ESPN: Caleb Williams Really Wanted to Play for the Vikings

Honestly, can you blame him?

We learned yesterday that the Minnesota Vikings will take on the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field on Monday Night Football to begin their 2025 season. Today, as if by magic, there’s now a storyline that involves the two division rivals and their quarterback situation.

A story that hit ESPN today talks about Bears’ quarterback Caleb Williams and how he and his family were not thrilled about the idea of playing for Chicago, who held the #1 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. Williams’ father, Carl, even stated that Chicago was the place where “quarterbacks go to die.”

(Stop the man when he starts telling lies.)

But there was a team in the NFC North that the younger Williams really wanted to play for. You’ve probably already figured out which one it is.

From the ESPN story:

After an up-and-down final season at USC, Caleb Williams was unsure of what he wanted to do as he prepared for the 2024 draft. At the NFL combine that year, he met with Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell. The two hit it off, and Caleb Williams began to dream of what it would be like to play for Minnesota.

“I need to go to the Vikings,” he told his father.

“Let’s do it,” his father replied. But both Caleb and Carl knew that a trade to a divisional rival was extremely unlikely.

Bears GM Ryan Poles stood firm, telling Williams, “We’re drafting you no matter what.”

Well. . .can you blame the young man, honestly? O’Connell has quickly gained a reputation as a very quarterback-friendly coach, while the city of Chicago is now the home to more men who have been named Pope than to quarterbacks who have ever thrown for 4,000 yards in an NFL regular season.

Unfortunately for the Williams family, it was not to be. The Bears took him with the top overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, while the Vikings did make a move up the draft board, but it was only a one-spot jump to secure the services of J.J. McCarthy, who the Vikings will look to build the franchise around going forward.

Still, it’s pretty telling that Williams, who was regarded by some as a “generational” quarterback talent, wanted nothing to do with the Chicago Bears and everything to do with the Minnesota Vikings. And I’m sure there’s no chance that it will come up that frequently between now and Week 1 when these two teams step into the Monday Night spotlight at Soldier Field.