Caleb Williams News and Rumor thread

[mmmc_35]

WOW I hope this is true and not some PR stunt. This would alleviate SO many concerns about his locker room / teammate vibe!

Yes it would, but it also feels like a tall tail. If anything I'll tale it as true because it's easy to disprove.

[Magilla_Gorilla]

FWIW - Williams played in the bowl game his Freshman year after Lincoln Riley had left for USC and rumors were swirling that Williams would likely be leaving as well. So not outrageous to think he was considering playing in the bowl game at the end of this season. Obviously different situations but I think the kid just likes to play.

[RichH55]

Gonna be fun to see the anti-CW crowd spin dinner as a bad thing

Everyone knows Lunch is the best QB meal!

All that matters is what name he used for the reservations. If he didn't use "Danny Hampton" he's dead to me.

Would you accept Abe Froman?

[RichH55]

Already knew Keenan for a full year...

[RichH55]

The last 5 minutes of this gave me pause

[Ditka’s dictaphone]

He seems like a very affable guy.
I like him, I don’t get the arrogant vibe

[Hoog]

It's taken me a while but I am on board. I think this kid has a chance to win this city much in the way Jim McMahon did back in the day. This kid seems confident and ready from the get go to grab this job and make history for our organization. I didn't see that before, just saw an arrogant and selfish player, but after really paying attention, he has more of a confident aura than selfish and arrogant. Seems ready to win and wants to win. I just had to pay more attention. Strap up fellas, this could be a fun ride. One we haven't seen in Chicago.

[dplank]

Excellent post from our former fullback

[HisRoyalSweetness]

"Pretty accurate throwing the football" and "Pro day should be clean as it's scripted and he's ran through it a good amount of time already" chimes with the reports I've seen that Williams' showing wasn't all that impressive. Williams himself noted that he'd missed 3 deep balls and threw behind his receiver on one occasion although he still made the catch.

Nobody seems concerned though and why would they be? It's just guys in shorts going against air. The more important factor was how Williams handled himself and the way he came across and on that front everyone seems happy.

[dplank]

"Pretty accurate throwing the football" and "Pro day should be clean as it's scripted and he's ran through it a good amount of time already" chimes with the reports I've seen that Williams' showing wasn't all that impressive. Williams himself noted that he'd missed 3 deep balls and threw behind his receiver on one occasion although he still made the catch.

Nobody seems concerned though and why would they be? It's just guys in shorts going against air. The more important factor was how Williams handled himself and the way he came across and on that front everyone seems happy.

Yes his comments on leadership are what I was impressed with. You have to open the tweet to see all of it

[thunderspirit]

WOW I hope this is true and not some PR stunt. This would alleviate SO many concerns about his locker room / teammate vibe!

Kollmann is usually reliable.

He's been a Caleb stan for some time now, so it's always possible it's a yarn. But as I said, Kollmann is generally a reliable source.

[HisRoyalSweetness]

[dplank]

Yep he says exactly the same thing…quotes for those that don’t want to watch the interview

[dplank]

FYI I’m not posting this to be negative on CW at all, because my sincere hope is he’s going to be respectful and work his ass off and earn the leadership role. It’s the most important thing for his Y1 IMO, he’s gotta go and earn that respect

[o-pus #40 in B major]

That kid is going to need to learn how to secure the football when he runs or he'll be fumbling all the time in the NFL. Maybe Flus can get Peanut to spend a day with him punching the ball loose until he gets the message or make him carry a ball with him everywhere he goes and have teammates attempt to knock it loose at random times.

He will; my only concern right now is that when he's in the pocket and contorting himself to avoid rushers, holding the ball like that and extending out his arm seems to help him escape getting sacked.

He'll need to figure something out there and I do expect a transition period for him with sacks/fumbles. Shit, probably INTs too if the development plan is for him to focus on which windows are open in the NFL.

Sweetness always made me nervous with the way he carried the ball. So there's that , I suppose.

[Arkansasbear]

All that matters is what name he used for the reservations. If he didn't use "Danny Hampton" he's dead to me.

Would you accept Abe Froman?

The Sausage King is always acceptable.

[G08]

It's taken me a while but I am on board. I think this kid has a chance to win this city much in the way Jim McMahon did back in the day. This kid seems confident and ready from the get go to grab this job and make history for our organization. I didn't see that before, just saw an arrogant and selfish player, but after really paying attention, he has more of a confident aura than selfish and arrogant. Seems ready to win and wants to win. I just had to pay more attention. Strap up fellas, this could be a fun ride. One we haven't seen in Chicago.

Glad to have you aboard, Hoog!

[IotaNet]

If this kid turns out to be a real player, he’s going to own the city the way Jordan did … except even bigger.

Somebody wrote a long time ago … The Bears are the only thing that unites all of Chicago. The Bulls are one demographic. The Blackhawks are a different one. The Cubs are one set of fans, the Sox are a different set.

But the Bears? EVERYBODY is passionate about them … and if this kid leads the Bears to any kind of sustained success, he will own the town forever.

We can only hope.

[cblaz11]

It's taken me a while but I am on board. I think this kid has a chance to win this city much in the way Jim McMahon did back in the day. This kid seems confident and ready from the get go to grab this job and make history for our organization. I didn't see that before, just saw an arrogant and selfish player, but after really paying attention, he has more of a confident aura than selfish and arrogant. Seems ready to win and wants to win. I just had to pay more attention. Strap up fellas, this could be a fun ride. One we haven't seen in Chicago.

Glad to have you aboard, Hoog!

As one of the original Caleb Williams supporters around here…glad to see you’re hopping on the bus!

