How Bears' top pick went from goofy to gifted

Bears first-round draft pick Chris Williams wasn't always the confident mountain of a man who visited Halas Hall on Monday to meet the media.

He didn't even start a varsity football game at Catholic High School in Baton Rouge, La., until he was a senior, and then not until the player in front of him suffered an injury.

"I was like a chubby kid, then I got taller," the 6-foot-6 Williams said. "Between my sophomore and junior year, I grew about 4 inches. So my junior year I was just kind of goofy, trying to adjust to all this height I've got. Then by my senior year I started coming into my own a little bit. I got to college, and then I gained weight, so I had to refigure out my body again, and now I know my best is ahead of me as a football player."

Williams said he entered Vanderbilt at 250 pounds but left at about 320. He didn't play in a game his first two seasons, redshirting as a freshman and working with the scout team the following season. But he started each of his last 33 games, including the final 24 at left tackle. The transformation from goofy to gifted resulted in Williams being the 14th player drafted in the NFL's first round on Saturday.

That capped a whirlwind month that began with his marriage April 5, followed by rapid-fire visits to 10 NFL cities for personal visits, and then the NFL draft. All that forced Williams and his bride, Marissa, to postpone their honeymoon. She's OK with that, he said, considering the situation.

"She's happy that I've got a job now," Williams joked. "She didn't mind (postponing the honeymoon). She knew I was getting a job, and trust me, she's going to get the honeymoon she wants. The honeymoon I could afford then and the one I can afford now are a little bit different."

If he signs the typical five-year rookie contract with the Bears, Williams can expect a deal in the neighborhood of $20 million, with about half of that guaranteed. Not only can he upgrade his honeymoon plans, but he should be less of a financial burden to his parents, Sandres and Joseph Williams.

"They're just really proud," Williams said. "And they're really happy that I've worked for this and that it's finally come, and they don't have to buy me anything anymore. They're just all pumped about that."

Williams, whose 32 on the Wonderlic IQ test was the best among all offensive linemen at the scouting combine, is one of the more intelligent members in the 2008 draft class.

And based on Monday's engaging discussion, he's also one of the more entertaining players. He even amused interviewers with his take on his failure to retaliate after a scuffle during a Senior Bowl practice with Texas A&M's Red Bryant that has been blown way out of proportion. Bryant reportedly claimed he left Williams with a two-day headache.

"There's not any truth to that," Williams said. "As far as beating a grown man in full pads, I was like, 'I'm not going to break my hand hitting him in the helmet. He can hit me as many times as he wants.' I was laughing the whole time like, 'Please keep hitting me and break your hand and get drafted in the 12th round.' "

Just for the record, Bryant went to the Seattle Seahawks in the fourth round, 107 picks after the Bears took Williams.

Williams said he didn't obsess over his own draft status and the uncertainty that players sometimes feel on the eve of the selection meeting because they have no control over where they're going to spend the next few years of their lives.

"I was real calm about it," he said. "I didn't get nervous or anything. I didn't know where I was supposed to be, and I just let God do his work. There was nothing I could do anyway, positive or negative. I mean … I could go rob a liquor store or something and plummet," drawing laughs all around.

Williams' wit and wisdom are commendable traits, but if intelligence and snappy one-liners mattered in the NFL, the Bears would have drafted Dennis Miller to play left tackle. The team, and especially general manager Jerry Angelo, will be skewered if Williams doesn't line up at left tackle Sunday night, Sept. 7, in Indianapolis against the Colts.

"We (said) that tackle was our No. 1 need," Angelo said, "and we felt that we addressed that by drafting Chris."

As for personal predictions, Williams is taking the humble route for now, another sign of wisdom.

"Obviously, I want to be a starter," he said. "I'm going to start at the bottom with everybody else and hope to work my way up to the top."