The fact that Chicago already traded away previous first-round pick quarterback Justin Fields to create room for Williams’ arrival and that the former USC quarterback is being hailed as the next Patrick Mahomes are contributing factors.
The other factor is Williams’s intense social media activity leading up to the draft in Detroit on April 25–27.
Williams took aim at everyone making fun of him after flashing a pink cellphone case during a women’s basketball game and receiving mixed reactions.
“Nails are clear,” Williams declared, raising his hand to reveal his fingernails to the camera. “Lips are pink — your girl love ’em.”
That was nothing compared to Williams’ Tuesday night post.
Williams tweeted, “Let’s go back to school again because I’m bored.”
Then, he made the extra effort to reply to a video interview for This Is Football in which it was stated, “Greg McElroy likes Caleb Williams.” He is worried about one thing.
While ESPN NFL Draft expert Matt Miller recently revealed to talkSPORT that Williams’ college fumbling problems are a cause for concern, McElroy pointed out another possible problem.
“Caleb Williams, from the time he stepped on campus at Oklahoma to the time he stepped on campus at USC, he has never experienced adversity,” McElroy said. “Very little adversity as far as to how he was received and to how he was portrayed as the next-best guy.
“I do wonder is there a sense of entitlement, is there that chip on the shoulder that’s going to keep him going 10-12 years down the road the way it does Mahomes, who’s still p***** that he got drafted 10th.”
The strong comments made their way back to Williams, who broke out his dictionary before standing up for himself again.
“Adversity: A state or instance of serious or continued difficulty or misfortune,” Williams tweeted.
The former USC QB then highlighted not starting as a freshman at Oklahoma, having a hamstring injury, and playing for a 7-5 USC team.
“Y1. Didn’t start freshman year,” Williams said. “Y2. Popped hammy championship game 1st Q. Lost bc of my hammy. Y3. 7-5 my last year of college ball.”
That’s probably not the “adversity” that McElroy was specifically referring to when the former Alabama QB said that most top picks who succeed in the NFL have a “gigantic chip on their shoulder” because of past issues they had to endure and overcome.
McElroy is one of ESPN’s primary college football analysts, appearing on College Football Live and SportsCenter.
He was a QB at Alabama from 2007-11 and led the Crimson Tide to the 2010 BCS National Championship.
Williams will soon be the biggest new name in the NFL and should already be miles beyond McElroy, who was a seventh-round pick by the New York Jets in 2011 and only played two games in the NFL.
Fields had issues with the media and dealing with criticism during his brief time in Chicago.
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