Caleb Williams desperately wanted to be picked by the Minnesota Vikings and not the Chicago Bears at the 2024 NFL Draft, a new book claims.

Williams was picked first by the Bears and endured a disruptive rookie season in the NFL, with head coach Matt Eberflus fired midway through the campaign and the team losing 10 straight games.

But an upcoming new book from ESPN’s Seth Wickersham reveals Williams and his family had a bad feeling about the franchise before being drafted, but the Bears stood firm and insisted they would be taking Williams.

‘Do I want to go there? I don’t think I can do it with Waldron,’ Williams reportedly told people around him about the then-Bears offensive coordinator Shane Waldron.

‘I need to go to the Vikings,’ the book says Williams told his father, Carl, after a meeting with Kevin O’Connell at the NFL combine.

Carl was said to be in agreement with his son, reportedly telling multiple agents in the run-up to the draft: ‘I don’t want my son playing for the Bears.’

Caleb Williams wanted to be drafted by the Minnesota Vikings, a new book claims

The quarterback out of USC is said to have changed his mind after a visit to Chicago, telling his dad: ‘I can do it for this team. I’m going to go to the Bears.’

During his rookie season, Williams apparently told his father that he wanted more guidance from senior figures such as Eberflus and Walden.

‘No one tells me what to watch, I just turn it (the film) on,’ ESPN claims he said.

Ironically, Williams and the Bears will start the 2025 season against the Minnesota Vikings at Soldier Field, with O’Connell starting with the quarterback he eventually took in the same draft as Williams in JJ McCarthy.

McCarthy injured his knee in preseason, meaning his rookie year was over it before it had properly begun.

The second game of the season sees Williams lead the Bears against the Detroit Lions, the team his new coach Ben Johnson left to take over in Chicago.