Bears GM Ryan Poles on Caleb Williams feedback: ‘They don’t like him, they love him’

ORLANDO, Fla. — The Chicago Bears are doing their due diligence on USC quarterback Caleb Williams ahead of the NFL Draft, and general manager Ryan Poles said Monday morning at the owners’ meetings that “the feedback’s been good.”

That may be an understatement.

“When you talk to his teammates, they don’t like him, they love him,” Poles said. “His leadership, how he brings people together. He’s intentional with his leadership. Same goes with the staff.

“I’m having a hard time finding a person that doesn’t like him or even love him.”

Poles said those same people believe Williams “can reach the highest limits.”

The Bears will host Williams for a visit at Halas Hall in the first week of April. That’s when their first round of visits with draft prospects will be held. The Bears will get a medical exam of Williams during that visit after Williams passed on the exams at the NFL Scouting Combine.

The Bears’ work on the quarterback class will continue this week. Poles will head to LSU’s pro day immediately after the owners’ meetings. Poles won’t attend North Carolina’s pro day for quarterback Drake Maye, but the Bears will have a contingent present.

At LSU, Poles and company will get to see quarterback Jayden Daniels work out and a close look at receivers Malik Nabers and Brian Thomas Jr.

Poles also discussed the Bears’ trade of quarterback Justin Fields to the Pittsburgh Steelers. The GM said he and coach Matt Eberflus got together at Eberflus’ house and called Fields. It was “one of the harder things we had to do, but I thought it was necessary for us to head in the right direction,” he said.

Poles said Fields’ jersey hangs in his son’s room, and puts “into perspective of how difficult those moves are.” Still, he felt it was the “best” move for the organization.

Poles mentioned the “choppy” start Fields got in Chicago with what he had to deal with as a rookie, and then the GM acknowledged, “we had some cleaning up to do, which then delayed another year of adding talent and supporting.”

While Poles doesn’t want to make it about Fields vs. Williams, or any rookie, it was telling the way he described what went into the decision.

“It’s really the timeline and how much runway you have,” he said. “To get a guy up off the ground, you need to support them with as much talent as possible. Then that fits. It takes so much cap space, which is a good thing if you get to that point. But they have to be the reason you start winning. Then it’s harder to add the talent around them. You can look around the league, and it happens a lot. The teams that can sustain success through that period I think do a really special job.”

That’s the ultimate goal at quarterback, and the Bears feel they have a better chance of achieving it with a rookie than Fields, who was going to be up for a new contract quicker, and hadn’t won enough.

Trading for veteran wide receiver Keenan Allen was part of that process, Poles said.

“I don’t think there’s a better receiver in the league that can be better for a young quarterback in terms of understanding the NFL, timing, space, reading defenses,” Poles said.

Required reading

(Photo: Brandon Sloter / Image Of Sport / Getty Images)