INDIANAPOLIS — Southern California quarterback Caleb Williams continues to make waves with contrarian decisions at the NFL Scouting Combine, where he made the call to opt out of standard medical testing.
“I’m doing the medical stuff,” Williams said in a packed media session at the combine on Friday morning. “Just not here in Indy. Not 32 teams can draft me. There’s only one of me. So the team that I go to for my visits, those teams will have the medical and that’ll be it.”
Williams is the top player on the draft board for many teams, the 2022 Heisman Trophy winner who starred at Oklahoma as a freshman before following Lincoln Riley to USC. But rejecting the protocol of the pre-draft process will raise red flags for some of the other teams.
National Football Scouting oversees most elements of the annual combine in Indianapolis, and the goal of being a one-stop shop for scouts and general managers includes a routine physical and medical testing to give every team access to a universal medical evaluation of each player. All 321 prospects invited to the combine are informed of the schedule of events directly and through their certified player representatives.
But Williams doesn’t have an agent and instead will be communicating with prospective employers through his father and a hand-selected support staff.
Williams said declining the medical testing was a personal decision. For reference, Ohio State wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. was still tied up with doctors on Friday morning when his required interview with media was scheduled. Players who undergo extensive MRI exams and X-rays because of past injuries have spent more than eight hours at the hospital in Indianapolis where prospects are poked and prodded.
There are no known significant or long-term injury concerns with Williams. He played with a hamstring strain in 2022 and injured the pinky finger on his right (throwing) hand last season.
After meeting with the Chicago Bears for a formal interview, Williams said not to read into the decision as an indication he knows where he’ll be drafted, but “I don’t think that I’m not going to be No. 1,” he said.
“They were awesome,” Williams said of his first in-person talks with the Bears. “I spoke more about ball and things like that because the interviews are so short. It was more about them getting to know me.”
Williams is one of four quarterback prospects with firm first-round grades from Field Level Media. From that group, only Michigan’s J.J. McCarthy will participate in Saturday’s on-field throwing session.
It’s common for top quarterbacks to delay at least the throwing portion of their workouts to the more-comfortable, well-scripted pro day setting on their college campuses. Williams, who passed for 10,082 yards and 93 touchdowns in three college seasons, is scheduled to be the featured attraction at the USC pro day on March 20.
LSU’s Jayden Daniels, the 2023 Heisman Trophy winner, and North Carolina’s Drake Maye are considered likely top-10 picks and could compete with Williams to go No. 1 overall. Neither quarterback plans to participate in on-field testing or throwing at the combine.
Speculation the Washington Commanders are considering moving up in a trade to get Williams, who grew up in the D.C. region, continues percolating after owner Josh Harris sat in on interviews with multiple prospects in Indianapolis this week.
Daniels said he met with Washington in a meeting that included head coach Dan Quinn, offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury and Harris.
–Field Level Media