Caleb Williams to the Bears is only a matter of time

Bears general manager Ryan Poles didn’t wink when he said we’ll have to wait until Thursday night to find out if the Bears are going to take USC quarterback Caleb Williams with the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL Draft. But he didn’t have to.

He’s going to take Caleb Williams with the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL Draft. He knows it. We know it. The league knows. And even Poles struggled to be coy about it.

“Unfortunately, it’s one of those things I think everyone’s got to tune in on Thursday to watch and [find] out,” Poles said Tuesday at Halas Hall when asked if he was ready to announce Williams as the pick. “But I feel really good about our process and where we’re headed. So we know what we’re going to do, but everyone is going to have to wait until Thursday to go there.”

Poles smiled when asked if the league office preferred that he didn’t reveal the pick prematurely. “No one has told me, so it’s my personal deal [to not announce it],” Poles said. “And it lets us have some excitement on Thursday, right?”

Getting to know their top pick

It’s hard to believe that just two not-so-short months ago, the Bears keeping Justin Fields and trading the No. 1 pick was a serious consideration and Williams was an enigma with a pink phone and fingernail polish who might not be 6 feet tall, might be more interested in his brand than his team and might not even want to play for the Bears.

Now, Williams has answered all the Bears’ questions and then some. Even the red flags — like Williams’ three-interception performance against Notre Dame in his first game against a ranked opponent last season — are seen by Poles as an example of his resilience more than his weakness.

The Bears can’t hide their excitement. In a draft process where a due diligence is paramount, the Bears have treated Williams like Cinderella and Jayden Daniels, Drake Maye, J.J. McCarthy and the rest of the top quarterbacks like the ugly step-sisters. Williams was the only quarterback Poles hosted for a top-30 visit. He was the only quarterback the Bears talked to on his pro day.

When the Bears took Williams to dinner during his visit, instead of meeting with Poles, coach Matt Eberflus and others team honchos to get to know him better, they had Williams go with team leaders DJ Moore, Cole Kmet and T.J. Edwards for a tacit seal of approval.

And they got it.

“Really intelligent guy,” Poles said. “He came across as a really good teammate. Easy to talk to. Down to earth. We’ve talked through this process about the whole Hollywood thing. He’s all ball. Wants to work. Wants to get better. Wants to win as a team. That’s the No. 1 thing for him on top of being successful. So I think the biggest thing is, does he fit our culture and what we’re trying to do? And all signs were that he does.”

Poles spent more time acknowledging reality than playing coy Tuesday — which doesn’t often happen prior to the draft, when the most inconsequential tidbit is treated like a state secret.

But that’s a sign of just how fortuitous the Bears’ draft situation is this year. There is excitement but no drama. The Bears won’t have to sweat this time — not with the No. 1 pick, anyway.

In the past, they’ve come up one pick short of Aaron Donald, three picks short of Amari Cooper. They lost the coin flip for Terry Bradshaw. Now they have the No. 1 pick in a draft with a quarterback they are smitten with but don’t have to trade up to get. It’s almost too good to be true.