The players know. That is a common saying that people who work in or follow the NFL have heard many times. When it comes to quarterbacks, the players always know whether a guy has it or doesn’t. It didn’t take long for teammates and opponents alike to realize Mitch Trubisky didn’t have the necessary traits to make it. The same was true with Justin Fields. Both worked hard. Both had talent. Yet something was missing. Now, the Chicago Bears have taken their third swing in seven years with Caleb Williams. They’re praying this time, they got it right.
ESPN reached out to several players across the NFL to get their thoughts on the quarterbacks around the league. It yielded some interesting results. For one, they feel Lamar Jackson is the second-best QB behind Patrick Mahomes. Josh Allen is the most overrated. When the topic shifted to which rookie would likely go on to have the best career, most agreed it was Williams. They believe if the Bears put a good situation around him, he’s going to fly high in the NFL.
“His ceiling is probably the highest, but you’ve just got to get in the right situation,” an NFC West player said.
The Bears have not been a quarterback’s “right situation” for generations. In fact, the Bears haven’t drafted and developed a true franchise QB since Sid Luckman in 1939. Williams’ predecessor, Justin Fields, was drafted with the 11th pick in 2021 and traded to the Pittsburgh Steelers three years later.
“It’s Caleb [with the most promising future], if the Bears figure out what they have,” an AFC West player said.
One persistent theme with the Bears over the years isn’t just that they tend to pick the wrong quarterbacks; they also draft them into pretty rough situations. Mitch Trubisky arrived in 2017 with no weapons and iffy protection. The team then saddled him with a paranoid head coach who passed himself off as an offensive mastermind. Then Fields arrived just as the team was crumbling. Ryan Poles came in and basically blew up the roster, saddling the quarterback with no weapons and even worse protection.
That won’t be the case this time. Before Caleb Williams even arrived, the Bears had fortified the roster with six-time Pro Bowl wide receiver Keenan Allen and 1,000-yard rusher D’Andre Swift. They also returned four starters from their offensive line last year. Then, for good measure, they drafted Rome Odunze 9th overall. No #1 pick in NFL history has walked into a situation this promising. Poles did his job. He set his quarterback up for success. Everything else is up to Williams.
