DETROIT — The Bears’ next quarterback stood on a makeshift football field Wednesday on the site of the former Tiger Stadium and extended his right pinkie, the nail of which he had painted silver. He said it will match his navy suit — which has silver accents — and the dress his girlfriend wears to the NFL Draft on Thursday.
Painting his nails helps USC quarterback Caleb Williams relax.
‘‘I feel comfy in my own skin,’’ he said.
Such declarations have been a Rorschach test for a segment of the Bears’ fan base eager to poke holes in Williams’ prospect status — on the field, no one in the draft has fewer — or to stick up for the since-departed Justin Fields. Nonetheless, there’s no questioning Williams’ comfort level as an iconoclast. He was the first quarterback to skip medical testing at the NFL Scouting Combine and doesn’t have an agent. So sure was Williams of his status as the No. 1 overall pick that he visited one NFL facility — Halas Hall — during the predraft process.
He was proved right. The Bears will draft him No. 1 overall Thursday.
Williams was college football’s first name, image and likeness millionaire. He does Dr Pepper commercials and flies to Formula One races. Denzel Washington takes him to dinner to give him advice about handling celebrity. When Steak 48 in Beverly Hills wouldn’t let Williams in — he recently had cut his hair and was wearing a sweatsuit — Washington walked up to the maitre d’ and turned into his furious character from ‘‘Training Day.’’
‘‘Movie Denzel,’’ Williams said. ‘‘He goes off on the guy, and he goes back to regular Denzel. He’s giving me wisdom.’’
When Williams walks across the stage Thursday, he will be unlike any quarterback to put on a Bears jersey. Given the team’s woeful history at the position, that’s a good thing.
‘‘He handles the criticism and the media that’s thrown at him very well, honestly,’’ Washington receiver Rome Odunze said. ‘‘He continues to be his own person, which is very commendable. On top of that, he’s a tremendous football player.’’
Williams is clearly the top choice in the draft. The Bears confirmed as much this offseason.
After general manager Ryan Poles first met Williams at the combine, he traded Fields and led a contingent of coaches and executives to USC’s pro day in March. When Williams came to Halas Hall this month, the Bears sent him to dinner with their veteran players.
‘‘I’m just one of them — nothing more, nothing less,’’ Williams said. ‘‘Same person every day. What they saw at the dinner is the person that I am five years from now, 10 years from now, 15 years from now.
‘‘Hopefully with a couple of more accolades on that list.’’
The Bears — whose greatest quarterback, Sid Luckman, retired 74 years ago — happily would take that. They already have spent the offseason building support for Williams, trading for receiver Keenan Allen, signing running back D’Andre Swift and hiring offensive coordinator Shane Waldron, whom Williams praised for helping revive Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith’s career.
‘‘You have a lot to work with where you could potentially have a superstar player,’’ NFL Network analyst Daniel Jeremiah said of Williams. ‘‘I think he’s extremely gifted. Does he have the upside, the potential, of being a top-five to -10 quarterback? He does.’’
Williams endured increasingly ridiculous questioning Wednesday, from what player he would like to trade closets with (Odell Beckham Jr.) to his expected Madden rating (81) to the first NFL jerseys he had owned (Troy Polamalu, followed by Barry Sanders and Walter Payton). He smiled and refused to say which number he’ll wear for the Bears, not wanting to jinx anything. Unofficially, he became the first draft prospect asked why he didn’t sign his Screen Actors Guild card.
The Bears say they’re not worried about what Poles calls ‘‘the whole Hollywood thing’’ moving forward. Williams said he knows ‘‘who I am, how hard I work, what I do in my daily life, how I act, how I treat people with respect.’’
The Bears believe Williams puts football first, something he reiterated at his pro day and at the NFL’s charity event Wednesday. He bemoaned the fact that he hasn’t been a part of a team since USC lost its regular-season finale Nov. 18.
‘‘That’s probably the toughest part to me and something I really want to get back to,’’ he said. ‘‘In the locker room, to be around the guys.’’
On Thursday, he’ll get his team. In fact, he’ll be the face of it.
When Williams gets handed the navy jersey to match his suit, he’ll inherit one of the most difficult tasks across U.S. sports: to be a transcendent quarterback for a founding franchise that never has had one.
The Bears’ quarterback history is so star-crossed that the McCaskey children grew up teasing their father, Ed, for calling heads when then-NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle flipped a silver dollar in a hotel ballroom before Super Bowl IV. Tails handed the Steelers the No. 1 overall draft pick and quarterback Terry Bradshaw, who won four Super Bowls on the way to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
The Bears never recovered.
‘‘If you get too locked into the past, it can hold you back,’’ chairman George McCaskey told the Sun-Times last month. ‘‘That applies to success in the past or struggles in the past. This is a completely different situation. I think the important thing is to make the most of the opportunity.’’
History always hovers at Halas Hall like mist, though.
Fifty-four years after the Bradshaw coin flip and one year after Poles traded the No. 1 overall pick — and a chance to draft a quarterback — to the Panthers, the Bears are ready for their first top pick at quarterback.
Williams is, too.
‘‘Chicago, if that’s the place for me, I can’t wait,’’ he said. ‘‘All I’ve heard is great things about you all, and I’m ready to go.’’
