LAKE FOREST, Ill. — If there has ever been a magic number for the Chicago Bears, it’s 85.
Because when you say “85” in Chicago, you think of Ditka and Payton, McMahon and Mongo, Hampton and Dent, “The Super Bowl Shuffle,” a 15-1 season and a desecration of the New England Patriots in New Orleans. You think of a brief period of prosperity and a team that will live forever in pop culture and our collective memory.
I bring this up because George “Papa Bear” Halas took Sid Luckman with the No. 2 pick in the 1939 draft. And the Bears have been looking for the next Luckman since he retired.
And so, 85 years later, the Bears, with Halas’ daughter Virginia McCaskey still the titular head of the team, might have found him in Caleb Williams, whom they took with the No. 1 pick of the 2024 NFL Draft.
The 85 has to mean something, right? Get me a numerologist.
We’ve known this pick was coming for weeks, months even. There was no shock like when the Bears traded up one pick for Mitch Trubisky or nine for Justin Fields. Williams knew it was happening. He was ready and he is ready. I think I can speak for Chicago and say we were all ready to stop talking about it.
“I didn’t know how I was going to react in the moment,” Williams said Thursday night. “I was trying to think through it in my head throughout the process, but nothing feels better than being in the moment, actually getting that call. I didn’t feel nervous. I didn’t feel any of that. I was anxious and ready to go.”
Ladies and gentlemen… 1️⃣8️⃣
— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) April 26, 2024
The Bears hadn’t made a pick at No. 1 since 1947, when they took a halfback out of Oklahoma A&M named Bob Fenimore. He lasted only one season. Last year, they traded out of No. 1 for DJ Moore and a haul of picks, including Carolina’s first-rounder. The Panthers were so bad, the Bears got another crack at the top one.
From Luckman to Luck, man.
Maybe, just maybe, Williams is The One who can make the Bears forget about the long list of failed quarterbacks who have come and gone. Maybe Williams can be the one who makes the Bears consistent winners, a national team, for the first time since the Ditka era. Maybe Williams is the one who can boot Luckman off the TV graphics meant to poke fun at the Bears’ decades of offensive irrelevance.
“I usually see it and I usually get texts from a lot of people, ‘They’re talking about your dad again,’” Sid’s octogenarian son Bob Luckman told me years ago.
It was Sid Luckman who revolutionized NFL quarterbacking with the help of Halas, a coach named Clark Shaughnessy and the modern T-formation. Led by Luckman, the Bears won four NFL championships in the 1940s and they still sing about those days in the team fight song, “Bear Down.”
“We’ll never forget the way you thrilled the nation with your T-formation.”
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I think it’s time we move on to a more modern attack to entertain the fans, if not thrill the country. The Bears’ days as offensive innovators are long gone and their more recent attempts over the last 15 years to address their age-old quarterback issues have failed in different ways.
Jay Cutler set most of the franchise’s passing records but was the kind of quarterback who caused arguments and got coaches fired. He only led the team to one playoff appearance, and that was where his national reputation took a nosedive.
Then came Mitch Trubisky, who, like Luckman, was taken with the No. 2 pick. He didn’t quite work out as well.
Trubisky was followed by Justin Fields, an exciting player, but an imperfect one who was drafted at the wrong time. He was just traded to make room for Williams. Three quarterbacks drafted in eight years. That’s enough for a while.
The first pick is in! Caleb Williams, YOU are a Chicago Bear. 🐻@CALEBcsw | @ChicagoBears
📺: #NFLDraft on NFLN/ESPN/ABC
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/O7D6ZIZspL— NFL (@NFL) April 26, 2024
The anecdotes and statistics about the Bears’ long history of quarterback problems have haunted the team for decades.
They have never had a 4,000-yard passer in a season. Only Cutler and Luckman have thrown for more than 68 touchdowns in a Bears career and neither approached 200. Since Luckman, only Bill Wade (1963) and Jim McMahon (you know the year) have led the Bears to a championship. The team’s failure to identify and develop quarterbacks has held it back time and time again. (In related news, Johnny Morris, Harlon Hill and Ken Kavanaugh are still the team’s leading receivers in terms of yards and touchdowns.)
Williams is young, so he’s not worried about the Bears’ problematic past. But even he had questions.
“Yeah, you obviously look into it,” he said. “They’ve never had a 3,000-yard passer, right?”
I had to correct him that it was 4,000. The Bears aren’t that bad.
“You look into it and wonder why,” he said. “I asked questions, obviously. I have no shame in asking questions. And so you ask why and things like that. They were all for answering questions. They told the truth. They told me and my dad the truth about why, what, where, when and how it’s going to change, and that’s what we’re excited about.”
Now it’s Williams’ chance. And the timing, for once, seems right. He will have veteran receivers in DJ Moore and Keenan Allen, along with Rome Odunze, the stud wideout they took with the No. 9 pick Thursday. He has a mostly competent offensive line. The defense has bite. Bears GM Ryan Poles has done a pretty solid job assembling this roster. I have questions about the coaching staff, but those will be answered later.
It takes more than talent to be a great quarterback. You need that special something extra. Williams is eager and confident, and I believe he has the kind of personality that will help him handle the unique pressures that come with the most difficult job in sports in the most quarterback-hungry city.
“I don’t think of it that way,” he said. “That may be the narrative. For me, I handle my job, I be a great teammate first and foremost. I handle business on and off the field and then I go to work. I enjoy what I do. I love what I do.”
The Bears have been looking for a way out of the quarterback desert for decades. Could a Caleb lead them?
It’s a Biblical name, as you might know. In the Old Testament, Caleb from the Tribe of Judah wandered the desert for 45 years until he was finally allowed to enter the promised land.
He was 85 years old.
Eighty-five. It’s all coming together.
(Photo of Caleb Williams celebrating with fans after being selected by the Bears with the No. 1 pick: Gregory Shamus / Getty Images)
