Caleb Williams clears air on controversial pre-draft report: ‘For this to come out, it’s been a distraction’

Caleb Williams is preparing for his sophomore NFL season, but he had to deal with a media storm in recent weeks.

An report from ESPN reporter Seth Wickersham claimed that, before the Bears drafted Williams first overall in 2024, the quarterback and his dad explored many options to potentially avoid Chicago. As the consensus No. 1 overall pick last year, Williams and his team reportedly potentially used leverage to try and direct the quarterback’s landing spot.

However, Williams has since stressed how much he wants to be a Bear, and that includes on Wednesday when he addressed this report for the first time. Here’s what Williams said at his press conference.

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Caleb Williams responds to pre-draft report

On Wednesday, Caleb Williams addressed that ESPN report that he didn’t want the Bears to draft him.

“We’re focused on the present and we’re focused on now, we’re focused on getting this ship moving in the right direction,” Williams said. “For this to come out, it’s been a distraction.”

Williams addressed many areas of the report, including that he preferred that the Vikings draft him instead of the Bears. While Williams made sure to praise Minnesota’s coaching staff, he stressed that those ideas were just he and his team assessing all of his options.

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“I had a good visit at Minnesota with Kevin O’Connell,” he said. “But something that keeps getting lost…I went on that visit first, came here, then after I came here, I went back home, talked to my dad, and all of the things were supposed to be these big things, that everybody’s been talking about recently, never happened in the sense of, they were all thoughts.”

Instead, Williams stressed that his visit with the Bears cemented his desire to go to Chicago. That is despite the Bears’ poor history of quarterback play, which includes never having a 4,000-yard passer.

“After I came to my visit here, it was a deliberate and determined answer that I had is that I wanted to come here,” he said, “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 closed his press conference by thanking a bunch of people who have helped him up until this point, including former coaches Matt Eberflus and Shane Waldron.

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Did Caleb Williams try to avoid the Bears?

ESPN reporter Seth Wickersham wrote a book titled “American Kings: A Biography of the Quarterback” that assesses what it’s like to be a quarterback in this era. One part of the book addresses Williams’ draft process and implies the quarterback didn’t want to play for the Bears.

According to Wickersham Carl Williams, Caleb’s father, told people “Chicago is the place quarterbacks go to die,” and he even said to agents, “I don’t want my son playing for the Bears.” Carl Williams seemed to go out of his way to explore his options, which included speaking with Archie Manning about Eli Manning’s draft process.

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Additionally, Wickersham reported that Carl Williams even met with lawyers to discuss potential workarounds in the CBA, including Caleb potentially opting out of the draft, playing a year in the UFL, or forcing his way to become an undrafted free agent.

At the combine, Caleb reportedly told his father he wanted to play for the Vikings, but he walked that back after his visit with Chicago helped him decide to play for the team.