'He's what you want as the face of your franchise.' Get to know Bears rookie QB Caleb Williams.

— We’ve already been hearing from Bears teammates about how competitive he is off the field. Do you have an example of that?

Most of the time it was post-practice. Those guys were trying to throw balls from like the 50 to hit the center of the goal post. That was something that was funny. That was something they all were trying to win at.

— Was there an in-game moment that showed his competitiveness?

There have been a lot of times that he’s done some stuff where you’re like, “OK, wow.” There was a time he was scrambling when we played Oregon last year, and he threw a pass but it was almost like a hook shot. It was either him running out of bounds or him finding the back and getting the ball to the back. The back kind of slid inside of him and behind the defender, and he kind of lobbed it over his head. It was like, “OK, that’s not normal.”

— The off-script plays are obviously mesmerizing, but one question people are asking is whether he’ll be able to play within structure at this level. What would you say to that?

I mean, I don’t think he would throw for as many yards as he has without being able to play on script. So I mean, last time I checked, they weren’t letting him just sit back there forever and pick them apart. His whole career, whether it was here or the previous place, he’s had pressure on him.

Yeah, do things happen quicker in the NFL than in college? I wouldn’t argue that point. But I would argue that this dude has had, at every level of his career, especially with the accolades and who he is, there’s been people trying to get to him when they’re playing.

— The adversity he went through last year, with the team not having the success he would have liked, how did you see him handle that? And how did you see him lead through that?

He was always the optimistic person in trying to say it’s never over, trying to look forward on the bright side and trying to figure out, “OK, we may not have gotten it done in that situation, but there’s still room for us to possibly reach the end goal.” So he wasn’t one of those guys that the first time something didn’t go right, he just gave up.

— Ryan Poles talked about how the Hollywood stereotype that surfaced about Williams in the predraft process was inaccurate. What can you tell me about who he is as a person?

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