Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III looks at Caleb Williams, NFL rookie

RG3 and Caleb Williams are both Heisman winners. RG3 talked about Caleb before the NFL draft.

ESPN’s Robert Griffin III is a Heisman Trophy winner, like Caleb Williams of USC. RG3 and Rich Eisen discussed if the Chicago Bears, who will take Caleb at No. 1 in the NFL draft, are setting up Caleb Williams to fail in his NFL rookie season.

One thing which would help Caleb Williams in Chicago: getting Rome Odunze with the No. 9 pick in the draft. Here’s more from Bears Wire:

“The Chicago Bears are gearing up for a franchise-defining 2024 NFL draft, where they’ll welcome new quarterback Caleb Williams with the first overall pick. But they also have a second top-10 selection, which has generated plenty of intrigue heading into draft night. There should be plenty of options for general manager Ryan Poles — perhaps even landing Washington wide receiver Rome Odunze at No. 9.

“Odunze recently attended a workout hosted by Williams in Los Angeles, which also featured a pair of Williams’ soon-to-be teammates — DJ Moore and Keenan Allen.”

If there are worries about Caleb Williams being set up to fail, the Bears can do something about that at the NFL draft.

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Comparing Caleb Williams to other top NFL draft QB prospects is a challenge

Compare Caleb Williams to Joe Burrow as draft prospects. Then compare Caleb to Trevor Lawrence. What would you say?

How would you compare Caleb Williams to Joe Burrow? To Trevor Lawrence? To C.J. Stroud? To Andrew Luck? To Patrick Mahomes? As the NFL draft arrives, a question on a lot of people’s minds is how Caleb Williams stacks up against the other prominent NFL quarterback prospects of recent years. Obviously, we’ll get to see on the field if Caleb Williams can deliver the goods for the Chicago Bears and live up to the hype. However, it’s interesting to stop for a moment — before Caleb plays a single NFL down — and ask ourselves how much the Caleb hype and the Caleb assessments stand up against the buzz received by other big-name quarterbacks from recent NFL drafts.

Joe Burrow, coming out of LSU, certainly seemed like the real deal and a franchise-level quarterback. His 2019 Heisman Trophy and national championship season was one of the great single seasons produced by any college quarterback in history. Not even Caleb Williams had a season as great as Burrow’s 2019 masterclass. Burrow probably rates higher than Caleb as an NFL draft quarterback prospect. His subsequent Super Bowl season with the Cincinnati Bengals only enhanced Burrow’s position.

As for other quarterback prospects, it’s reasonable to say that Caleb’s potential and overall skill set compare quite favorably. Now it’s up to Caleb to produce on the field and make his defenders look good.

Kevin Clark is joined by Jim Nagy, executive director of the Reese’s Senior Bowl. They discuss how NIL and the transfer portal have changed NFL draft evaluations and how Caleb Williams compares against other recent “generational” quarterback prospects such as Trevor Lawrence, Andrew Luck, Deshaun Watson and more:

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Cory Bonini’s 2024 NFL mock draft 3.0

Quarterbacks dominate our final mock draft update of 2024.

Here’s my final 2024 NFL mock draft. Be sure to check our NFL Draft Central page for the rest of our mocks, player scouting reports, and post-draft analysis of every key pick relevant to fantasy football.

*projected trade

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Rome Odunze: It would be ‘awesome’ to join Bears with Caleb Williams

Rome Odunze made it clear he’d love to join the Bears and play with Caleb Williams, DJ Moore and Keenan Allen.

The Chicago Bears are gearing up for a franchise-defining 2024 NFL draft, where they’ll welcome new quarterback Caleb Williams with the first overall pick.

But they also have a second top-10 selection, which has generated plenty of intrigue heading into draft night. There should be plenty of options for general manager Ryan Poles — perhaps even landing Washington wide receiver Rome Odunze at No. 9.

Odunze recently attended a workout hosted by Williams in Los Angeles, which also featured a pair of Williams’ soon-to-be teammates — DJ Moore and Keenan Allen.

“If that ends up being the duo for them — with Caleb back there throwing them the ball — I know they’ll be in good hands,” Odunze said Wednesday, via the Chicago Sun-Times.

Odunze was asked about the possibility of joining that receiver group.

“That’d be awesome,” he said. “If they come get me … That’d be awesome and something I’d love to be a part of.”

There’s no guarantee Odunze will even make it to the ninth overall pick. The best outcome for Chicago would be a team trading up into the top five to draft a quarterback, which would take one team out of the receiver hunt.

What would an offense with Williams, Moore, Allen and Odunze (among a slew of others) look like?

