Smear campaign against USC QB Caleb Williams is destined to fail

Caleb Williams' stock isn't being devalued by professional investment counselors. But some inside traders are trying to pull him down the Big Board.

What we have here is a weak and obvious smear campaign that lacks the substance to smear.

It's minor league skulduggery. Yet another sophomoric attempt by amateur dirty tricksters to squeeze an elephant into a very small room.

March Madness does not wait to begin on the Ides of the month, with crazy college basketball tournaments. Before that, there's March Insanity, brought on by the lying conspiracy theorists surrounding the NFL combine.

Smart people start nasty rumors, and, true to our times, idiots believe them.

The most important period for the NFL is not when games actually are played. But when actual football prowess can take the rumble seat — now, when losers and even winners can be swayed by measurables and innuendo.

With the Ghost Ship NFL draft now within two months of making land, verbal torpedoes are being fired at Williams, USC's star quarterback and the presumptive first overall pick in the lottery for two years..

Doubts are being cast on Caleb's attitude. He attended the combine, but refused to work out. Nor did he submit to worthless interviews with teams he knew had no chance of drafting him.

Most importantly, he Heismaned a physical exam, the most important part of the combine.

Now we're hearing from some football people that Williams, who like everyone in this draft hasn't played a game in months, is being out-offseasoned by the likes of quarterbacks Jayden Daniels (LSU) and Drake Maye (North Carolina) — and maybe even Michigan's J.J. McCarthy.

Of course this excites the media, who also are capable of seeing this crap as gospel because it makes for good copy. But haven't heard anything about Daniels and Maye not throwing at the combine. Strange?

First of all, any GM, coach or scout who believes this guano shouldn't be running a Pee Wee team.

Williams hardly is the only QB in history not to work out — especially throw — at the combine. Do scouts really believe Williams can't find unguarded receivers? Totally unnecessary.

As for his refusal to take a physical in Indianapolis, while unusual, why should he allow himself to be poked and prodded in the meat market by teams just looking for information on a player who won't be close to a position to draft him?

There's a whole lot of individual stuff still to go, and if you know anything at all about the NFL, then you know there's no chance of Caleb getting drafted and signing with a team without taking a physical. Zero.

The Bears have the first overall pick and have a promising QB in Justin Fields. But Chicago is looking for leverage in all the wrong places. The Bears have made it very clear they want to trade Fields, and the reason why is Caleb Williams.

That is the opposite of dealing from a position of strength.

And it's likely the many teams in need of a quarterback may be willing to wait until Chicago blinks. The Bears can't draft Caleb and keep Justin in the quarterback room. Fields has too much work due on his own game without taking the time to help the guy who's being groomed to take his place.

Naysayers point out that Williams' 2023 performance was not up to the standards of 2022, when he won the Heisman. He passed for 3,633 yards, threw five picks and 30 touchdowns, and also ran for 11 TDs in 2023.

Right, horrible numbers.

Because of USC's awful defense and weak offensive line, he was forced to do unplanned things trying to keep up. He has great legs and his arm is capable of completing passes from anywhere, at any position, any angle. This is a generational player, with an Elway arm who throws it straight.

Caleb Williams is one of the very, very, very best college QBs I've seen. He is magic. And he has every tool imaginable in his shed. No NFL quarterback has the combination of his equipment and his uncanny, unrealistic ability to Houdini all over the field.

If the Bears listen to the stupidity and not draft him, as every team but Miami did with Dan Marino, they will be making a decision with the football equivalent of Chamberlain running scared and giving Czechoslovakia away to Germany.