USC Trojans head coach Lincoln Riley made the media rounds today by appearing on Good Morning Football and later on the Pat McAfee Show.
He was asked a myriad of questions regarding the potential first-overall pick in the NFL Draft, but obviously, a lot of the conversation was centered around Caleb Williams‘ desire to be drafted first and if he would play for the Chicago Bears.
You can watch the exchange here:
USC Trojans Coach Lincoln Riley Puts Caleb Williams Rumors To Bed
Boston Connor Campbell:
“Coach, basically, I want to say since December, this has been going on with Caleb Williams where there’ll be reports about something that his camp says or something that his father has said about maybe not wanting to go to a Chicago or forcing his way elsewhere in things of that nature. Is that something that you have dealt with or is this just complete and utter b******t of teams that maybe are a little higher in the draft and want to tarnish his name, which we know is going to happen throughout these next two months leading up to the draft. I mean, we just saw it with CJ Stroud, and then we saw how that turned out for him. But is that just complete BS and is the narrative around Caleb kind of been skewed to the point where people aren’t really sure exactly who he is and do you think that’s on purpose as well?”
Lincoln Riley:
“Yeah. I think it’s a total smoke screen. I mean, I think it’s people playing the game, like knowing Caleb, location-wise, I don’t think he cares one bit about where he plays. Where he’s at, like all of these franchises are in really good cities, like really, there are advantages to anywhere that you could go.
“He wants to win. He wants to be a guy that’s playing in this game that’s getting ready to come up this way and I think for him, it’s less about location and it’s just more about getting in the right situation where he knows he can continue to develop and do the things that he needs to do to help a franchise be successful. And that’s it and he’s got a one-track mind that way. So no, I don’t think there’s any truth to that. At all. The guy wants to win. He’s a competitor. Certainly, I know he would love to go first overall. I mean, as any competitor who wouldn’t, but at the end of the day, it’s about winning for him and nothing else.”
Related: USC Trojans Transfer Portal Tracker
This has been the expectation for quite some time, and most recently “Caleb’s Camp” told Colin Cowherd that he would have no problem playing for the Chicago Bears. But this is more reassurance from his former Head Coach who has been involved with his daily life for the past 3 years.
Now it is in the Chicago Bear’s court. Will they trade out of the 1st overall pick and move forward with Justin Fields as their franchise QB? Or will they go with Caleb Williams?
The next two months are going to be fascinating, and we will be at the NFL Combine in just a few weeks with plenty more coverage of Williams and all of the news surrounding his draft stock. Similar to Bo Callahan in the great Kevin Costner film Draft Day, NFL teams will be attempting to uncover anything negative that they can regarding Caleb Williams.
Don’t believe everything that you hear.
But if it is any consolation from this network, Ryan Pace should be sleeping easy as he shouldn’t overthink this. Draft Caleb Williams and turn your franchise around.