Caleb Williams is just as comfortable with who he is as a person as he is on the football field playing the sport he loves.

"When I wake up and go [to] the mirror and look at myself, I'm comfortable with that man that's looking back," the new Bears quarterback said during his introductory press conference Friday at Halas Hall. "I know who I am. I know what I like. I know what I like to do. With that, I know that I work hard, and I enjoy what I do. I'm very comfortable with who I am. That's how I go about it."

With that comfort comes a self-confidence that fuels Williams to be great. It helped him become the Gatorade District of Columbia Player of the Year at Gonzaga College High School in Washington, D.C., a Heisman Trophy winner at USC and the No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft.

Williams has expected to excel at every level and will maintain the same mindset as he begins his pro career with the Bears.

"Why wouldn't I?" he said. "If there's growing pains, you handle them. But that doesn't mean that affects your greatness. There's trials and tribulations that you go through. Why would I go somewhere, work so hard for so many years and then in every situation I go to believe I'm the best, and then I get here and I don't believe that?

"That doesn't mean that I go around and boast. That doesn't mean that I go around and say that. But the way I handle my work, the way I carry myself every day, how I treat my friends, family, teammates, the faculty, the executives here, the custodians—whatever the case may be—treat everybody as they are. We're all equal, and everybody should think that they're the best when you do things and you work so hard for stuff."

Williams knows that the attention he drew and scrutiny he faced at USC will ratchet up considerably while playing the most important position for a founding NFL franchise in a huge media market. But the 22-year-old intends to focus on his job and ignore the outside noise.

"I'm always going to have scrutiny," Williams said. "I do things like paint my nails. I'm always going to have scrutiny over that. I wear funky clothes, things like that. So just do my job on the football field and win games. I think if you win a lot of games here, you'll make a lot of people, the majority, happy."

Bears fans are already happy. How else would you explain Williams breaking the Fanatics record for draft night merchandise sales for any draft pick in any sport, eclipsing the record set last week by the WNBA's Caitlin Clark?

"It came out that I passed Caitlin Clark's record," Williams said. "I had to repost it [on Twitter] and said, 'I guess that's Chicago for you.' All the love and support is strong. I've heard about it. So to get some of that love and support that early is really awesome. It's really exciting."

Williams is driven to set other records as well. While others may try to temper expectations, he embraces them.

"What's the reason to duck?" he said. "It's here. There's no reason to duck. I'm here. Rome [Odunze] is here. Keenan Allen. The top-five defense that we had last year, special teams, all the new roles. We're here. I'm excited. I know everybody's excited. The Bears fans are excited from what I've heard and seen, and there's no reason to duck. Attack it headfirst and go get it."