USC quarterback Caleb Williams, who likely will join the Bears as the No. 1 overall pick in the draft Thursday, said he aims to exceed what Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud did as a rookie last season and eventually surpass Tom Brady’s seven Super Bowl rings.
In an episode of the podcast ‘‘The Pivot’’ released Friday, Williams made clear he’s not watering down expectations for his rookie season.
‘‘I want to do better [than Stroud],’’ he said. ‘‘That’s my thing. If the plan is for the Bears to draft me, the plan is to go as far as you can possibly go — all the way to February. If they draft me, my plan is to go work my ass off, get after it, get in the playbook really heavily and handle things the way things need to be handled.’’
He also threw in a shout-out to the 1985 Bears, referring to the franchise’s last championship.
The Bears long have been expected to draft Williams, and that became a near-lock when they traded quarterback Justin Fields to the Steelers a month ago.
That was quite a day for Williams, who said he got the news while driving to a business meeting in Los Angeles.
‘‘My phone explodes,’’ he said. ‘‘I pick up my phone, and I’m trying to figure out what just happened. I end up calling a couple [of] people, and it’s like, ‘Well, we know where their heart and mind are in this instance. Let’s prepare, get ready and handle things accordingly.’
‘‘It was kinda like, ‘Wow,’ because I didn’t do my top-30 visit yet [and] they didn’t have my medicals. They have it all now. It was nothing. And I had a good time on my top-30. It was interesting right then in that moment because it was so unexpected.’’
