WCG’s lead draft analyst spoke with Schefter about the Bears’ decision to draft a QB, where Caleb Williams stands among recent top draft prospects, and more.

To ESPN’s Senior NFL Insider Adam Schefter, information is currency. Not only does that apply to his career breaking news around the football world, but that also applies to Type 1 diabetes.

“My wife is Type 1 diabetic and always has been,” Schefter told Windy City Gridiron. “I see what she goes through on a daily basis, and it’s critically important to get everyone in my family is screened, because of what she goes through. To me and to all of us, information is currency, right? You want as much information as possible.”

Schefter is partnering with Sanofi, a global healthcare and pharmaceutical company, as a part of “The 1 Pledge” movement. Given his close-to-home relationship with Type 1 diabetes, he is passionate about promoting early screening and obtaining proper and proactive diabetic treatment.

“The idea is to go to get screened, visit your doctor, tell them you want to be screened for Type 1 diabetes. Your doctor orders a blood test that can detect Type 1 diabetes-related autoantibodies, your doctor discusses the results with you works with you on a care plan, if you do test positive. For more information, people can just go to screenfortype1.com.”

Schefter has made a living out staying informed, serving as one of the most notable insiders not just in football, but in all of sports. As a part of staying as consistent as he has in terms of reporting news in an accurate and timely manner, he has to essentially be on the clock at all times. He shared a humorous anecdote involving the Rams’ hiring of Jeff Fisher as head coach in 2012, and his now 15-year-old daughter Dylan, who serves as a correspondent for Nickelodeon’s NFL Slimetime.

“My daughter at that time would have been four years old,” he explained. “I would take her to lunch every day at this little place, and I was going to get gas. I remember I was at this gas station, getting gas, and I get the text that the Rams are hiring Jeff Fisher. I go racing home to go do SportsCenter at noon or one o’clock, whatever it was before The Pat McAfee Show was on the air. I run inside, and I run into my office, and I put on a microphone I put in my IFB, and I get on there, and I deliver the report that the Rams have hired Jeff Fisher. All of a sudden, a few minutes later, my wife walks into the office. She goes, ‘where’s Dylan?’ and I go, ‘oh, no. I left her in the car,’ and she was in the car, so that was that was pretty funny.”

One of the biggest storylines of this year’s NFL offseason has been what the Chicago Bears will do at the quarterback position. They ended up trading Justin Fields to the Pittsburgh Steelers, and though the 2024 NFL Draft has yet to take place, the general consensus is that Chicago will take USC quarterback Caleb Williams.

Given their unique situation, Schefter figured that a quarterback was in the Bears’ draft plans once they lock in the No. 1 pick through their trade last year with the Panthers.

“I think when you have the No. 1 overall pick, you’re afforded a luxury that most teams are not,” Schefter said. “And not only did they have the No. 1 pick, but they didn’t even have to endure the type of season last year that teams do to get the No. 1 pick, because they traded for that pick from Carolina. So you’re seeing it with the number one pick in a draft, where there are some bright quarterback prospects where there are some quarterback prospects that have caught a lot of team’s attention.

“If you’ve got the No. 1 pick, you’d be crazy not to zero in on a quarterback, especially when there’s a great quarterback available there like [Caleb Williams] coming in.”

Assuming the Bears do select Williams, it would hardly come as a surprise. Schefter stated that scouting circles view the 2022 Heisman Trophy in an incredibly high light — perhaps higher than any quarterback to enter the NFL in the last decade.

“When Trevor Lawrence entered the NFL, they said he was the best quarterback prospect since Andrew Luck,” Schefter explained. “Now, I’ve heard that Caleb Williams is the best quarterback prospect since Andrew Luck, which would make him better than Trevor Lawrence, or any other quarterback that’s entered the NFL in the last decade or so. Again, that’s great; that’s super going into the draft. It still matters what you do once you enter the NFL. You could be the best quarterback prospect since Sid Luckman, and it doesn’t matter if you wash out, right? It doesn’t mean anything. It’s great. All it means is that Caleb Williams has got a boatload of potential, and it’s up to him to try to make sure that he fulfills that.”

In the course of the conversation, Schefter mentioned that he considers it a “lock” that at least three quarterbacks will be selected within the first five picks of the 2024 NFL Draft. He mentioned Williams to Chicago at No. 1, as well as the expectation that LSU’s Jayden Daniels will go to the Commanders at No. 2, and North Carolina’s Drake Maye would potentially end up with the Patriots at No. 3. He also indicated a team could trade up for Michigan’s J.J. McCarthy, naming the Vikings as a potential trade-up candidate.

With the flurry quarterbacks coming off the board early, there remains some uncertainty about where the top wide receivers in the 2024 draft will go. Ohio State’s Marvin Harrison Jr., Washington’s Rome Odunze and LSU’s Malik Nabers are seen as the top three receivers in the class. That said, many analysts tout the depth of the wide receiver class as one of the strengths of the draft. However, Schefter believes that the high quantity of talented receivers further down the board won’t affect where the receivers end up.

“Those [three] guys are going to fly off the board,” he responded. “I expect that all three of them will be gone within the first 10 picks. I don’t see a way that one of those three wide receivers that you mentioned makes it past pick No. 10. There’s a real chance that they could be gone, say, picks 4, 5, 7, some combination of that sort. They’re going to be top-10 picks, those three wide receivers. So you got three quarterbacks, three wide receivers, an offensive tackle, a defensive player like Dallas Turner. That gives you an idea of your top 10 picks in this upcoming draft.”

No matter what the 2024 NFL Draft has in store, one can bet that Schefter will be prepared with early information.

T1D can’t be prevented or cured and can develop in otherwise healthy people whether they have a family history or not. That said, anyone can be screened through a blood test that can detect T1D before any notable symptoms arise, potentially providing time to plan and prepare.