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On the eve of the NFL draft, Caleb Williams can see his future as a Bear: 'I'm ready for the moment'

Dan Wiederer, Chicago Tribune on

Published in Football

DETROIT — Caleb Williams had one rule for participants in Wednesday morning’s Play Football Prospect Clinic with Special Olympics athletes: If you score, you dance.

Non-negotiable. And make it memorable.

“I mean, football is about having fun,” Williams said with a smile inside the Corner Ballpark facility on the site of the old Tiger Stadium.

That’s a philosophy Williams likely will carry with him into the NFL and into Halas Hall when he arrives as the new Chicago Bears quarterback at the end of this week. The Bears are expected to draft Williams with the No. 1 pick a little after 7 p.m. Thursday, and the hope is before long he’ll become the emcee of many an end-zone dance party.

Williams welcomed follow-up questions about his enthusiastic participation in Wednesday’s wiggle-worthy moments with the kids in the clinic.

“I was joining in,” he said. “You’ve got to lead by example. I’m not like Beyonce or anything, but I’m all right. I’m not bad. I’ll get out there. My hips don’t lie.”

 

The NFL draft finally has arrived, and almost the entire football world agrees that Williams is the no-brainer No. 1 selection for the Bears, who will be cashing in a gift from last year’s predraft trade with the Carolina Panthers.

In Williams, the Bears will be landing a prospect with a wide range of quarterbacking gifts and an abundance of self-confidence. In many respects, it feels like an inflection point.

Maybe Williams is finally the guy with the complete toolbox — of talent, of football IQ, of leadership skills, of unflappable composure — who will change the Bears’ fortune.

Williams long ago made one of the top goals on his football climb to one day become the top pick in the NFL draft. That box is about to be checked.

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