The Caleb Williams experience arrived at the NFL Scouting Combine as the elite quarterback prospect, who has said surprisingly little, revealed quite a bit in front of cameras for the first time since his USC Trojans career ended. That follows an interview with ESPN earlier in the week that clarified that Williams would be O.K. going to the Washington Commanders or Chicago Bears depending on how the NFL draft shakes out. That comes after rumors that Williams and his family may put his thumb on the scale à la Eli Manning 20 years ago to determine where he wants to play.
“A lot of things are coming out right now,” Williams said. “You have rarely seen me speak ever. As y’all know, I don’t really go out and speak much, but this was, you know, this was important to me that I wanted to put something out before I came here. Especially with all the noise and things like that that’s been brewing and things like that. Before I came here and then now since I’ve been here, a bunch of stuff comes out, but just wanted to put something else everybody knew exactly where it was coming from.”
To understand Williams is to understand that he and the team around him, led by his father Carl, are purporting him to be not just any quarterback prospect, but a singular tour de force at the position on and off the field. To some, it comes off as arrogant; to others, it’s simply a young man and his family understanding their worth in the modern landscape of athletes as total brands. It’s why rumors of his father asking about equity in individual franchises raised eyebrows during the fall, but it’s understandable when you consider the lens Williams is viewed in. It shows up in subtle ways, too, like Williams wearing a pair of Asics instead of the standard issue NOBULL Combine workout attire. Williams is opting out of workouts at the Combine—which isn’t rare, as contemporaries Jayden Daniels and Drake Maye aren’t throwing either—but what is rare is Williams opting out of medical testing in Indianapolis.
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