You too GO8! Haha

[G08]

[The Cooler King]

Side story. In HS we were basically the bottom rung of our conference in football (very good conference East Suburban Catholic). Our junior year team motto the coaches arrived on "Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard". And the whole year I woild always think, those other more talented teams are also definitely working hard too lol. We went 1-8 junior year.

[Rusty Trombagent]

Brett talking about how much work these guys are doing to increase their velocity is kind of relevant with all the big-brained genius' saying Bagent has a noodle arm. Bagent basically went to a community college, writing him off completely is just kind of funny to me.

[wab]

Brett talking about how much work these guys are doing to increase their velocity is kind of relevant with all the big-brained genius' saying Bagent has a noodle arm. Bagent basically went to a community college, writing him off completely is just kind of funny to me.

Yeah, and his training was Crossfit. Not exactly NFL preparation type stuff. Bagent is at a legit QB school this offseason, so I would expect quite a bit of improvement.

[Bears Whiskey Nut]

I watch that video that I see a lot of arrogance for a kid who's never thrown a pass in the NFL. I also hear a player who has read a lot of his own press clippings. I get it. He's been the chosen one for the last two years. But players with that level of, "making the leap to the next level is something I've been planning and waiting for," tend to get crushed. As Mike Tyson said, "everyone has plan until they get punched in the mouth." If he walks into Halas Hall with that level of arrogance, and then gets crushed on the field, he's going to lose the locker room pretty quickly.

I'm not against Caleb Williams. If he's a Bear a will root my ass off for him. I just see a lot of personality red flags.

[dplank]

Honest question, who has completely written off Bagent? Like, is that real or just made up angst? I honestly can't remember a single person who has completely written him off.

[The Cooler King]

I haven't written him off. Sure, go ahead and prove you can improve your arm strength, buddy.

His abilities as a QB last year. Vastly overrated by weird homers.

He'll never have elite arm strength, but maybe he can get it up to enough where he could be a legit game manager backup or even fringe starter.

Until we see evidence of increased arm strength, I don't think he's long for the NFL though. No shame. Most guys fade fast and even making it is a credit.

[dplank]

I watch that video that I see a lot of arrogance for a kid who's never thrown a pass in the NFL. I also hear a player who has read a lot of his own press clippings. I get it. He's been the chosen one for the last two years. But players with that level of, "making the leap to the next level is something I've been planning and waiting for," tend to get crushed. As Mike Tyson said, "everyone has plan until they get punched in the mouth." If he walks into Halas Hall with that level of arrogance, and then gets crushed on the field, he's going to lose the locker room pretty quickly.

I'm not against Caleb Williams. If he's a Bear a will root my ass off for him. I just see a lot of personality red flags.

I don't know man, I've been very worried about his persona obviously. But now that Fields is gone, I've been paying much closer attention on this stuff and while I agree he's very confident - perhaps even over confident - confidence is a positive more than a negative. You have to be confident in yourself and feel like you belong or you'll never get there. I feel like Mitch/Justin were two completely different cases in confidence. Mitch I felt lacked confidence, and I think Nagy played a big part in that but generally I don't think the kid from UNC really felt like he belonged with the big boys in an NFL locker room. With Justin, I think his biggest problem was actually over confidence in his athletic ability. He thought he could outrun everyone and escape every pocket and make every play a big play. As gifted an athlete as he is, the league is full of gifted athletes and he needed to play less hero ball and reign it in. The net effect was too many bad sacks, too many passed up easy passes in favor of going for a big play, and it ended up in erratic performance.

One thing I heard from Caleb that I really liked was when he said "I hate running the football". He uses his legs to create time to throw, like Mahomes. This was a common refrain from the Fields haters and while I disagreed, it has merit particularly in the offense he was in. I liked Fields legs but it did require we design an offense for that, which we never did - therefore we either needed to change scheme or change QB. Caleb will fit any system.

I'm on board. My feelings for Fields were keeping me from truly diving in on Caleb, and now that I've spent more time looking I'm good. By time the season starts I'll be as big a Caleb fan as G08...well, maybe.

[The Cooler King]

A bunch of old cooters like Gabriel and drunks like Lucas have lobbed thinly veiled character concerns on Caleb, but yea, outwardly speaking, no alarm bells ring. Of course you can only tell so much from interviews and stuff, but confidence/arrogance alone shouldn't be red flags.

[The Marshall Plan]

I watch that video that I see a lot of arrogance for a kid who's never thrown a pass in the NFL. I also hear a player who has read a lot of his own press clippings. I get it. He's been the chosen one for the last two years. But players with that level of, "making the leap to the next level is something I've been planning and waiting for," tend to get crushed. As Mike Tyson said, "everyone has plan until they get punched in the mouth." If he walks into Halas Hall with that level of arrogance, and then gets crushed on the field, he's going to lose the locker room pretty quickly.

I'm not against Caleb Williams. If he's a Bear a will root my ass off for him. I just see a lot of personality red flags.

This is a valid point not to be dismissed.

How will this guy respond to adversity?

It’s going to happen. Every QB ever in the NFL has had to face this.

Then leadership and respect is EARNED. How does CW handle going into a pro-JF1 locker room and leading the offense?

[Rusty Trombagent]

I haven't written him off. Sure, go ahead and prove you can improve your arm strength, buddy.

His abilities as a QB last year. Vastly overrated by weird homers.

He'll never have elite arm strength, but maybe he can get it up to enough where he could be a legit game manager backup or even fringe starter.

Until we see evidence of increased arm strength, I don't think he's long for the NFL though. No shame. Most guys fade fast and even making it is a credit.

Damn, do the Bears know this?!? You should give em a ring, or atleast drop an email, I think they'd appreciate a heads up.