Caleb Williams sure looks to be Bears’ guy – a true talent available at just the right time

Quarterback Caleb Williams, out of USC, will be taken first by the Bears on Thursday night. That’s when the 2024 NFL Draft begins, and, as we all know, the Bears have the very first pick.

Of course, there’s no guarantee Williams will be taken with that first pick. The Bears could trade it, take somebody else or dilly around for more than 10 minutes with the clock running and get nobody. Or their phone lines could explode.

But if Williams isn’t a Bear shortly after the televised mania begins in downtown Detroit — hundreds of thousands of visitors; ticket packages only $950! — general manager Ryan Poles had better hand in his Bears jacket. It would be beyond shocking to this city if the Bears’ future had any other path than following Williams as a trailblazer.

A first-team All-American, Williams threw for 93 touchdowns in his three-year college career and rushed for 27 more. His skills are at such a level that it has become necessary to pick apart little details for potential flaws, such as his habit of painting his nails before games, with the occasional obscenity for foes, like his “[Bleep] Utah” design. Oh, and he cried after losing a big game one time.

Well, the guy is only 22, and he’s growing up. And he has been worked over with tweezers and a magnifying glass so much that it’s amazing he even can tolerate more questions. That he’s a potentially great quarterback seems guaranteed. Arm strength, agility, speed, field vision — it’s all there. A righty, he can throw the ball fairly well with his left hand.

Some critics have said he’s too short to be great in the NFL. But at 6-1, he’s 3 inches taller than the Cardinals’ Kyler Murray, 2 inches taller than the Steelers’ Russell Wilson. He’s taller than retired Drew Brees, who threw for 80,000 yards and 571 TDs in his 20-year career.

And he’s the same height as the 49ers’ Brock Purdy, the Eagles’ Jalen Hurts and the Dolphins’ Tua Tagovailoa. Height, well . . . nobody’s tall enough to see over screaming edge rushers with their arms above their heads anyway. For an NFL quarterback, what matters is knowing what’s happening, who’s open, how to get the ball there.

The reason the selection of Williams is unique is because the Bears are not a terrible team with zero talent. They’re not superior by any means. They finished 7-10 last year. But they aren’t the 2-15 Panthers. By the way, the Panthers’ horrendousness is why, because of a previous trade, the Bears are guaranteed the first pick.

Going to a lousy team is the situation most college-superstar, top-pick quarterbacks find themselves in after the draft. Such are the NFL’s rules: The worse you are, the higher your pick. And you can trade that pick, which is how the Bears got here.

Former Bears GM Ryan Pace screwed up when he didn’t take Patrick Mahomes when he had a chance in 2017, and you could say Poles missed on C.J. Stroud last year. But you also could say Poles was brilliant to wait until now to make his quarterback move.

The Bears also have the ninth pick, and if several teams take quarterbacks with their early choices, which seems likely, the Bears can snag a superior receiver, blocker or pass rusher at No. 9. That can only help Williams. And veteran quality receivers DJ Moore and Keenan Allen are already in the house.

There have been moments in the past when the Bears seemed to have landed the ace quarterback who could rewrite the future, giving fans something to celebrate after Jim McMahon and that ever-receding Super Bowl win in January 1986. Things were going to be splendid when they dealt for young Pro Bowl quarterback Jay Cutler in 2009. But there wasn’t much supporting Cutler. He was a strange guy, and his clear and obvious talent fizzled in failure.

Mitch Trubisky, drafted in 2017, was going to help. But he didn’t. Justin Fields was taken with great hope in 2021. Same thing as Mitch. We can go back to UCLA’s Cade McNown, who won the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award as the best college quarterback in 1998. He was taken by the Bears in the first round, 12th overall, in 1999. Result: Dud. Colossal dud.

So Williams could be the start of a golden quarterback era for the Bears, one that hasn’t existed since, honestly, Sid Luckman’s reign in the 1940s.

Could be.