The Bears finished their opening run of training camp practices Tuesday, and near the end of that work, quarterback Caleb Williams offered a snapshot of where stands as he prepares for his rookie season.
During a two-minute drill in which the offense trailed by four points, Williams drove the Bears into the red zone and whipped an artful side-armed pass through the middle of the field to backup wide receiver DeAndre Carter to the seven-yard line to set up first-and-goal.
That’s the kind of pass general manager Ryan Poles marveled at before the Bears drafted Williams.
From there, though, he threw incomplete four times, and the defense won the drill to get payback on Williams for beating them in the two-minute drill the day before.
He showed flashes of brilliance and progress amid the ups and downs over the first four practices and now gets a day to reset before the Bears resume Thursday. They’ll inch closer to realistic game action when they go to full pads Friday.
The best way to describe Williams’ performance so far? Simply fine.
He hasn’t been amazing, and that might be tough for fans who feel like they’ve been waiting forever as the hype surged. But he has more than six weeks until the opener. The Bears don’t need him to be amazing yet. Williams hasn’t been terrible, either, so there’s no cause for alarm whatsoever at this stage.
In 11-on-11 work Tuesday, he forced a short throw to tight end Gerald Everett on the right side of the field, and linebacker Jack Sanborn nearly picked it for what would’ve been a touchdown. Later, Williams showed good recognition of cornerback Tyrique Stevenson slipping in coverage and lofted a 40-yard pass up the left sideline to Tyler Scott, hitting him perfectly in stride.
Every day has had a mix of good and bad. Williams anticipated that going into camp.
“Those bad times, it’s not a time to have self-doubt,” he said last week. “It's a time to keep growing, keep progressing and keep believing in yourself."
Practices typically tip in favor of the defense this time of year, and that’s especially true when the offense has a rookie quarterback. Poles made the right call when he chose to endure those growing pains with Williams as the Bears’ Day 1 starter rather than have him learn in the shadow of a veteran.
“He’s going to get the whole gamut of looks, so there’s going to be an ebb and flow to this,” coach Matt Eberflus said, indicating with a hand gesture that Williams’ development won’t necessarily be a straight line. “We’re going to give him some looks that are going to be hard for him, then he’s gonna learn from them, grow and go to the next step.”
Furthermore, the Bears’ defense is expected to be one of the NFL’s top 10 this season, so that only makes it more difficult.
Their cornerback group is as good as anyone’s, so they aren’t allowing huge windows for Williams. Their pass rush has looked surprisingly strong so far, though it’s nearly impossible to assess either the offensive and defensive line until full-contact practice starts.
Williams has navigated that well at times by rolling out or stepping up in the pocket to avoid pressure and showcasing the various angles and off-platform throws that turned heads at USC and reminded Poles of Patrick Mahomes.
“He’s sliding in the pocket, seeing the pressures and everything, so I’ve been really impressed by that,” left guard Teven Jenkins said.
Again, the pass rush isn’t full speed and the defense is never allowed to make contact with Williams in practice, but his awareness is evident. He fired off a quick pass to D’Andre Swift on Tuesday just before a pass rusher reached him from his blind side.
While Williams has used his mobility to buy time, he hasn’t taken off running very much like Justin Fields did the last three years in training camp. Fields relied on his speed too often, and sprinting downfield doesn’t make much sense in practice given that no one can touch the quarterback. It’s already clear that’ll mostly be a last-ditch option for Williams.
The best way for Williams to refine his ability to process defenses, make quick reads and sense pressure is to play in games, so there’s only so much he can get out of practices in those aspects. The Bears plan to get him 45-65 snaps in preseason games, the first being next week against the Texans.
In the meantime, however, he can show them mastery of basic operations. His command of the huddle has been good during camp, and he and the offensive line appear to have fixed the cadence issues that disrupted practices last month.
“It’s a totally different thing from what you did in college, so it does take a while to get that, but I think he’s done a good job just because he’s controlling the huddle [and] getting everybody on the same page,” right tackle Darnell Wright said. “He’s definitely improved a lot.”
He’ll have to keep that trend going, and every phase of training camp will get tougher. It’s a step up this week when the Bears go to full pads, another jump when the preseason games begin and he eventually plays extended time, and in about three weeks he’ll face the Bengals for a joint practice that should be very revealing.
At this checkpoint, though, everything’s going fine — no better, no worse.
