The NFL is an unpredictable business. Favorites lose, high draft picks bust, and coaches can go from Coach of the Year to updating their resumes in no time flat. It's for this reason that it's still too early to tell if Caleb Williams, the No. 1 overall pick in April's NFL Draft, is going to live up to expectations as the franchise quarterback that Chicago has been pining for since the days of Sid Luckman. But man, it sure seems that the Bears and Williams are doing everything in their power to make sure that he does.
For much of the early part of the year, Bears fans found themselves in the midst of a civil war of sorts. One faction felt that the team should stick with incumbent starter Justin Fields, while the other side was all-in on Williams, the Heisman-winning USC quarterback who seemed destined for the top pick. The Bears opted for Williams, trading Fields to the Steelers for a late-round pick, and in the time since Roger Goodell announced Williams' name from the podium, Bears fans have finally come together in mutual optimism.
That optimism seems to be well-founded. NFL insider Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated put out his Monday Morning Quarterback column yesterday, and in it he delved into the months-long process the Bears put in place to set Williams up for success. Led by general manager Ryan Poles and head coach Matt Eberflus, Breer details how the Bears made the most of the time afforded to them by having the No. 1 overall pick (thanks to Poles' magnum opus of a trade that he made last spring with the Carolina Panthers).
Whereas most rookie quarterbacks face a steep learning curve after being drafted, the Bears, by deciding early in the process that Williams was their guy, were able to kickstart the onboarding process for their new QB well ahead of time. Chicago used the three pre-draft Zoom meetings they were allowed to have with Williams not to interview him, as most teams that are trying to decide on who to select would do, but to teach him the offense of new coordinator Shane Waldron, so that Williams could learn it well ahead of minicamp.
Williams has drawn rave reviews in every way since arriving in Chicago. He's already shown the talent in minicamp that made him such an obvious choice for the No. 1 pick, he's said all the right things to the media, and he's formed quick bonds with his new teammates. Williams deserves a ton of credit for upholding his end of the bargain, but so do the Bears.
Poles and Eberflus have created an environment, that, without being hyperbolic, might be the best situation that a No. 1 pick has ever walked into. By virtue of getting the pick from the Panthers, already the Bears were ahead of the game by not having the 32nd-best team in the league. A late-season push last year briefly got Chicago on the fringes of the playoff hunt, and this offseason has been an unqualified success any way you look at it. The Bears have surrounded Williams with weapons by trading for Keenan Allen and drafting Washington receiver Rome Odunze with their own first-round selection. They've locked down their young defense by extending star cornerback Jaylon Johnson. And they hired Waldron as their new offensive coordinator to replace the perpetually-derided Luke Getsy.
Bears fans are not used to being this excited about their football team, but the entire fanbase is unified and riding high. Even during the rare years in the past few decades that the Monsters of the Midway lived up to their fearsome nickname, it was always the defense that had to overcome an offense that was average at best and inept at worst to win games. The Bears have had many championship-caliber defenses, but never a championship-caliber offense to match. While it's true that the presence of players like Johnson, Montez Sweat, TJ Edwards, and Jaquan Brisker gives the Bears a real chance to field a top-ten defense in the league, for the first time in most of our lives, the offense, led by Williams, could be the thing that finally puts the Bears on a Super Bowl path. The NFL is unpredictable, and there's no such thing as a sure thing, but the Bears have done everything right to give themselves, and their young quarterback, a chance.
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