(Audacy) Rumors continue to swirl around the Windy City. The Bears own the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL Draft and the right to draft USC star quarterback Caleb Williams, but a recent move in Washington has increased speculation about Williams' future and perhaps complicated the situation for Chicago.
The Commanders, who hold the No. 2 overall pick, recently hired USC quarterbacks coach Kliff Kingsbury as their new offensive coordinator. On the Audacy original podcast 1st & Pod, 670 The Score afternoon host Danny Parkins broke down the recent Williams rumors and shared his thoughts on what Williams may want leading up to the NFL Draft.
“Caleb clearly values continuity," Parkins said (5:30 in the audio player above). "He left D.C. (after high school) to go to Oklahoma for Lincoln Riley and then he followed Lincoln Riley to leave Oklahoma to go to USC. Kingsbury is now the offensive coordinator for Caleb’s hometown team that has the second pick in the draft and an established veteran-culture coach who, in theory, should have a three- or four-year runway. Obviously, coaches get fired in less than that all the time, but it’s a new owner who hired Dan Quinn presumably for stability after he lost out on Ben Johnson.
"I got to be honest, man, as a guy that was looking forward to Caleb Williams coming to Chicago, I have legit anxiety about Kingsbury going to his hometown team.”
Parkins still believes Williams will play for the Bears, but he can also envision a situation in which Williams uses leverage to land with the Commanders.
“I think when Ryan Poles and the Bears are interviewing Caleb to find out about Caleb, Caleb is going to be interviewing the Bears to find out about the Bears,” Parkins said. “It’s much more of an equal footing meeting than a job interview to decide if the Bears want to ‘hire’ Caleb Williams.
“So if the Bears don’t have answers that are acceptable to Caleb Williams’ camp, then yes, I could see a backchannel deal of ‘We won’t embarrass you publicly and say that we don’t want to play for you. You don’t embarrass us publicly and make us out to be the villain, but let’s all work together here to make everybody happy.’”
The NFL Draft will be held from April 25-27.
“I think Caleb Williams is going to be a Bear, but I do think that the paradigm has shifted and Caleb has more power than basically any No. 1 pick that we’ve seen in recent history," Parkins said.