Caleb Williams in Chicago: No. 1 NFL Draft Pick Will Thrive With Bears
Ryan Kang/Getty Images. Pictured: Caleb Williams.
Ahead of the 2024 NFL Draft, former quarterbacks Johnny Manziel and Kurt Benkert are breaking down the 2024 class of quarterbacks.
Manziel and Benkert discussed the top-six prospects under center, and those breakdowns will become available every weekday at 4 p.m. ET on Action Network's YouTube channel, starting with Caleb Williams on Friday, April 12.
Before getting into the No. 1 overall pick as a prospect, here's what Manziel and Benkert think of Williams' fit with the Bears.
Kurt Benkert
I think the stars have aligned for Williams and what you could hope when you're the best player in the draft, you hope you can find a way to a good team, right? You don't want to go and try to revitalize a team. That's the worst in the league to be the number one overall pick this year to a team that didn't deserve to have the number one overall pick.
The Bears weren't their worst team in the league.
Chicago had a really good defense, and that's another thing that I don't think people talk about enough. Chicago's defense last year was really good for most of the season. When you're a quarterback and you have a defense you can rely on so you don't have to score 30 to 40 points a game to win, that's even less pressure off of you. He can go in, just do his job, take care of the football, be good on third downs, in the red zone and then when you need to make that splash play, you can go make a play.
I'm excited to see how it plays out for him. I think it's the right pick in the right spot.
I think the number one piece for that offense that I'm most excited about is how he blends with Keenan Allen because the receivers in the league, they're all different types. Some guys are technicians, some guys are savvy, some guys are spatially aware like Allen.
We'll look back at this months from now and we're gonna be looking at it, because the way Allen plays football is really advantageous for a guy like Williams who can go off script. He has wiggle, and I think Keenan is gonna be one of the guys in this offense for him. That's gonna be Williams' safety net.
Johnny Manziel
From my time of getting a chance to work out and do quarterback prep in San Diego, Allen was always a guy who would come out to work with QBs who are out there. He's always a guy who's grinding in the offseason.
Allen is a little bit of every single thing you would want an NFL receiver to be. Yeah, he's technically sound, he's big enough to go over the top of you. He has attitude. He's a good blocker in the run game when he needs to be.
He truly is a number-one type of receiver. To have that and come into a situation like that with Williams, they'll mesh and vibe before the season starts.
As far as other recent top overall picks who were QBs, I think Williams is in a better situation than Kyler Murray was when he went No. 1 overall to Arizona. I think he's in a better situation hundred percent than Baker Mayfield in Cleveland, and I think he's in a better position than Trevor Lawrence even was in Jacksonville.
I think from a football, pure football standpoint, this guy's the best guy in the entire NFL Draft. Getting Justin Fields out of there, preparing this and setting this up for him to walk in there, I truly think, based off knowing him as a player, watching him as a player, I think this is gonna be a good fit for him.
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