2024 NFL Draft: Ron Rivera on Caleb Williams and the pressure of drafting a QB No. 1

Nobody has quite the unique perspective on the 2024 NFL Draft that Ron Rivera brings.

Rivera starred in his playing career as a linebacker for the Chicago Bears, who hold the No. 1 overall pick in Thursday's draft, and from 2020 through last season he was head coach of the Washington Commanders, who hold the No. 2 pick. 

The first draft Rivera ever participated in as a head coach was also very similar to the one taking place this year, as Rivera's Carolina Panthers took a successful college quarterback seen as a generational NFL prospect — 2010 Heisman Trophy winner and national champion Cam Newton — with the first overall pick in the 2011 draft. 

The Bears are widely expected to take 2022 Heisman Trophy winner Caleb Williams, also seen as an elite prospect, with the top pick Thursday.

But just because the Bears are seemingly going with the obvious choice does not mean they did not do their homework on the man they figure to anoint as their franchise quarterback. Rivera said from the perspective of coaches and front offices in that position, they still have to do everything they can to be sure that they have the right guy.

"What everybody has done the first few months of this draft cycle is try to find out what he can't do, try to find out all of his faults," Rivera told Skip Bayless and Keyshawn Johnson on Tuesday's edition of "Undisputed." 

"Then the last month, they've probably sat down and said, ‘OK, let’s talk about what he does do and how well he does it and how it fits us.' … These top quarterbacks have been picked through, they've been dragged through, they've been pulled through, now they're being looked at as to why they're our best pick."

Rivera elaborated on what that process looked like leading up to when