Williams, idle in Indy, ready for draft’s top teams
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Pete Thamel, ESPN
INDIANAPOLIS — Former USC quarterback Caleb Williams deeply admires Michael Jordan and Walter Payton, loves deep-dish pizza and told ESPN he would be “excited” if the Chicago Bears take him No. 1 overall in the 2024 NFL draft.
Entering the NFL combine, Williams is the favorite to be the top pick in April. In his first public comments since declaring for the draft in January, Williams spoke in depth about the Bears, unveiled his combine plan and reflected on a journey to the NFL that is nearing a culmination.
“This is what I’ve been preparing for my whole life,” Williams told ESPN by phone Tuesday. “Since I was 10 or 11, this is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. At that age until now, it basically feels like your whole life.
“I’m excited. I’m ready to get back on a football team around my teammates and my brothers — my new brothers now.”
Where those new teammates are located remains one of the most intriguing questions surrounding the draft.
Williams spent much of the interview with ESPN discussing the Bears, whom he has long been linked to given they hold the No. 1 pick.
“If I get drafted by the Bears, I’ll be excited,” he said. “If they trade the pick, and I get drafted by someone else, I’m just as excited. Speaking about Chicago, they have a talented team, a talented offense and defense. For anyone to be in that situation, I think they’d be excited.”
Williams pushed back on any notion that he would request a trade or wants to play elsewhere.
“I’m not pushing any agenda,” Williams said. “At the end of the day, the Bears have the last say. Regardless of how I feel, I’m not pushing an agenda of, ‘Yeah, I want to go. Or no, I don’t want to go.’ I’m excited for whatever comes.”
Williams said he is eager for his “first date” with Chicago, with a meeting planned in Indianapolis this week, and stressed the importance of the first impression.
He said he was intrigued to hear about the Bears’ plans and learn what the organization is like and the vision moving forward. Chicago hasn’t won a playoff game since 2010 and has just two winning seasons since.
“Just the constant growth and change, that’s important whether you are a quarterback or wide receiver or a general manager or an owner or an organization,” Williams said of what he’s looking for. “Just a healthy situation — in the facility, with the players — and just a place that really wants to win.”
Williams said he has been to Chicago once, has heard good things about the rowdiness of Bears fans, and has gone down video rabbit holes studying both Jordan and Payton, two of the city’s most iconic athletes.
“I’m 22. I didn’t really get to see those players,” Williams said. “As the saying goes, the legends live on. That’s my goal of playing football — it’s not money, it’s not fame … it’s to be immortal. I want to reach that sense of being a legend. Being at the table … and having a rightful seat through hard work and energy and time I’ve put into this game that we all love.
“It’s appealing to be in a city like that. With legends that you’ve looked up to … reach for the standard they set and try to do anything to get there.”
Williams’ next most speculated destination is the Washington Commanders, who have the No. 2 pick. That union would mark a return home for Williams, who grew up in the area and attended Gonzaga College High School in Washington.
“It’d be really cool because it’s so familiar,” he said. “There’s a time and place for everything. My job and my hobby is being at the facility or on the field or watching film. Or relaxing and prepping for the next day or game.
“My main goal and focus … is to go win games and stay focused on keeping the main goal the main goal.”
Williams said he is not going to work out at the combine but will throw at USC’s pro day on March 20. He is also not planning to do medical testing at the combine but will do that in his individual visits with teams.
He is not planning to sign with an NFL agent, saying he has a “whole team” of attorneys and advisers to handle contracts and endorsements.
“Everyone thinks I’m a one-man team,” Williams said, referencing the symphony of work that makes an F1 team go. “That’s just not the case.”
He is planning to meet with the media in Indianapolis.
“I want everyone to hear me and get a feel for who I am … so they’re not throwing things out there that are false or that isn’t coming from me,” Williams said.
What should they expect to hear?
“Being able to see who I am as a person and my heart and love for football and winning games,” Williams said. “That’s what I think they’ll get from it, and my intensity about being on a team and going out there and kicking ass with my new brothers. That’s what I’m excited about. That’s who I am.”
Williams finished his three-year college career — one season at Oklahoma and two at USC — with 93 touchdown passes and 14 interceptions. He threw for 10,082 yards, ran for 966 more and compiled 27 rushing touchdowns.
Since USC’s season ended, Williams said he worked out in Los Angeles to stay in shape and, early on, did a lot of mental work to prepare for the NFL. (He also took a quick vacation to Tokyo, where he enjoyed food that was “out of this world,” highlighted by Wagyu steak. “I’m not even a red meat kind of guy,” he said.)
The early mental work included studying defenses, fronts, blitzes, coverages and protections and communicating plays in the huddle. Williams said in college he rarely huddled but pointed out he was in charge of communicating the play, as opposed to schools that look to the sideline for plays.
More recently, he has been working out in Florida with noted quarterback trainer Will Hewlett, who trains Brock Purdy and others, and performance coach Tom Gormely. Other players Williams is working out with include Mason Rudolph, Emory Jones and Nate Peterman.
Asked specifically what he was focusing on in workouts, Williams said basically everything.
“We’re shooting for the stars and trying to nitpick the small things,” he said. “They become big things in a long season. There’s nothing really that we’re not working on. … I am a perfectionist, and I want to be perfect. In reality you can’t.”
When asked whether he had more nerves or excitement about the upcoming weeks, Williams again mentioned how much he was looking forward to having a team to build a rapport with.
“It’s not anxiousness or anything like that,” he said. “I can’t wait to say my first cadence. Regardless of how good or bad, with me switching up the playcall, messing up or not messing it up in practice. Whatever the case may be. I can’t wait for that moment, that minicamp moment.”
