Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams sought to quiet the controversy about how he hadn’t wanted to come to his current team prior to the 2024 draft.

Williams admitted an ESPN story about an upcoming book by Seth Wickersham on quarterbacks was true in that he didn’t like the idea of going to the Bears initially, but this was prior to his first visit to Chicago. Then, Williams said, he wanted to be with the Bears.

“Yeah, I had a good visit at the other place — Minnesota, with (coach) Kevin O’Connell,” the former USC star said. “Good staff and all of that obviously. He just won the coach of the year award and things like that. Obviously, good staff and things like that.

“But something that keeps getting lost, something that keeps getting, I think, not being addressed the way it needs to be is the fact that I went on that visit first, came here and then after I came here, I went back home and talked to my dad.”

His comment to his father, Carl Williams, was he wanted to play for the Bears and become the quarterback who leads them out of a history of struggling quarterbacks.

“This whole storm that happened, it wasn’t something that we wanted to have happen at this point,” Williams said during a news conference Wednesday during the Bears OTAs. “We’re focused on the present, we’re focused on now, we’re focused on trying to get this ship moving in the right direction. And I think so far that’s what we’ve been doing.

“But for this to come out it’s been a distraction.”

The book, “American Kings: A Biography of the Quarterback,” looks at many QBs but Williams’ part details how he and his father thought about the possibility of finding a way to circumvent the NFL draft in 2024 to avoid going to Chicago. Williams labeled any of the early discussion as mere thoughts, not action.

“Those are thoughts that go throughout your head in those situations,” Williams said. “All of those are thoughts. And then after I came on my visit here, it was a deliberate answer and deliberate and determined answer that I had is that I wanted to come here.”

Patriots to handle Diggs video internally

New England Patriots coach Mike Vrabel said that he is aware of a video that showed receiver Stefon Diggs passing a bag of pink crystals to women on a boat. Vrabel declined to comment on whether he has spoken to Diggs about it.

“Any conversations that I’ve had with Stefon will remain between him, I and the club,” Vrabel said before an optional practice that Diggs did not attend.

“It’s something that we’re aware of,” Vrabel said. “Obviously, we want to make great decisions on and off the field. … The message will be the same for all our players, that we’re trying to make great decisions.”

An NFL spokesman said the league would not comment.

Diggs, who has been linked to hip-hop star Cardi B this offseason, is shown in a video on social media talking to three women on a boat before he produces a bag of pink crystals.

Diggs, 31, signed with the Patriots this offseason as a free agent, getting a three-year, $69 million deal that guarantees him $26 million. The four-time Pro Bowl selection posted six straight 1,000-yard receiving seasons for the Vikings and Bills before he was traded from Buffalo to Houston last spring.

He had 47 catches for 496 yards and three touchdowns in eight games for the Texans before he tore the ACL in his right knee in October.

If healthy, he is expected to be a top target for second-year quarterback Drake Maye as Vrabel, in his first year coaching the team he played on for eight of his 14 NFL seasons, tries to improve on back-to-back four-win finishes under Bill Belichick and Jerod Mayo.

Patriots center Andrews retiring

Longtime New England Patriots center David Andrews is retiring from the NFL.

The Patriots said that Andrews, who spent all 10 of his seasons with the team before he was released in March, will retire at a news conference on Monday.

An undrafted free agent from Georgia, Andrews started 121 of 124 regular-season games he played in and also played in 12 playoff games. He also played in three Super Bowls, winning two, and was the last remaining offensive starter from the Patriots’ 2018 championship team.