Chicago Bears: Williams faces uphill battle in winning over locker room

Chicago Bears wide receiver DJ Moore is another veteran leader who warns future number-one pick Caleb Williams to humble himself if he wants to succeed.

Now that the Chicago Bears traded quarterback Justin Fields, we all know that they will use the number one overall pick in April’s NFL Draft on a quarterback. it is all but assured that the pick will be USC’s Caleb Williams.

Many believe Williams is a “generational” talent. They feel he can be one of the best prospects in many years. They compare him to Peyton Manning and Patrick Mahomes. After trading last year’s top pick and seeing C.J. Stroud go second and turn the Houston Texans’ fortunes around, general manager Ryan Poles wouldn’t miss out on a player analysts feel is even better.

One thing that makes Williams a big name is his extreme confidence. He has been a winner at every level he’s played so of course he goes into every game with swagger. He admitted that in 2023 being on a team that was 7-5 and with no playoff hopes was hard on him. He had to go to multiple people to learn how to handle that.

While Williams is very confident in his skills and looks forward to having a big professional career, that confidence borders on cockiness. At one point, he painted his nails with crude insults to his opponents. He also talked about being the number one pick as his goal.

Williams came into the NFL Combine with no plans of performing the drills. He did, however, perform. He hammed it up with the media and asked questions during other players’ press conferences. He was a spectacle and many in attendance, including the Chicago Bears, ate it up.

The Chicago Bears already went through a fractured locker room and it wasn’t pleasant

Williams’ antics and his confidence do not rub everyone the right way. Some feel he needs to tone things down at the professional level. They want him to humble himself. If he does not, the league tends to humble confident players when they don’t do it themselves.

Some of the most important people who Williams has to impress are his future teammates. He risks turning those veterans off if he goes into the Chicago Bears locker room with the same “I’m the greatest” attitude. Not having the locker room with you can destroy a promising season.

We saw what happened with the Chicago Bears when the locker room was fractured. The team went 10-6 in 2012 under Lovie Smith. The team failed to make the playoffs, however. That offseason the front office fired Smith. They hired Marc Trestman and he had to win over the locker room.

Smith was popular among the players. He was so popular that they did not accept or even give Trestman a chance. After the Chicago Bears fell one play from making the playoffs in 2013, there was hope that in 2014 things would be better. That did not happen, though.

The team underperformed that season. The Chicago Bears finished last with a 5-11 record. The locker room was a mess. Quarterback Jay Cutler did not buy into Trestman’s offensive system. Other players like Lance Briggs admitted to tuning out coaches during meetings.

Briggs skipped practices to deal with the opening of his restaurant. In 2012, he played in all 16 games. However, after Smith’s dismissal, he played only 17 games in the next two seasons. He did not play again after 2014.

Now Williams faces a similar dilemma. If he fails to win over the locker room the same could happen. After the Trestman fiasco, the Chicago Bears dismissed Trestman as well as general manager Phil Emery. If Williams fails, Poles and head coach Matt Eberflus will also lose their jobs.

Chicago Bears veterans are already signaling that Williams needs to win them over by being humble

While Williams continues his swag tour, his likely soon-to-be Chicago Bears teammates are sending him a message. They are asking him to tone things down and humble himself before he steps into the locker room. As great as Williams might be, if he doesn’t have his teammates backing him he won’t get anything done.

Cornerback Jaylon Johnson fired the opening shot. He let it be known that the veterans will try to push his buttons to see if he breaks. He said that opponents will do the same so he has to be prepared. We already saw him run and cry to his mother after a loss. That absolutely cannot happen at the pro level if Williams wants to lead a group of Type-A personalities.

What you did in college, the Hollywood, it’s like ‘Nah, you gotta prove yourself.’ That stuff like that doesn’t matter. I think there’s a fine line between trying to prove a point to him but you also gotta get to know him…If it is trash talk, if trash talk makes him crumble, then I mean, I feel like we gotta push that button because people in the game, they’re gonna push that button.

So Johnson says that WIlliams’ new teammates, especially on defense, will test him right away. They want him to put his head down and work hard. He is starting at the beginning all over again.

What about his offensive teammates? How will they receive Williams? As if on cue, wide receiver D.J. Moore chipped in with his opinion. Fields was a popular figure in the locker room and his teammates wanted him to return. Moore, who came over from that trade of the number one pick last year, was very supportive of Fields. In 2023, he had a career year with Fields throwing him the ball.

Moore reiterated much of what Johnson said. However, he said it with a softer tone. Williams’ success is tied to his so the better he performs the better Moore performs. Johnson, on the other hand, is on the defense. There is always that competition between offense and defense.

Whoever we get, I’m going to be excited to work with them. Business is business. Nobody wanted [Justin Fields] to go. But at the end of the day, that’s what the organization made the plans to do. I hope he just comes in and gets ready to work. You can’t worry about the legacy of Justin Fields. You got to go out there and worry about your own thing.

As you can see, Fields’ ghost is never far behind in the Chicago Bears’ locker room. Williams has to come in ready to work and then win games. If he does that, he will quickly win over doubters in the city and his locker room.