Chicago Bears: Drafting Caleb Williams would be a huge mistake

The offseason is in full effect for every team now. Among them are the Chicago Bears. There is a lot of work to do to improve upon a team that won seven games in 2023. General manager Ryan Poles hits the offseason with about $49.1 million in salary cap space (likely to be even higher when the new league year begins in March) and not one but two, top ten picks.

Of course, one of those top-ten picks is the #1 overall pick. While the #9 pick is also a valuable one, the top overall pick is valuable beyond belief. Poles can go a couple of different ways and come up big. First, he could trade the pick. That will bring him a huge haul, perhaps a historic one.

Poles has always stated that he wants to build the roster through the draft. That would mean the Bears could have a talent-laden roster under team control for a while. Also, they can develop together and if it works out, the Chicago Bears would have a strong team.

Second, Poles could keep the pick and use it on USC quarterback Caleb Williams. There are many among the media who proclaim Williams as a "generational" talent. He won the Heisman Trophy in 2022, so there is a lot of hype surrounding him.

Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Poles could opt to keep the top overall pick and use it on Caleb Williams. That would be a big mistake.

It seems that people are trying to pressure Poles into drafting Williams. By bringing up the "generational" tag, it harkens back to 2017 when the Bears brass moved up one spot from #3 to #2 to pick up Mitchell Trubisky. That move was widely criticized when there were better quarterbacks like Deshaun Watson and, of course, Patrick Mahomes.

Now people do not want this version of the Bears to make the same mistake. If they pass up on another great quarterback the criticism and mocking will grow exponentially.

Picking Williams at #1 would be like the Bears making one mistake to make up for another. There are reasons why Williams is not a "generational" quarterback and why drafting him at #1 is a big mistake.