“It would be explosive,” Odunze said. “Honestly, there’s a lot of weapons on the field in that offense.”

Whether we get to see what that offense could look like remains to be seen. But we’ll get a definitive answer Thursday night.

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Report: NFL teams think Broncos could trade Pat Surtain

The Athletic reports that some NFL teams think the Broncos might be willing to trade CB Pat Surtain in order to trade up for a top QB.

With the start of the 2024 NFL draft just one day away, smokescreen season has kicked into high gear. Everything reported at this time of year should be taken with a grain of salt because it’s hard to gauge what’s real and what’s posturing from teams hoping to influence who falls to them on draft day.

With that said, there have been rumblings for months that the Denver Broncos might attempt to trade up during the draft to land one of the top quarterbacks in this year’s class. Moving up from pick No. 12 into the top five would be costly, and teams moving down will likely ask for Denver’s most valuable trade asset: cornerback Pat Surtain.

Speculation intensified on Wednesday when The Athletic‘s Dianna Russini wrote that “[m]ost teams picking in the top five believe the Broncos could make a big swing with a package that could even include star cornerback and fifth-year option pickup Pat Surtain II and more players on expiring deals if Payton’s true love is there.”

It’s important to note that Russini is reporting what other teams think Denver might be willing to do. She’s not reporting that the Broncos are planning to trade Surtain, but other clubs think such a scenario is a possibility. Indeed, such a scenario is possible, but the suggestion that Surtain could be traded is just speculation at this point.

We’ll find out for sure when the draft begins tomorrow night.

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Caleb Williams’ self-assurance is an NFL draft asset for the Bears

Caleb Williams knows he is good and knows he has put in the work. That should make Bears fans confident.

Caleb Williams of USC, the NFL’s No. 1 projected draft pick, talked about several different topics with The Pivot podcast crew on the eve of the NFL draft. Williams is expected to be picked by the Chicago Bears to start the draft in Detroit.

This year’s NFL draft class has received more noise than previous ones, mainly at the quarterback position. Many teams hope to change the trajectory of their franchise in the first round, and the Chicago Bears occupy the top spot.

Ryan, Channing and Fred sat down with the NFL’s projected No. 1 overall pick, Caleb Williams to find out what it will be like for him to hear his name called first at next week’s Draft in Detroit.

The 2022 Heisman Trophy winner talked to The Pivot podcast a few days before his life-changing night. Williams talked about NFL leadership. A knock many people had against Caleb was that he lacked adversity growing up. Caleb countered these assumptions by noting how each of his biggest grow-up moments came from losses and failures. Whether it was falling short in crucial games or sitting on the bench at Oklahoma at the beginning of the 2021 season, Caleb has absorbed some frustrations. His parents taught Caleb to watch, learn and adapt, on and off the football field. Williams has found ways to get better, and he hopes to continue to evolve in the pros.

The Bears trading Justin Fields showed Caleb everything he needed to see. The culture change he brought to Gonzaga High School in D.C. and then to USC football is what he hopes to bring to Chicago and the NFL. He discussed how much he dreams of championships and the journey he has taken. Playing alongside Olu Fashanu in high school and against Michael Penix Jr. and Bo Nix in college has exposed Caleb to some of this year’s best draft talent.

Caleb explained how his leadership and focus will help him stand out from this draft class. Caleb hopes to cultivate a new culture in Chicago, and he has the confidence to make it happen.

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The Chicago Bears have made big investments to help Caleb Williams

The Bears have made a vigorous effort to surround Caleb Williams with high-quality pieces.

Caleb Williams of USC is joining an NFL organization which is making significant investments in his career. As the NFL draft arrives, Caleb can see that the Chicago Bears are serious about giving him substantial resources. Over the last two seasons, the Bears have added DJ Moore and future Hall of Fame Keenan Allen at wide receiver, Cole Kmet and Gerald Everett at tight end, and Roschon Johnson and D’Andre Swift at running back.

The Bears have also upgraded their offensive line, drafting right tackle Darnell Wright in 2023 and adding free agents Nate Davis, Teven Jenkins and Ryan Bates.

They added Montez Sweat at the trade deadline last season. They re-signed Jaylon Johnson to a four-year extension. The Bears also signed Kevin Byard in free agency to replace Eddie Jackson.

They will likely also add a offensive tackle or wide receiver at the No. 9 overall pick on Thursday night as well.

Caleb Williams comes into the NFL as arguably the best quarterback prospect since Trevor Lawrence or Andrew Luck. He has been compared to Deshaun Watson and Patrick Mahomes.

In 2023, Williams played 12 games and completed 68.6% of his passes for 3,633 yards while throwing 30 touchdowns and five interceptions.

