Prior to the 2024 NFL Draft, there were reports that top prospect Caleb Williams may try to pull an Eli Manning and go to lengths to avoid being drafted by the mess that the Chicago Bears were, and in some eyes still are – but we’re now getting a glimpse into just how extreme those lengths were.
In American Kings: A Biography of the Quarterback, ESPN’s Seth Wickersham reveals that Caleb Williams and his father, Carl Williams, were deeply apprehensive about the Chicago Bears selecting Caleb in the 2024 NFL Draft.
“I don’t want my son playing for the Bears,” Williams’ dad told several agents in 2024.
Per Wickersham’s article, Williams and his family even considered whether his son could sign with the United Football League and become an unrestricted NFL free agent in 2025 to be able to pick a team. In addition to the draft process, Carl Williams vented about the rookie wage scale, which could lock his son into the team that drafted him for up to eight years. He calculated hundreds of millions of lost market-value income.
Believing the Bears were historically detrimental to quarterbacks, they even explored legal options to bypass the draft entirely, considering a stint in the United Football League to gain control over his NFL future. Despite serious efforts—including consulting with agents, labor lawyers, and Archie Manning—the Williams family ultimately abandoned plans to force a trade or undermine the Bears publicly.
Williams also wanted to push his way to the Vikings.
“I need to go to the Vikings,” he told his father.
“Let’s do it,” his father replied. But both Caleb and Carl knew that a trade to a divisional rival was extremely unlikely.
Bears GM Ryan Poles stood firm, telling Williams, “We’re drafting you no matter what.”
In the end, Caleb Williams told Wickersham, “I wasn’t ready to nuke the city.”
After a predraft visit to the Bears facility, Williams believed he could be part of a process to turn the franchise around.
“I can do it for this team,” Caleb told his dad. “I’m going to go to the Bears.”
Caleb decided to embrace the challenge, joining the team with hopes of reviving the franchise. The book chronicles his rocky rookie season, marked by organizational instability, but ends on a note of cautious optimism as he prepares for a new chapter under offensive coordinator Ben Johnson.
