LOS ANGELES — Like so many before them, the Bears come here in search of stars.
They aren’t carrying a map like the ones sold on street corners but rather have an unwritten plan of their own. That was made clear Saturday night, when the Bears traded quarterback Justin Fields to the Steelers for a mere conditional sixth-round pick, clearing the way for them to draft a quarterback first overall next month.
On Wednesday morning, general manager Ryan Poles and a cadre of Bears officials will watch their most likely choice in person: USC quarterback Caleb Williams. After deciding not to throw at the NFL Scouting Combine, he’s expected to do so during USC’s pro day at Katherine B. Loker Track Stadium on campus.
On Sunday, Williams traveled from the Jacksonville, Florida, area, where he has been training. Before he left, he followed Rory McIlroy from inside the ropes at The Players Championship nearby, where he reportedly was met with the occasional “Go Bears!” from golf fans.
The Bears will watch Williams’ interactions with his college teammates and coaches as much as how the ball comes out of his hand Wednesday. That’s part of their plan, put in place months ago, to get to know him, on the field and off.
Poles met Williams for the first time at the combine last month. After chatting with him privately in California this week, the Bears plan to bring him to Halas Hall for one of the 30 visits each team is allowed by league rules. That’s where Williams figures to go through medical exams. He’s the first player in modern history to refuse to go through medical testing at the combine.
Williams’ throwing performance Wednesday isn’t likely to swing his draft stock dramatically in either direction. He said so himself last month when explaining why he, along with other top quarterbacks, wasn’t going to throw in Indianapolis.
“I played around 30-something games,” he said then. “Go ahead and watch real live ball of me and see how I am as a competitor.”
The tape shows he’s the most accomplished quarterback in this year’s draft — and likely since Trevor Lawrence was picked first in 2021. Williams won the Heisman Trophy in 2022. In two years with the Trojans, he threw for 8,170 yards, 72 touchdowns and 10 interceptions.
For the first time since 1948, the Bears have the first choice of college players. Williams gives them a chance to land what has eluded them for most of their 104 years: a franchise quarterback.
Those are hard to find. Since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970, six quarterbacks drafted in Round 1 made the Pro Football Hall of Fame: Dan Marino, Jim Kelly, Troy Aikman, Peyton Manning, John Elway and Terry Bradshaw. Those six in 54 drafts work out to an average of one every nine years.
Now the more encouraging news: Of the six Hall of Famers, four were picked first overall: Manning, Aikman, Elway and Bradshaw. Another, Steve Young, was picked first in the supplemental draft.
Bradshaw would have been a Bear had the team not lost a coin flip to the Steelers in a hotel ballroom before Super Bowl IV. Future Bears chairman Ed McCaskey called heads, and commissioner Pete Rozelle’s silver dollar landed on tails. The teams’ owners went to dinner afterward, where the Steelers’ Art Rooney told McCaskey that it’s bad luck to be the one actually calling the flip.
Bradshaw led the Steelers to four Super Bowl titles. The Bears have won one.
Drafting a new quarterback — again — would be the latest step in the Bears trying to change their own fortunes. Having the No. 1 pick ramps up the excitement level. When Williams steps on the practice field Wednesday, he’ll give the Bears one more thing to dream on.