The Bears are a good fit for Williams. The only downside is time; they weren’t very patient with Mitch Trubsiky or Justin Fields. However, it seems they are finally all-in on developing around their future star in 2024 and beyond.

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Caleb Williams was pushed by Lincoln Riley from the start

Lincoln Riley sent a message to Caleb Williams at Oklahoma. It planted the seeds of a historic college career.

The journey Caleb Williams and Lincoln Riley have made will culminate with the 2024 NFL draft on Thursday in Detroit. Caleb Williams finished his college career at USC, but the Oklahoma portion of this story involved some friction. It wasn’t anything jarring or eye-popping; it was merely the product of Caleb’s competitive qualities and an athlete’s belief that he was the best player in the Sooners’ quarterback room. In this story from Austin Curtright of The Oklahoman, there’s a snapshot of just how much Caleb Williams believed in his talent and ability at the beginning of his collegiate career.

“I told many people before I went there, and there’s a backstory to it all of why I was so fired up,” Williams continued. “I told people before I went there that I was going to start and play and beat (Rattler) out. I thought I beat (Rattler) out in spring, and he was projected No. 1 and all that, so he started for six games. And so, I prepared. Lincoln told me, ‘Keep going.’ And that’s something I didn’t understand. Those two words I did not understand when he told me because I wasn’t asking him, I wasn’t going to him to beg for playing time.”

Williams explained how Lincoln Riley challenged him in that first year at Oklahoma and pushed him to work to get better even though Spencer Rattler started the first few games of the season and got the practice reps with the other starters on the OU roster.

We know the rest of the story: Williams got his chance when Rattler continued to struggle. Caleb took over the starting job, demonstrated on the field how talented he was, and followed Riley to USC when the Trojans made the stunning hire in the coaching carousel in November of 2021.

Fast-forward to Thursday in Detroit: Caleb Williams will become the third quarterback coached by Riley to win the Heisman Trophy and become a No. 1 pick in the NFL draft, joining Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray. All three quarterbacks began their journeys with Riley at Oklahoma.

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Caleb Williams shared a hysterically relatable tweet about seeing Rome Odunze ahead of the NFL Draft

Caleb Williams is ALL of us.

The NFL Draft is just days away, and projected No. 1 overall draft pick Caleb Williams is seemingly having the time of his life ahead of his arrival in Detroit. Williams recently tweeted about seeing another top pick — Rome Odunze — on a plane and couldn’t contain his excitement.

With some of the hardest parts of the NFL and college football offseason already gone, there’s some room for draft prospects to try to remain calm for what’s next — the 2024 NFL Draft. But even if you’re Caleb Williams, you can’t stay calm. You’re going to be excited about all kinds of things, like unexpectedly running into another top draft prospect.

On Tuesday, Caleb shared that he was en route to Detroit for this year’s draft when he ran into Washington Huskies wide receiver Rome Odunze. Williams couldn’t believe what was happening and shared a totally relatable and NSFW tweet.

The Xs and Os with Greg Cosell: How are prospects scouted differently than 10 years ago?

How does the changing nature of the NFL in a schematic sense change how NFL teams evaluate draft prospects? Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar investigate.

The NFL is an ever-changing business, and that applies just as much (if not more) to the prospects coming into the NFL as it does to the players who are already there. Schemes and trends and concepts are so different now than they were 10 years ago, or even five years ago, and you’d better be ahead of the game on that in how you evaluate college players for your NFL team.

In this week’s “Xs and Os with Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar,” the guys get into the differences in evaluation for these positions:

Quarterback — There are about as many snaps with quarterbacks moving around and throwing outside the pocket as there were a decade ago, but how have things changed in how these mobile quarterbacks are evaluated? And can you even succeed in the league anymore without those movement skills?

Receiver — The massive increase in pre-snap motion over the last decade has teams thinking differently about receivers, especially smaller receivers who might not have even made an NFL team in 2014. How has this changed the receiver prototypes teams really want?

Offensive Guard — With the increase in quick game passes in the NFL, edge-rushers don’t always have time to get to the quarterback before the ball is out, which means that interior protection is more important than ever. The NFL is paying guards on an entirely different wage scale than it did a decade ago, so why are guards so much more crucial to offensive success than they used to be?

Interior Defensive Lineman — Correspondingly, the league now has a group of massive defensive tackles who can get to the quarterback in some really freaky ways for their various sizes. Where did this group of agile Godzillas come from, and how has their presence shaped what defenses do?

You can watch this week’s “Xs and Os” right here:

You can also listen and subscribe to the “Xs and Os” podcast on Spotify…

…and on Apple Podcasts.