The Chicago Bears have made it clear that they are going to select USC quarterback Caleb Williams with the No. 1 pick in the 2024 NFL Draft.
ESPN analyst Greg McElroy believes that is the right choice. However, he expressed one concern about Williams in a recent appearance on Kevin Clark's "This is Football" podcast.
McElroy doesn't think that Williams experienced a lot of adversity during his college career, as he explained.
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"The No. 1 thing that concerns me most about Caleb Williams — I look at all the players that have been drafted No. 1, No. 2, No. 3, way up there near the top of the draft, and seldom are the guys that ultimately go onto become elite players, every single one of them has a gigantic chip on their shoulder," McElroy said. "They're mad at the world or they create some kind of false narrative about themselves that people don't believe in them.
"Caleb Williams has never had that. Caleb Williams from the time that he stepped on campus at Oklahoma, from the time that he stepped on campus at USC, he has never experienced adversity. Very little adversity as far as how he was received and how he was portrayed as the next best guy."
So @GregMcElroy likes Caleb Williams. He has one concern: "Caleb Williams has never experienced adversity...I do wonder, is there a sense of entitlement, is there the chip on the shoulder that's going to keep him going 10-12 years down the road the way it does Mahomes." pic.twitter.com/nJxGI99AIY
— Kevin Clark (@bykevinclark) April 9, 2024
McElroy then expressed that lack of adversity may lead Williams to be less driven than a player like Patrick Mahomes, who the ESPN analyst says was mad to be selected 10th overall instead of No. 1 in 2017.
"I do wonder, is there a sense of entitlement, is there the chip on the shoulder that's going to keep him going 10-12 years down the road the way it does Mahomes?" McElroy said.
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Caleb Williams responds to Greg McElroy comments
Naturally, Williams didn't take kindly to McElroy's assertions. The USC quarterback took to X (formerly Twitter) to call out the ESPN analyst and debunk McElroy's argument while he was "bored."
"Let’s go back to school again," Williams wrote. "Adversity: 'A state or instance of serious or continued difficulty or misfortune.'"
He then detailed the adversity he faced in each of his three college seasons at Oklahoma and USC.
Y1. Didn’t start freshman year.
Y2. Popped hammy championship game 1st Q. Lost bc of my hammy.
Y3. 7-5 my last year of college ball.
Williams has a point that McElroy's argument ignores some of the quarterback's hardships from his college career. Williams' Sooner and Trojan teams often sported weak defenses too, so a lot of pressure fell on him to lead his squad to victories.
Perhaps McElroy's comments will ironically help put a bigger chip on Williams' shoulder.
Either way, Williams seems determined to embrace the challenge of proving himself to his doubters as he transitions to the NFL.