Williams makes it clear he wanted to be a Bear

LAKE FOREST, Ill. -- Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams on Wednesday defended his commitment to the organization that drafted him with the No. 1 pick in 2024.

Following Chicago's second OTA practice that was open to the media, Williams delivered a three-minute, 55-second opening statement that addressed his feelings about the Bears related to the predraft process.

Excerpts from author Seth Wickersham's upcoming book, "American Kings: A Biography of the Quarterback," revealed that Williams and his father, Carl, had considered ways for the former Heisman Trophy winner to avoid being drafted by the Bears.

Williams said that the book's excerpts have been a "distraction" over the past two weeks, so he wanted to address it publicly for the first time.

During his news conference, the 23-year-old spoke about the team's history of struggles at the quarterback position and how, "as everybody knows, it's a fact that quarterback play, there hasn't been a 4,000-yard passer [in Chicago]."

Williams did not deny his initial skepticism of the Bears' track record for developing franchise quarterbacks and the "thoughts" and "ideas" he and his family mulled over about where he could begin his NFL career.

Williams said that after he visited the Bears in April 2024 (following a visit with the Minnesota Vikings, a team the book revealed was Williams' preferred destination), his desire to come to Chicago was strengthened.

"I wanted to come here and be the guy and be a part and be a reason why the Chicago Bears turn this thing around," Williams said. "That last thing that was said in all of that I think is the most important thing is that I wanted to be here. I love being here."

The Bears went 5-12 during Williams' rookie season, which coincided with offensive coordinator Shane Waldron being fired in Week 11 and head coach Matt Eberflus' departure three weeks later. Williams threw for 3,541 yards, 20 touchdowns and 6 interceptions (the fifth-highest single-season passing output in franchise history) but was sacked a league-high 68 times and finished 31st in QBR (46.7).

Despite his reservations about the Bears before being drafted, Williams said there wasn't a point where he "knew" the season's demise was going to occur. His father, however, told Wickersham that he believed "Chicago is the place quarterbacks go to die." Williams said he appreciates the support and guidance he receives from his father, but that Carl Williams does not speak for him.

"Actually, I shut my dad down quite a bit," Caleb Williams said. "He has ideas and he's a smart man and so I listen, I always listen. I'm very fortunate to be in this position in the sense of playing quarterback but also very fortunate to have a very strong-minded father. We talk very often, my mom and my dad are my best friends, so being able to have conversations with them to understand that everything they say is also portrayed on me.

"He cares so much about me and my future, and we have been along this journey so long together, all he wants is the best for me. So, if anything happens and he's super hotheaded and it's more of like 'All right, go ahead and go away. Go reset.' Things like that. Love him to death and things like that, super fortunate to have him. We have talked about it. Understanding that there's a right place and a right time and there are times that there is not."

Wickersham's book also highlights the disconnect between Williams and Chicago's former coaching staff. At times, the book said, Williams would watch film by himself, with no instruction or guidance from the coaches.

"No one tells me what to watch," Williams told his dad. "I just turn it on."

The quarterback laughed while referring to that as "funny."

"It wasn't that I didn't know how to watch film," Williams said. "It was more or less the sense of ... learning ways to watch film and be more efficient. Learning ways to pick up things better. So that was a funny one that came out, that in context, in how that was trying to be portrayed, didn't get portrayed that way."

Bears coach Ben Johnson spoke last week about his own desire to change the perception around quarterback development in Chicago. The first step in doing that is working with Williams to improve the quarterback's body language in games.

"There's adversity that's going to hit every team every season," Johnson said. "You don't know when it's going to happen. We might lose a few games. We might have some turnovers, and yet, just the wherewithal -- we're steering the ship, we're going the right direction, it's not 'woe is me.' We are going to take everyone around us, we're going to elevate them and we're going to look to forge ahead to what's next. And so, it's not dwelling on the past. Whether it's last season, last play, last game, we learn from it, we grow and we move on. Our body language needs to reflect that as well."