The Bears + J.J. McCarthy Rumor Is Wild

The Minnesota Vikings and Chicago Bears will get training camps underway this week, but some have chosen to glance back into the past in a rather fascinating manner.

A wild J.J. McCarthy rumor just emerged, and it involves the Chicago Bears. Did they almost change the Vikings’ draft plans? That’s the latest and greatest theory.

Minnesota drafted J.J. McCarthy in 2024, nine picks after Chicago took the plunge with Caleb Williams of USC, the first overall selection 15 months ago.

And according to The Athletic‘s Alec Lewis, Chicago evidently wasn’t too far away from taking McCarthy — not Williams — that fateful draft night.

J.J. McCarthy Could’ve Been a Bear

A post-draft mini-bombshell: Ryan Poles and Co. really liked J.J. McCarthy

Bears Apparently Entertained Drafting J.J. McCarthy over Caleb Williams

Lewis analyzed McCarthy’s soon-to-be debut in the pros this week but also delivered a 2024 draft nugget.

He explained, “Still sipping a hot coffee at Starbucks, Holcomb recalls another moment from the offseason. He was hosting a quarterbacks camp for middle-school-aged boys, and one of the attendees was Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Poles. During a changeover at the camp, Holcomb approached Poles and introduced himself. They found their way to the subject of McCarthy.”

Greg Holcomb is a renowned quarterback coach for youngsters and even mentored McCarthy.

Holcomb, via Lewis, then offered the punchline, “He was talking about how much the Bears loved J.J. And said to me, ‘I don’t think people realize how close we were to possibly taking him.’ Obviously, they love, but I thought that was interesting.”

Must Have Been a Fringe Possibility

If Holcomb’s revelation is accurate, well, the Bears didn’t spend too much time on McCarthy. During the lead-up to the 2024 draft, Chicago picking Williams was a forgone conclusion for a couple of months. Poles didn’t much wiggle from his stance of Williams at No. 1.

So, while Chicago might’ve had internal chats about McCarthy, whom Minnesota grabbed at No. 10, very little steam suggested Poles would do anything rather than take Williams on draft night.

And that’s what he did.

Ironically … Caleb Williams Wanted the Vikings

Somewhat ironically, at least in the realm of the Holcomb declaration, Williams told his father, “I need to go to the Vikings” before the draft, hoping to capitalize on head coach Kevin O’Connell’s tutelage and Minnesota’s hefty weapons stable.

The report surfaced from ESPN a couple of months ago, although Williams stated later that the report was accurate, but that it didn’t mean he disliked Chicago as his landing spot.

No matter what, it seems like Williams and McCarthy will be linked at the hip, to an extent, for NFL comparisons.

A Battle Right Away to Settle the Score

The perk of all this is that Minnesota will play Chicago to open the 2025 season. The Williams-Vikings storyline will be front and center; so will McCarthy-Bears from Lewis’ recent article.

McCarthy played no regular season games in 2024 due to a torn meniscus, so his career will get cracking on September 8th against the team that evidently thought long and hard about drafting him.

More on Caleb Williams, Bears

ESPN’s Courtney Cronin recently opined about Williams, “If Williams wants to continue the trend of quarterbacks drafted No. 1 overall showing significant improvement in Year 2 (like Kyler Murray and Joe Burrow before him), taking another league-high 68 sacks is a nonstarter. Improving how quickly he gets the ball to his playmakers is a critical feat he looks to achieve in 2025.”

“Williams had the seventh-longest average time before passing (2.92 seconds, per NFL Next Gen Stats) in 2024, a trend that carried over from his collegiate days at USC and Oklahoma (third highest in FBS from 2021-23 at 3.19 seconds).”

Cronin also identified Chicago’s top question mark at training camp.

She wrote, “With his roller-coaster rookie season in the rearview mirror, quarterback Caleb Williams aims to get his career on track after the organization paired him with offensive mastermind Ben Johnson. The former Lions offensive coordinator said Williams heavily factored into his decision to come to Chicago, and his track record of success in developing quarterbacks and building high-powered offenses has generated optimism.”

“Landing the most sought-after head coaching candidate over the past two offseasons signaled the beginning of a culture shift inside Halas Hall where players believe they are finally receiving the coaching and accountability needed for the Bears to become a winning team in a crowded NFC North.”

Perhaps Chicago planned to trade down, accumulate picks in 2024, and draft McCarthy somewhere closer to No. 10.

The report also makes one wonder how far Williams would’ve fallen on draft night. Who would’ve taken Drake Maye? Jayden Daniels?