Add another voice to the growing consensus that the Bears will move on from Justin Fields and draft a rookie quarterback this year. NFL Network draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah appeared on the Rich Eisen Show and said he believes the Bears will end up selecting Caleb Williams with the No. 1 pick.
“I just think he’s a rare, rare talent and I can’t see the Chicago Bears bypassing that,” Jeremiah said.
“He’s got an unbelievable amount of horsepower in terms of how he can generate velocity with arm, what he can do with the force with his legs, the creativity we all know about. I just think every quarterback has some risk. Do I wish he played on time a bit more? Sure. But I think (Patrick) Mahomes is the greatest example of that. You can kind of corral that without taking away the magic.”
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That’s not to say Jeremiah believes Fields is done. He believes that Fields showed enough improvement over his time in Chicago to earn a starting job elsewhere in the league. But he speaks about Williams giving the Bears a chance to “upgrade into a different tier” at QB.
Jeremiah also insinuates that talk of Williams’ struggles at the end of the 2023 season may be overblown. After watching the tape of USC’s year, he had a different takeaway.
“I came away thinking that’s one of the worst interior lines that I’ve seen in a long time. They were rushing three and getting immediate pressure on him. He was under duress constantly, which did lead to him forcing some things and bad habits creeped in there. But came away from the totality of studying him that this guy’s got some rare ability.”
We likely won’t know what the Bears do at quarterback for many months. The team has just started its information gathering process on the incoming prospects and won’t have the full picture until they sit down with the players for interviews over the course of the pre-draft process. GM Ryan Poles will need to field trade offers not only for the No. 1 overall pick but for Justin Fields as well. He said in his year-end press conference that assessing all of those options could go into April.
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At the end of the day, however, Williams’ sheer talent might be too much to pass up.