Bears laying groundwork for Caleb Williams contract extension
· Yahoo Sports
The Chicago Bears have some young talent on their roster that could be cornerstones on this team for years to come, starting with third-year quarterback Caleb Williams, who's fresh off an impressive season where he established himself as one of the most clutch QBs in the NFL.
For a Bears organization that hasn't had a true franchise quarterback since Sid Lucian in the 1940s, Williams certainly looks poised to break that curse after an impressive second season and first under head coach Ben Johnson.
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While the Bears can't technically start negotiating a contract with Williams until after he's completed his third season (next offseason), that hasn't stopped general manager Ryan Poles and the Bears from laying the groundwork for a potential contract extension to cement their hopeful franchise QB in place for the long-term.
"Not just Bears history, football history," Poles said, via the Sun-Times. "There’s been some unbelievable teams that can’t get the quarterback right, and it doesn’t lead to much. Then there are times where the quarterback’s right, [and] it usually bears the fruit that you’re looking for and results in being a contender and a championship-caliber team.
"We’re making progress. That is exciting to even be thinking about planning for that. It’s exciting. But then there’s a challenge after that, too."
Poles is encouraged with what he's seen from the former first overall pick in his first two seasons, comparing Williams' progress to a traffic light and hoping that Year 3 cements his status as a franchise quarterback and makes the decision a no-brainer to lock down a contract extension.
"It’s good to almost feel like you’ve got it," Poles said. "If you go with a traffic light, it went red as a rookie to yellow. You can creep forward a little bit and start having some of these conversations to anticipate it. But we need him to give us a green light. I think we’ll find out this year about his progress."
The Bears are researching a potential contract extension for Williams and what that might look like. Chicago's salary-cap specialist and vice president of football administration Matt Feinstein is working on potential contract extension ideas a full offseason before the team can even begin negotiating with Williams.
"It’s really a summer project," Poles said. "Matt Feinstein is digging into it now. We’ve had some preliminary [internal] conversations because we want to take some of these things into consideration as we build the team."
It's clear the Bears are laying the groundwork for a contract extension if Williams takes that next step and gives them the green light to lock him down for the long-term. And it would be a welcome use of resources to secure the team's first franchise quarterback in decades.
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This article originally appeared on Bears Wire: Bears laying groundwork for Caleb Williams contract extension