Bears quarterback Caleb Williams has played just 43 snaps in two preseason games, but offensive coordinator Shane Waldron saw undeniable progress in those performances.
In limited action against the Bills and Bengals, Williams completed 10 of 20 passes for 170 yards with no touchdowns or turnovers for a 79.2 passer rating and ran twice for 20 yards and a touchdown. He played eight drives, leading the Bears to a touchdown and three field goals.
The numbers don't tell the whole story, though, especially given the typically vanilla play calling of the preseason and the Bears pulling him early. More importantly to Waldron, he sees Williams playing sharper and transferred what he's learning in practice to game days.
"Caleb has great poise, great resiliency," Waldron said. "There's been some drives where you have a backed-up situation, and he gets the ball all the way down the field. And when stuff hasn't presented itself cleanly, he hasn't forced it. Just seeing his growth in-game and going from the practice scenario to seeing a live rush and seeing that come to life, [I'm] just excited to keep working with him and watching him grow every day."
The Bears' final preseason game is Thursday at the Chiefs, but coach Matt Eberflus hasn't said whether Williams will play. That announcement likely will come Tuesday. Eberflus said before training camp his goal was to get Williams 45-65 snaps in preseason games.
