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Courtney Cronin, ESPN Staff Writer
The Chicago Bears hope their decades-long search for a franchise quarterback ended Thursday night when they selected USC’s Caleb Williams with the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL draft.
Williams, 22, won the Heisman Trophy in 2022 when he threw for 4,537 yards, 42 touchdowns and only 5 interceptions in 500 pass attempts. He is the second Trojans quarterback to be selected with the first pick during the common draft era (Carson Palmer in 2003) and the sixth former USC player to be taken at the top of the draft.
Williams has been labeled a generational talent and has widely been considered the top quarterback prospect in the 2024 draft class, which includes LSU’s Jayden Daniels and North Carolina’s Drake Maye.
It became clear, however, during the pre-draft process that Chicago was not entertaining other top quarterbacks or giving thought to drafting anyone other than Williams with the top pick.
Williams was the only quarterback the Bears hosted on a top-30 visit. Conversely, the Bears were the only team Williams visited ahead of the draft.
Selecting Williams first overall was set in motion earlier this offseason when the Bears traded quarterback Justin Fields to the Pittsburgh Steelers for a 2025 conditional sixth-round pick. Fields, who was drafted 11th overall by Chicago in 2021, started 38 games over three seasons and helped the Bears to a 7-10 record last season, the team’s best finish since 2020.
Williams is the first quarterback drafted by general manager Ryan Poles and coach Matt Eberflus, who were hired by the Bears in 2022.
Days after Fields was traded, the Bears sent a large contingent of at least nine coaches and front office members to USC’s pro day and spent three days getting to know Williams in Los Angeles, which included a private dinner with the quarterback and several of his wide receiver teammates.
The Bears secured the top pick that they used to draft Williams nine months after sending last year’s No. 1 overall pick to the Carolina Panthers in exchange for four picks — including Carolina’s 2024 first-round selection — and wide receiver DJ Moore.
The Panthers finished with a league-worst 2-15 record while the Bears won four of their last six games after starting the season 0-4.
The 6-foot-1 Williams dazzled the college football world from his freshman year at Oklahoma in 2021 before transferring to USC for the 2022-23 seasons. While his passing numbers took a slight dip (3,633 yards) during the Trojans’ 7-5 regular season finish in 2023, Williams still threw for 30 touchdowns and five interceptions and capped off his three-year college career as one of 87 players in FBS history responsible for 100 touchdowns and 10,000 yards of offense while committing fewer than 20 turnovers (19).
Williams will enter an atypical situation for a rookie quarterback taken with the No. 1 overall pick. Chicago was active in building out its supporting cast on offense in free agency by signing running back D’Andre Swift, tight end Gerald Everett and acquiring six-time Pro Bowl wide receiver Keenan Allen last month by sending a fourth-round pick to the Los Angeles Chargers.
There has never been a quarterback selected with a top-five pick in NFL history to play their rookie season with multiple players who had at least 1,200 receiving yards in the previous NFL season, according to ESPN Stats and Information. In his 11th season with the Chargers, Allen posted 1,243 receiving yards while Moore had a career-best 1,364 yards during his first season in Chicago.
The Bears hope Williams puts an end to their long period of futility at the quarterback position. Chicago is the only NFL franchise to never have a quarterback throw for 4,000 yards or 30 touchdowns in a season.
Before drafting Williams, the Bears used a first-round pick on a quarterback six times during the common draft era (Fields, Mitchell Trubisky, Rex Grossman, Cade McNown, Jim Harbaugh and Jim McMahon). Those quarterbacks combined for zero selections to the AP All Pro teams and only two Pro Bowls as Chicago quarterbacks.