The Chicago Bears and their fans are currently ticking down the days until the NFL Draft gets underway in just over two weeks, where they have the number one overall pick via a previous trade with the Carolina Panthers, who ended up with the worst record in the NFL this year, and are widely expected to take former USC trojans quarterback Caleb Williams at that spot. The Bears already cleared their quarterback position of the future up earlier this offseason in a trade that dealt former starter Justin Fields to the Pittsburgh Steelers, and now Williams looks poised to join a team that in many respects was some more consistent quarterback play away from being solid, if not good, this past season despite a rocky (to say the least) start.
One of Williams’ presumptive Bears teammates will be none other than defensive end Montez Sweat, who recently took to the Green Light With Chris Long podcast (via Yote House Media) to offer some sage advice to Caleb Williams ahead of (probably) joining the Bears in a few weeks.
“Be yourself,” said the Bears star, per Green Light w/ Chris Long on X, the social media platform formerly referred to as Twitter. “Don’t try to do it all over the night, and just stay humble. Don’t try to do it all by yourself. You’ve got a great group of guys around you. I know you’ve seen the pieces. Keenan Allen, (D’Andre) Swift from Philly. We’ve got some guys around him, so just be humble and be yourself. I mean, he’s obviously a talented guy. I would just say, just don’t try to do it all in one night.”
A generational prospect
As Sweat bluntly put it, Caleb Williams is indeed a “talented guy.” It’s very likely that had he been eligible to enter the NFL Draft last year, he would have been the number one overall pick even at that point, as he would have been fresh off of winning the coveted Heisman Trophy during his time at USC football playing for head coach Lincoln Riley, whom he followed over from the Oklahoma Football program the previous offseason.
Williams has a unique combination of speed, arm strength, and accuracy that have Bears fans salivating and have garnered some comparisons to NFL stars like Patrick Mahomes, and essentially checks every box in the evolving physical profile of what the ideal quarterback in today’s game should be.
Meanwhile, the Bears will enter this season full of expectations after narrowly missing out on a playoff bid a year ago. As Montez Sweat mentioned, the team made some big moves in free agency, including adding star wide receiver Keenan Allen from the Los Angeles Chargers as well as running back D’Andre Swift from the Philadelphia Eagles, both of whom rank in the upper echelon in the league at their respective positions and will help balance out the Bears’ offense.
It appears that the Bears are all in on giving Caleb Williams everything they can to help him be successful during his rookie season and beyond. The NFL Draft is slated to get underway on the evening of April 25.
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