Welcome to Purple & Gold Prospects!

This will be an ongoing series to get Vikings fans familiar with upcoming draft prospects. The focus of this series will be to cover prominent prospects entering the upcoming NFL Draft. The series will center on the position groups of highest need on the current Vikings roster, but will also cover stand out players across the spectrum. I hope you will join me on this continuing journey to learn more about upcoming draft classes.

With that let’s discover the possible future of your Minnesota Vikings!

Background

Caleb Williams was a 5-star recruit and the number 1 overall player in the country out of Gonzaga High School. Williams committed to Oklahoma in 2020. After his freshman season in 2021, Williams transferred to USC. That year he won the Heisman Trophy with a whopping 4537 passing yards, 42 Touchdowns, 5 Interceptions, and a completion rate of 66.6 percent. He added 382 yards on the ground along with 10 TDs, leading the Trojans to an impressive 11-3 record. This season the Trojan’s started hot. Williams led them to a 6-0 start but things trailed off after that only winning 1 of their final 6 games. It was a slight down year for Caleb as he finished with 3633 passing yards, 30 TDs, 5 INTs, and a 68.6% completion rate. Although it was a bit of a letdown after his Heisman year finish, Williams is still one of the front runners for the first overall selection in the 2024 NFL Draft.

Games watched: Arizona 2022, Arizona State 2022, Cal 2022, Oregon State 2022, Notre Dame 2023, Utah 2023, Washington 2023

Strengths

Williams is extremely elusive in the pocket. He is consistently able to extend plays and make throws downfield. He is a plus runner and able to pick up good yardage with his legs, but he always keeps his eyes downfield trying to dagger opponents. Williams possesses incredible arm talent. He is extremely accurate and his mechanics are great most of the time. The ball absolutely flies off his hand. Williams is good at diagnosing defenses pre-snap. He does a good job of squaring himself with the pass and consistently rifles it into very tight windows to hit receivers in stride. Williams is excellent at throwing away from defenders, placing balls where only his receiver can make a play on the catch. He really trusts his receivers in contested catch situations with this ball placement. Williams’ accuracy and placement is almost equally as impressive on the run or off-platform. He can be a really good short-game conductor on designed plays and quick reads. Williams displays great placement and accuracy on deep throws as well. He uses a variety of launch angles and releases to layer balls across the field. Williams shows decent poise in the pocket at times and is good in high-pressure situations. His athletic ability, combined with his strengths as a passer, have created constant electric plays throughout his college career.

Weaknesses

For everything Williams does well there are still warts to his game. The first is the easiest to see throughout his tape. Williams tries to play hero ball too much. He tries too often to hit the deep shot and will pass on easy yardage. His mechanics can also disappear too frequently. Because his arm talent is so good it often doesn’t matter but his lower body will disconnect from his upper body and cause problems. When he’s feeling pressure his footwork becomes sloppy. He also has a fairly low trajectory a number of times allowing defensive linemen and other defenders a chance at batting the ball. The final thing that appears on his tape happened a few times in 2022 but was much more prevalent in 2023. His poise in the pocket will completely evaporate for large portions of his games. Williams will look uncomfortable and it causes a ton of timing and accuracy issues. You can see Williams reading the field correctly and recognize the correct route but he will completely freeze and the plays will turn into scramble drills or sacks. These moments can persist through an entire game. A prospect of Williams caliber should be able to relax after a few drives and get into a rhythm.

Conclusion

Williams is an extraordinary talent. He has elite tools and a college highlight reel that will have head coaches and GMs across the league salivating. But there are some red flags to his game in his mechanics and especially his mental fortitude. When he is outside of structure he consistently makes plays but inside of structure he can lock up and completely derail drives if not entire game plans. Teams will be hard pressed to pass on his tools but will need to be sure that they can work with him to be effective operating within an NFL offense. For Minnesota he is a risky prospect that I would be fine taking in the first round. However, not a QB that I would necessarily be thrilled with the capital required to trade up into the top 3 and select. I expect him to go in the first two selections with only UNC’s Drake Maye competing for the number one overall selection in the 2024 NFL Draft.

Grade

Accuracy: 14.5 / 15

Decision Making/Mental Ability: 12.5 / 15

Mechanics: 11.8 / 15

Touch/Trajectory: 14.1 / 15

Arm Strength: 9.7 / 10

Athleticism: 8.1 / 10

Durability: 9.5 / 10

Pocket Presence: 7 / 10

OVERALL: 87.2 – Late First Round