Williams won the 2022 Heisman Trophy.
Michael Conroy/AP Photos
USC quarterback Caleb Williams, who likely will join the Bears next week as the No. 1 overall pick in the draft, aims to exceed what Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud did as a rookie last season and eventually surpass Tom Brady’s seven Super Bowl rings.
In an episode of The Pivot released Friday, Williams made clear he’s not watering down expectations for his rookie season.
“I want to do better [than Stroud],” he said. “That’s my thing. If the plan is for the Bears to draft me, the plan is to go as far as you can possibly go — all the way to February. If they draft me, my plan is to go work my ass off, get after it, get in the playbook really heavily and handle things the way things need to be handled.”
He also threw in a shoutout to the ’85 Bears, referring to the franchise’s last championship.
The Bears have long been expected to draft Williams, and that became a near-lock when they traded quarterback Justin Fields to the Steelers a month ago.
That was quite a day for Williams, who got the news while driving to a business meeting in Los Angeles.
“My phone explodes,” he said. “I pick up my phone and I’m trying to figure out what just happened. I end up calling a couple people and it’s like, ‘Well, we know where their heart and mind are in this instance. Let’s prepare, get ready and handle things accordingly.’
“It was kinda like, ‘Wow,’ because I didn’t do my top-30 visit yet, they didn’t have my medicals. They have it all now. It was nothing. And I had a good time on my top-30. It was interesting right then in that moment because it was so unexpected.”