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Ryan S. Clark
Chris Drury and the New York Rangers agreed to a multiyear contract extension on Wednesday, keeping him at the helm of the team’s hockey operations after missing the playoffs for the first time since the 2020-21 season.
“I am pleased that Chris will continue to lead the Rangers hockey operations in his role as president and general manager,” Madison Square Garden chairman and CEO James Dolan said in a statement. “Over his tenure, Chris has shown passion for the Rangers, relentless work ethic and a tireless pursuit of excellence.
“While we are all disappointed in what transpired this past season, I am confident in his ability to guide this organization to success.”
Drury, 48, took over as general manager and president of hockey operations at the start of the 2021-22 season. The Rangers reached the playoffs in his first three seasons.
His future was one of a few items that remained in question, with the intent that the Rangers would use this offseason to reload in their bid to return to the playoffs. The team also is facing a third coaching search in four seasons after firing Peter Laviolette following his two seasons.
“I am honored to sign this contract extension and continue in this position with the team I grew up supporting,” said Drury, a former Rangers captain who played four seasons with the team. “As I said when I began in this role nearly four years ago, there isn’t a more special organization in hockey, and I look forward to continuing our work this offseason to help us reach our goals for next season and in the coming years.”
After winning the Presidents’ Trophy and reaching the Eastern Conference finals under Laviolette in the 2023-24 season, the Rangers started 12-4-1 this season, only to lose the next five games. That started a chain reaction of inconsistent play that ultimately led to the Rangers finishing six points out of the final Eastern Conference wild-card spot.
While the Rangers sought to make the playoffs, Drury also made it known they were open for business in December. That’s when they traded captain Jacob Trouba, who still had a year left on his contract, to the Anaheim Ducks. A few weeks later, they traded Kaapo Kakko, the No. 2 pick in the 2019 NHL draft, to the Seattle Kraken for defenseman Will Borgen, who would then sign an extension with the Rangers.
A month before the trade deadline, the Rangers reacquired J.T. Miller in a trade with the Vancouver Canucks. The Rangers also traded defenseman Ryan Lindgren to the Colorado Avalanche and forward Reilly Smith to the Vegas Golden Knights while adding defensemen Carson Soucy in a separate deal with the Canucks.
Still, the Rangers lost four consecutive games in early March before having two three-game losing streaks that further damaged their chances in the Eastern Conference wild-card race.
Now that Drury has a new contract, he’ll be charged with trying to improve a roster that PuckPedia projects will have only $9.67 million in available cap space. K’Andre Miller, Zac Jones and Matt Rempe are part of the club’s eight-player restricted free agent class, while the Rangers have only two unrestricted free agents in Nicolas Aube-Kubel and Calvin de Haan.
Drury will be looking for a coach in what is expected to be a competitive market. Anaheim and Seattle also fired their coaches, and three other teams — Boston, Chicago and Philadelphia — ended the season with interim coaches. The Canucks declined the option on coach Rick Tocchet, but they have offered him a new, more lucrative contract.
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Greg Wyshynski
Boston Bruins CEO Charlie Jacobs vowed that his team would return to the playoffs next season despite finishing in last place and trading away several players at the deadline.
“We’ve spoken at great length about this: The team that we currently have, [if] healthy and with the additions we intend to make this summer, I anticipate that we’ll have a playoff team and play meaningful hockey at this time of year in 2026,” he said.
The Bruins were last in the Atlantic Division (76 points) with their lowest standings points percentage (.463) in 18 seasons. The team fired head coach Jim Montgomery 20 games into the season and traded popular veteran players such as captain Brad Marchand, center Charlie Coyle and defenseman Brandon Carlo at the deadline.
“We fell way short and it’s disappointing for us,” team president Cam Neely said. “It’s disappointing for our fan base. They deserve better. They’ve supported us for a hundred-plus years. This gives us an opportunity to regroup a little bit, reset and build back better.”
GM Don Sweeney laid out a plan for that quick build back to contention. The first target is to add more offense, specifically on the wings.
“The scoring potential of our group needs to be increased and addressed this summer,” said Sweeney, whose team was 28th in the NHL in goals per game despite a 43-goal campaign from star David Pastrnak.
Sweeney said he wants the Bruins to get back to their core identity of being a strong defensive team in front of effective goaltending. Both Jeremy Swayman, in the first year of an eight-year, $66 million contract extension, and Joonas Korpisalo were in the negatives for goals saved above expected this season.
“Our goaltenders previously have been really, really good. This year, they weren’t as good. That’s fact. And our team in front of them didn’t defend with the same level of conviction,” he said.
Then there’s the aspect the Bruins hope turns around for next season: health. Key defensemen Charlie McAvoy and Hampus Lindholm both missed significant time last season.
To orchestrate all of this, Sweeney and Neely have to decide on the next head coach of the Bruins. Joe Sacco went 25-30-7 as an interim coach. Sweeney said Sacco has been informed that there will be a coaching search and that he’ll be a finalist for the job. The coaching search process is underway for Boston.
Sacco led the Avalanche to a 130-134-40 record from 2009-2014 and was a finalist for coach of the year in his first season. He spent 10 years as a Bruins assistant before being promoted for the rest of the season when Jim Montgomery was fired.
Sweeney is facing some uncertainty himself. He has been the Bruins’ general manager since May 2015, but is entering the last year of his contract. Neely said he’s debating whether or not to extend Sweeney.
“I’m still contemplating what the best course of action is. I really feel like Don has done a good job here, for the most part,” Neely said.
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