Bears put Caleb Williams-Patrick Mahomes comparison to test during pre-draft workout

The story of Caleb Williams and the Chicago Bears goes back to a clear night in South Bend, Indiana when USC came to town to face Notre Dame. Bears GM Ryan Poles, a former scout, got a chance to watch Williams, then with USC, go across the field and, according to Albert Breer, pay his respects to Joe Montana, an NFL and Notre Dame legend.

For the previous year and during the season, Williams' style of play was being compared to Kansas City Chiefs All-Pro quarterback Patrick Mahomes. But at the time the Trojans played the Fighting Irish, Williams' worst game of the season, it was far from Poles' mind that Williams could even be considered for the Bears, even though the team had two first-round picks to work with. They also had their own QB in Justin Fields.

You couldn't just give up on Fields unless you see what you have in him. But the Bears would continue to struggle despite occasional flashy plays from Fields. As the year went on, the Carolina Panthers, whom Chicago stole a first-rounder from, secured the worst record in the NFL. That meant the Bears would get the No. 1 overall pick for the second straight year, and with it, a decision to make. Keep Justin Fields and pay the fifth-year option, or start fresh with Williams.

So, the Bears went to work. Poles used the QB scouting methods he learned from head coach Andy Reid while working as a scout in Kansas City. The same methods that were used in 2017 in scouting Mahomes and the rest of that class, a class Bears fans still despise to this very day, see the Mitchell Trubisky disaster originated by Ryan Pace.

The Chicago Bears left no stone unturned when it came to scouting Caleb Williams, and their hard work is likely going to pay off

According to Breer, as part of the scouting process, Poles watched all of Williams’s third downs on his two-minute plays and the instances of playing from behind. The result? Impressive. Poles says the the field vision, the arm strength, the accuracy, was rare. Williams, according to Poles, had the ‘wow’ factor.

Not bad, but was it consistent enough? The story says yes. At this point, the Bears would do anything for a great QB. They lost out on one in Mahomes, but could he have had success in Chicago at the time he was drafted? The likelihood is not pretty, considering who was running the show at the time. John Fox and Ryan Pace? You knew that was doomed to fail almost immediately, mainly because the Bears upper management decided to intervene in the matters, a BIG blunder.

Now, it looks like Poles and his staff have taken over and are doing this themselves. Hopefully, the owners stay away from this. Poles had his players meet with Caleb, dine with him, learn more about him, and the staff did the same. Everyone feels comfortable, for now. The question is, what will the team do to help Williams thrive now that he's out of college and trying to revive a franchise that can't seem to modernize?

It's on the kid's shoulders now. He's been picked by this regime to run the show, and they have surrounded him with talent. What is he going to do with it? The goal is NOT just winning the Halas Trophy and getting to the Super Bowl. The goal is to WIN the Super Bowl and the LOMBARDI trophy. The conference trophy is a paperweight regardless of the name on it. Williams was brought in to deliver, and now, the real work begins