Bears' Caleb Williams again addresses critics ahead of rookie season

Long before the Chicago Bears made quarterback Caleb Williams the first pick of the 2024 NFL Draft, he became a target of those who criticized some of his on-the-field attributes and his off-the-field habits. 

Williams once again addressed certain narratives during a recent conversation with NFL insider Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated. 

"I know who I am," Williams confidently explained. "I know what I like. I know what I like to do. I know where I like to go. I think that’s the first part—knowing who I am. The second part would be, I learned at a young age, I can’t make everybody happy." 

A couple of weeks before the Bears acquired Williams via the draft's first choice, he took to social media to clap back at an analyst who said the signal-caller had "never experienced adversity" as a top-tier prospect. During a summer event for his Caleb Cares Foundation, Williams acknowledged when asked about having "haters" that he "can’t please everybody." 

Williams' alleged "Hollywood" personality, the fact that he once cried in his mother’s arms in the stands following a USC loss and his painted fingernails rubbed some within the NFL community the wrong way. He hinted during his chat with Breer that he knows all about what has been said and written about him over the past 11 months or so. 

"The other part, and this feeds into knowing myself, is all athletes try to act like they don’t see it," Williams said about criticisms directed his way. "I see it, and I use it. I take screenshots of people. People don’t know it. I have notes and things that I screenshot. I save the links, all of that. I use it." 

The Bears seemingly never had any doubts about going all-in on Williams, as they traded 2023 Week 1 QB1 Justin Fields to the Pittsburgh Steelers for a conditional 2025 sixth-round draft pick in March to make room for the first-year pro. 

As of Monday afternoon, DraftKings Sportsbook listed Williams as the overall betting favorite at +135 odds to win the Offensive Rookie of the Year Award for the upcoming season. 

It sounds like Williams may already have all the bulletin board material he needs for his regular-season debut versus the Tennessee Titans on Sept. 8. 

"Some of it is motivation and some of it is psyching yourself out," Williams said about his collection of screenshots. "That’s the other part. It’s knowing myself. It’s knowing what I like to know, how I like to do things. I know how hard I work. I know the confidence that I have, from my work that I’ve put in for many, many years now."  

Of course, Williams' most important responses to detractors will occur on football fields beginning with the Week 1 home game against Tennessee.