By the time Mike Quinlan arrived on the scene, people were running out on the mini-golf course looking for Caleb Williams. The Chicago Bears quarterback had shown up to Skokie Sports Park with a friend on the evening of July 15. Word had traveled fast.
They arrived already wearing Bears jerseys, spilling out of cars before Williams had even made the turn. They lingered outside holes 17 and 18, watching the Heisman Trophy winner attempting to end Chicago’s decades-long search for a franchise quarterback, first attempt to pull off a summer date in front of a throng of fans in the North Shore suburbs.
It took about two hours to finish the round. Skokie Sports Park employee Josh Herrera even convinced Williams to take a swing at the driving range. The footage quickly spread through NFL and Chicago social media. Herrera had never seen the place so packed.
“But he didn’t turn down a picture. He probably took 1,000 pictures,” said Quinlan, the golf operations supervisor at Skokie Sports Park. “It was odd. I didn’t think he’d be so, he seemed down to earth. Just to show up to a municipal mini golf course …”
There is anxious optimism throughout Chicago that Williams can prove current perceptions of him are not reality as this high-profile football marriage between the No. 1 pick in the 2024 NFL draft and the Bears enters year two. He begins the 2025 NFL season as one of the league’s most intriguing and polarizing figures, with a quarterback-starved fan base and a historic franchise in transition eyeing his every move, still hopeful they’ve got their long-awaited star but also in a hurry.
The Bears hired coveted Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson to replace former coach Matt Eberflus, beefed up their offensive line and used their first three draft picks on offensive players this offseason. The honeymoon period during a tone-setting and culture-shifting preseason has featured buy-in and a blossoming partnership between Williams and the offensive guru attempting to course-correct after a rockier-than-expected rookie year.
Williams was notably out-shined by No. 2 pick Jayden Daniels and lost 10-straight games in 2024, despite producing passing statistics that compare favorably to previous No. 1 picks that started at quarterback as a rookie. He was also the subject of reports about attempts to avoid being drafted by Chicago because of its reputation with quarterbacks, including a much-discussed book by ESPN’s Seth Wickersham that also details some of Williams’ problems with the previous Bears coaching regime during his rookie year.
Those pre-existing and complicated dynamics still fuel national and local debates, and linger over every conversation about the Bears.
“He’s under as much pressure as anyone in the league this season, fair or unfair – and by the way, I think he’s up for it,” said former Bears wide receiver Tom Waddle, co-host of the long-running “Waddle & Silvy” show on ESPN 1000 radio in Chicago. “The town has never had one of those elite, franchise kind of quarterbacks. I think you put it all together and it tells you that there’s a lot that’s been given to him and a lot that’s going to be expected of him.”
Where Caleb Williams fits in Chicago QB ‘fishbowl’
Williams seemed to accept the spotlight he’s under, and how distinct it is to Chicago, when training camp began and he announced one of his goals for this season: “Being the first 4000-yard passer in Bears history.”
The Bears are the only team in the NFL without one.
More recently, they’ve used first-round draft picks on Mitch Trubisky (No. 2 overall in 2017) and Justin Fields (No. 11 overall in 2021) that didn’t pan out. Williams performed better than either of them did as a rookie.
Indeed, Williams had a better QB rating as a rookie than former No. 1 picks turned future Pro Football Hall of Famers like John Elway, Troy Aikman and Peyton Manning in their debut NFL season. He finished with a better QBR than fellow No. 1 picks and current NFL starting quarterbacks Matthew Stafford, Jared Goff and Trevor Lawrence in their rookie season.
Only Manning, Cam Newton and Andrew Luck had more touchdown passes (20) as a rookie quarterback among No. 1 picks. Only Cincinnati Bengals star Joe Burrow had a higher completion percentage (62.5%) as a rookie. No former No. 1 pick who became a starting quarterback as a rookie has thrown fewer interceptions (5) than Williams did in 2024.
‘I think it’s easy to dismiss some of the things that make up who he is when you have talent,” said Miami Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel, who first worked with the Bears quarterback when Williams was a 14-year-old at a QB Collective camp. “People make a lot of assumptions, and I do think that he, based on knowledge of him as a player for awhile, he does work to the caliber of NFL quarterbacks when no one’s watching, and he’s done that for awhile.’
Williams nonetheless ranked 28th out 32 eligible quarterbacks in QBR last season, and scrutiny about his readiness followed in spite of the chaotic circumstances, particularly given Daniels’ early success in comparison.
“That will always hang over you,” Waddle noted.
