Windy City Gridiron
A quote from Ryan Poles caused quite a stir on Monday.
Let’s start here: No.
Now, let’s begin the article.
On Monday, The Athletic’s Minnesota Vikings reporter, Alec Lewis, posted a story about JJ McCarthy as the former first-round QB is ready to take over the reins of the Vikings’ offense.
In the body of the article, Lewis used a quote from quarterback coach Greg Holcomb. Holcomb said he had a conversation with Ryan Poles during the offseason. This is from Lewis’ article: “He (Poles) was talking about how much they (the Bears) loved J.J. and said to me, ‘I don’t think people realize how close we were to possibly taking him.’ Obviously, they love Caleb, but I thought that was interesting.”
That quote is one that moved quickly around Chicago Bears circles, so let’s dive into it.
Here’s how I understand the Bears’ offseason went leading into the 2024 NFL Draft.
The Bears had made the evaluation on Justin Fields, and by December, the front office was pretty confident they would be using one of their first-round picks on a quarterback. The front office had been doing work on QBs throughout the college football season, but really ramped it up later in 2023.
With the Carolina Panthers pick in tow, it was clear the Bears were going to have a top-five pick by November, but they didn’t know just how good it would be. Once the Panthers were locked into the top spot with a couple of weeks to go in the season, the question wasn’t which quarterback they would take; it was ‘Will we take Caleb Williams?’
The scouting department, based on Williams’ on-field performance, had him as QB1. But, as we remember, the character concerns were burning like wildfire on social media.
Not only were those questions circulating on social media, but they were also being discussed within football circles. Not only were there concerns about Williams as a teammate and if he was a diva, but there were also concerns about his father, Carl Williams, and that he may be a helicopter parent, and that would be an issue for the franchise to deal with as well.
The Bears' scouting department and front office began investigating those character concerns, but simultaneously, they also needed to research the other QBs. They needed to know that if they decided that Caleb Williams wasn’t a fit for the Chicago Bears, what direction they would pivot.
Ultimately, the Bears had JJ McCarthy as their QB2. Would the Bears have drafted him first overall?
Had the Caleb Williams plan gone south, the Bears would have traded down with a team that wanted to come up for Williams, and the Bears would have drafted JJ McCarthy, who would have become their QB1 after they examined his on-field performance, as well as his off-field intangibles.
But as the Bears researched Williams, they learned that a lot of the character concerns were not grounded in...
