Caleb Williams: 'I tend to create history and rewrite history'
He is a confident quarterback. Here's what the presumptive No. 1 overall pick said at the NFL Combine.
INDIANAPOLIS — The likely No. 1 overall pick answered questions from the media on Friday morning. While Caleb Williams is not throwing the ball or even doing medical testing at the NFL Combine, he is meeting with teams. And this was a rare opportunity for the public to hear from the USC quarterback himself.
To this point, he hasn’t spoken much at all.
A slew of reporters packed as many questions as they could into Williams’ 13-minute session.
The Chicago Bears, of course, hold the first selection.
Here’s what Williams had to say on a myriad of topics.
On if he’s afraid to compete at the NFL Combine: “No. Not doing things. It was the decision by me and my team, my family and it comes down to that.”
On what he sees in the Bears: “They’ve got a good defense. They’ve got good players on offense. It’s pretty exciting to be going to a situation like that.
On the fact that the Bears haven’t had good quarterback play in 100+ years: “I don’t compare myself to the other guys that’s there, been there. I think I’m my own player. I tend to create history and rewrite history.”
On last season: “This is one of the seasons unlike any of the other seasons I’ve had to where I’ve been so close to being either neutral or close to having a losing record and so it was tough for me. Like I said, I’m a competitor, I like to win and so being that close to losing was difficult for me but I had people in my corner to help me and figure out the energy and feeling that I was feeling. I think it’s important going into situations because there’s nobody in the first part of the draft that would be early in the draft — and I expect myself to go high — to be, 12-and-whatever. The teams are going to be, at least from the year before, it’s kind of how I went into USC where they were 4-8. So just prepare for those moments and I think last year was a perfect example for that.”
“I learned either you grow from something like that — and Lincoln (Riley) sat me down after maybe our loss to Utah I believe, and he sat me down and he said, ‘Either you grow from something like this or you keep feeling this feeling, you’ll stay where you are.’”
On not throwing at Combine: “I didn’t feel the need to go out and throw. I played around 30 something games I believe. Go ahead and go watch real live ball with me and see how I am as a competitor.”
On getting into football: “My Dad put me in football when I was four. My Mom didn’t let me play tackle football my first year. I thought I was going to love it. At four years old, I did. And the next year after that I was a bit too aggressive for flag football. So from there, I fell in love with it even more. By the time I hit 11 to 12, I told my Dad that this is what I wanted to do and we could put together a plan and he has helped me every part of the way.”
On being an “artist” or a “surgeon” as a quarterback: “I’ve actually heard that about the artist or surgeon thing and I like to think that when it’s time to be surgical, it’s time to be surgical. There’s been many games where it gets late in the game and I’ve ran or scrambled and threw a crazy pass — that’s being the artist. And then there’s been times where — even when I hurt my hamstring and I couldn’t run — I sat in the pocket the whole time, the rest of the game, and delivered the ball. … It’s important to be in the pocket. It’s part of the game. It’s also important to be out of the pocket and just be just as good as you are in the pocket and out of pocket.”
On how disappointed he’d be if he was not drafted No. 1 overall: “It’s not a thought in my mind. I don’t think that I’m not going to be No. 1. I think I put in all the hard work, all of the time, effort, energy into being that. So, I don’t think of a Plan B. That’s kind how I do things in my life. I don’t think of a Plan B. I stay on Plan A and then when things don't work out, find a way to make Plan A work.”
On what he wants to show teams this week in interviews: “The main thing that if they ask me or if it comes up, the main thing I’ve said is I want to go to a place that wants to win. A whole 360 from the top down to the janitors to the people who make everything run. Everybody wants to win, everybody’s a part of that, and we all take care of each other.”
On doing an ESPN interview before the Combine: “A lot of things are coming out right now. You all rarely see me speak. Ever. As you all know, I don’t really speak much. But this was important to me that I wanted to put something out before I came here. Especially with all the noise and things like that that’s been brewing and things like that before I came here. And then now since I’ve been here, a bunch of stuff comes out but just wanted to put something out so everybody knew exactly where it was coming from.”
On the backlash to showing emotion after a loss at USC: “There’s not many people in the world that get the experience what I experience every gameday, every practice day. So it always goes back to that for me. It’s something that I only get to experience. It’s something that I really care about, which is not only winning the game but doing it with my teammates. So every time we lose, I feel like I let my teammates down.”
On having a Michael Jordan-like impact in Chicago: “I’d say anywhere I go, that’s my standard. That’s what I play for as you all saw. I don’t play for fame. I don’t play for money. I don’t play for jewels and things like that. To go out there and win as many games as possible, be the best that I can. My plan is if I can be my best and play as many games as possible — at my best — I think I can reach certain points like that.”
On NFL leap: “I would say there’s small things that you may need to correct or adapt to going into an NFL locker room where I’m 22 and people have kids and they’re ranging on 35 and things like that. I would say adapting to the situation. Understanding what the team needs from me and going about it that way. … The cool thing about my experience is that all three years have been a bit different. This past year we went 7-5 so my leadership needed to be different. The year before, I came into a situation where we were 4-8, so my leadership needed to be different. The year before, I came in as a backup and then I jumped up and became the starter. So my leadership throughout times have been different and I think it is helped groom me for the situation I’m going into now.”
On what he wants to find out about the Bears as he meets with them more: “Do you want to win? That’s it.”
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