Caleb Williams has been the most talked about QB prospect in a long time — and many smart former coaches and talent evaluators — feel the USC signal caller is a generational prospect that has all the traits similar to Chiefs’ star Patrick Mahomes.
So while there’s been a ton of speculation whether the Chicago Bears will either keep Justin Fields and stack up on draft picks for a QB needy team that will trade up, or select Williams with the No. 1 overall pick, the consensus has been the USC star will be the first quarterback off the board in April.
There have been plenty of rumors about Williams not wanting to go to the Bears, or that he has a desire to reunite with Kliff Kingsbury, who was on the USC staff last year and was just hired as the Washington Commanders OC. The Commanders happen to have the second overall pick.
Standing in their way, though, are the Chicago Bears. And while the Commanders could certainly make a play for the star quarterback, ESPN’s Adam Schefter told Pat McAfee that the rest of the league is operating under the general assumption that the Bears will take Williams with the No. 1 overall pick this year.
“There are a few issues with this,” Schefter said of Washington’s hypothetical interest in trading for the Bears’ pick on the “Pat McAfee Show” on Monday. “Number one, are the Bears going to be willing to move on from taking Williams, which I believe seems to be the widespread consensus around the league: that Williams will be the No. 1 pick. And if they are willing to move on from him, then [the Bears] have to like either Drake Maye or Jayden Daniels enough — or Justin Fields.
“But again, the feeling around the league seems to be that they’ll wind up trading Justin. Whether or not they do, we’ll see, but that seems to be the feeling.”
ESPN Analyst Dan Orlovsky Says Caleb Williams Isn’t A Lock To Go No.1 In NFL Draft And Drake Maye Could
On Thursday, a new twist emerged when ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky joined the Pat McAfee show.
He believes there’s a chance the Chicago Bears — or team willing to trade up for the No. 1 pick —May view Drake Maye out of UNC as the better pro prospect.
“I’ve said for months now that you can’t lock Williams in at number one,” Orlovsky said. “As talented as Caleb is, there’s stuff teams are still going to be digging into. I called some of Drake’s games, he’s Big Ben to me. Maye is a freak athlete and you can’t teach the stuff that he has.”
The North Carolina quarterback was headed to an event with Manning on Wednesday after he participated in a LIV Golf pro-am in Las Vegas, where Super Bowl 2024 is being hosted.
“I’ve been working with Eli throughout the process, getting on Zooms and talking football with him,’’ Maye said, according to The Post Mark Cannizzaro. “I’m working out in Mobile, Alabama, and his backup quarterback in college was Dave Morris, and he’s training me for the draft. Pretty small world. And, I was at the Manning Camp this summer, so I got to see Eli and Peyton.’’
The Manning family is considered football royalty, but the NFL prospect is clearly taking the NFL Draft process seriously and doing everything he can to possibly hear his name called with the No. 1 overall pick.