Long: Caleb Williams ‘jumps off the page’ as quarterback who gives you faith instead of fear

The Chicago Bears finally pulled the trigger on a Justin Fields trade over the weekend, sending the quarterback to the Pittsburgh Steelers for a sixth-round pick that can be elevated to a fourth-round pick based on playing time. Moving Fields all but officially clears the way for Caleb Williams – or whoever the Bears draft first overall – to take over in Chicago.

Former Bears offensive lineman Kyle Long joined the Audacy original podcast “Take the North” and explained why he’s so optimistic about the Bears’ future with Caleb Williams slated to become the new quarterback in Chicago.

“The irony of you saying ‘When he gets his feet on the ground,’ the thing I love about his game is that he bucks trends. He says ‘Screw your rules. You can’t put me in a box. I’m going to play the game how I want to play it,’” Long said (19:30 in player above).  “More often than not his feet are off the ground when he’s making these plays throwing the football. I love that.”

Long mentioned that he was a player who marched to the beat of a different drum, and he sees that same thing in Williams. Williams has a unique skillset to his game.

“This guy Caleb Williams jumps off the page to me. Not only from a throwing perspective but a creativity perspective,” he said. “He makes the game look like art, and when you watch a guy where you can’t quite – he has a je ne sais quoi about his game. He’s got it.”

There was some debate in Chicago over whether or not the Bears should trade Fields to move forward with Williams. Long is a big believer in the former USC quarterback.

“What more do you want me to tell you? You can watch 30 minutes of highlights of the guy and some people aren’t convinced but he gives me, in my opinion, he gives the Bears the best chance moving forward at the quarterback position,” Long continued. “And when you watch the Super Bowl, when you watch these playoffs, it’s the quarterbacks that have a je ne sais quoi that tend to win these Super Bowls.”

Of course, the quarterback atop the NFL mountain right now is Patrick Mahomes. Long got a chance to see Mahomes firsthand when he came out of retirement to join the Chiefs in 2021.

“You need a quarterback that gives you instead of fear, he gives you faith and hope. It’s not a guy that you can win with, it’s a guy that you can win because of,” Long said. “I think that’s Caleb Williams. He is somebody that you’re going to love. If you don’t know him, if you haven’t watched the film of him, just wait.”

While comparing Williams and Mahomes would be a bit premature, it’s not hard to see that type of potential in the assumed first-overall pick.

There is always going to be some skepticism, especially around the Bears, but Long thinks this may be the start of a new dawn in Chicago.

“I understand people really like to beat themselves up and people really enjoy this thing. And there are a ton of franchises in all sports that kind of adopted this ‘Woe is me’ but they really enjoy it,” he said. “They kind of get off to beating themselves up a little bit. I feel like we can be guilty of that as Bears fans.

“It’s time to go outside, put your eyeballs directly into the sun, and just try to manifest some good stuff. I really think it’s coming for us, Bears fans. The defense looks great. Eberflus has his finger on the pulse of this team. And when this guy walks in the building and turns heads Day 1 it’s going to be obvious to the guys on the team and they’re going to buy in.”