The Bears just gave backup QB Tyson Bagent a weird contract
Williams famously doesn’t fit typical quarterback conventions, with painted fingernails and a passion for fashion dating back to when he first burst on the national scene at Oklahoma and USC in college. But the toughness he showed after taking 68 sacks in 2024 – tied for the third-most in league history – earned the respect of Bears’ teammates, who now defend him in the wake of public attacks they’ve deemed unnecessary.
“When you’re the No. 1 pick and you’re yourself, you’re going to get a lot of hate,” Bears wide receiver Rome Odunze told reporters on Aug. 26. “It’s sad to say that, but that’s just kind of how the light that we were put in and Chicago sports are very wanting success and having it now, and they expect a lot from all their sports teams. So we’re in that light, and you take the good with the bad. He gets a lot of hate for those reasons, but he comes in, he works hard every single day and he’s himself. So I appreciate him for that.”
Bears fans can perhaps be forgiven for being impatient. Trubisky in 2018 is the only Pro Bowl quarterback produced by the franchise since Jim McMahon made it from the 1985 Super Bowl team.
Trubisky is viewed as a draft bust after Chicago selected him eight spots before the Kansas City Chiefs chose Patrick Mahomes. He doesn’t see the experience that way after the Bears allowed his rookie contract to expire in 2021.
“It is a fishbowl, but at the same time I would say enjoy it. Like really take it all in,” Trubisky said in August when asked to give Williams advice while back at Halas Hall as a member of the Buffalo Bills for a joint practice and preseason game against the Bears.
“I only had it for four years. I wish I had it longer, to be honest, so take it in, enjoy the process,” Trubisky continued. “All eyes are (on) you in the city, but it’s really a privilege and there is a lot of pressure that comes with that. But it’s a privilege and I miss that. It’s a lot of fun to be the franchise guy, especially in a city like this.”
How far can Caleb Williams carry the Bears?
George McCaskey looked almost incredulous when presented with the observation. There can’t be many NFL owners standing in the August heat to greet every fan who wants a brief audience with him at a practice.
“The least I can do is say thanks,” the Bears chairman and controlling owner told USA TODAY Sports, and so there he was fielding questions from fans young and old lined up to speak with him before the team’s joint practice with the Miami Dolphins last month.
After a few minutes, his mindset heading into the season emerged: “Whatever it takes to get to the playoffs,” McCaskey answered at one point.
This remains a family-run organization in the wake of Virginia McCaskey’s death last February, and it’s facing a pivotal few months on multiple fronts. The Illinois state legislative session in October is crucial to the Bears moving forward with their plans to build a fixed-roof stadium and mixed use development in Arlington Heights, Illinois that would attract the Super Bowl and other major events, team president Kevin Warren said in multiple interviews during the preseason.
The Bears, meanwhile, have just one playoff win since 2006, and it’s not lost on anyone what the presence of a long-term solution at quarterback would mean.
“A lot of people are waiting with bated breath because it’s been so long since we’ve had a guy at the quarterback position who can quite literally carry us in times of need, and Caleb showed us last year that he’s capable of that,” said former Bears offensive lineman Kyle Long. “Can you imagine what would happen in Chicago if Caleb Williams was the tide that rose all ships and everybody becomes media darlings? The Super Bowl thing is a kingmaker and if you’re in Chicago and you do it, it’s way different than that.”
There have been glimpses of greatness and groans during Johnson’s first training camp with Williams in Chicago. He overloaded Williams with information on purpose before paring down his playbook as Monday’s season opener against the Minnesota Vikings approaches.
Williams worked meticulously at times on footwork and the proper cadences for play calls. There are still concerns about the number of sacks he took last year and how quickly he’s reading defenses. The team signed back-up Tyson Bagent to a new contract and kept veteran Case Keenum on the 53-man roster as a third quarterback for additional support.
Johnson acknowledged recently Williams hasn’t often met the coach’s goal of completing 70% of his passes in practice and described his new quarterback’s training camp as ‘a couple steps forward and one step back.’
‘We’re going to grow together. This offense is going to grow together with him,’ Johnson told reporters. ‘There will be some bumpy steps along the way, but that’s OK. That’s the nature of doing it. But I feel really good about where he’s at right now and there’s no reason why we can’t win this year.’
But the statistics and milestones, for now, may be less important than the perception that Williams is ready to embrace being the superstar Bears quarterback Chicago desperately wants him to be.
“Him and I are going to be here for awhile,” Williams said of Johnson. “That’s the plan.”