Caleb Williams won the Heisman trophy after a historic 2023 season with the USC Trojans. Now, he's the favorite to win the award in 2024. Winning back-to-back Heismans would place Caleb Williams in rarified air. It would make him proper college football royalty.
Regardless of the Hesiman outcome, Williams is expected to lead the Trojans to an extremely successful season — with several pundits pegging USC as the biggest obstacle between Georgia and a three-peat.
When it's all said and done, Williams will be eligible for the 2024 NFL Draft next April. He's the projected No. 1 pick and there's no reason to earnestly believe he will pass up that opportunity.
With Williams' professional future in mind, several comparisons have been made to Kansas City Chiefs star Patrick Mahomes. Williams is a tier-one athlete with a remarkable gift for improvisation in the pocket. He unleashes some beautiful downfield dimes and when passes don't materialize, he's equally dangerous on the ground.
The Mahomes comp is flattering — he's the best player in the NFL, on track to be maybe the best football player ever — but that's a high bar to set. Even Williams is hesitant to embrace such lofty praise.
USC football star Caleb Williams refutes Patrick Mahomes comparison
"He is the best player in the world," Williams said of Mahomes in a recent interview with Andscape. "He does special things. His teammates love him. The man has two [Super Bowl championships]. So to be compared to someone like that... it's a sense of respect. But it's also irrelevant, 'cause I'm Caleb. Caleb Williams here at USC. I haven't even won a [college] national championship yet."
Williams has the right read on the situation here. To be mentioned in the same breath as Mahomes is a genuine honor, but it's not fair to hold Williams to that standard. Caleb Williams is going to focus on being Caleb Williams, which is all he can do.
Mahomes is fast on his way to becoming the most accomplished active NFL player. Are there surface-level similarities with Williams? Sure. Even the college numbers are comparable at first glance. Mahomes tossed 5,052 yards and 41 touchdowns in his junior season at Texas Tech. Williams tossed 4,537 yards and 42 touchdowns last season.
Williams accomplished that as a sophomore, however, not a junior. He's ahead of the curve, even by Mahomes' standards. Mahomes was the No. 10 pick, Williams is going to go No. 1. In fact, Williams is unequivocally the better college football player. College football success doesn't always translate one-to-one to the NFL, though. Williams is going to start games from day one in the NFL. Mahomes waited a year behind Alex Smith.
Those differences are important. Williams should get his own pedestal as a college football singularity with the chance to carve out his own niche in the NFL. There's a damn near 100 percent chance Williams never reaches the same heights as Mahomes in the NFL, but that shouldn't be held against him. And it won't be.
These comparisons are ultimately harmless, but there's no real value in comparing two different players, from different backgrounds, in different situations. One could even view this as mild disrespect toward Mahomes. There are a few stray LeBron James comparisons made in NBA Draft circles — we all remember the Ben Simmons hype — but does that ever pan out? No. Why would it be any different with Mahomes?
Williams should be evaluated on his own terms, well removed from the starry heights of football's most explosive playmaker.