LAKE FOREST, Ill. (AP) — Staying at the same hotel during minicamp, Keenan Allen and Caleb Williams had extra time to get to know one another.
Chicago’s new receiver and prized quarterback helped each other learn the playbook when they weren’t either watching the NBA playoffs or playing Monopoly Deal. The connection between the six-time Pro Bowler and the No. 1 overall draft pick could go a long way toward determining whether the Bears make a much-anticipated jump.
“I’m not a guy who masters the playbook by any means sitting at home just looking at the playbook,” Allen said Saturday, after the team’s first training camp practice. “That’s not how I learn it. I’m a trial and error guy. I learn through mistakes. Just being able to sit there with him, he’d call out the play, I’d draw it up, vice versa, while we’re sitting there watching the NBA playoffs.”
Chicago hasn’t finished with a winning record since the 2018 NFC North championship season. The Bears have just three playoff appearances since the 2006 Super Bowl season, but they seem poised for a turnaround. A big reason is the splashy moves they made in the offseason.
Chicago traded quarterback Justin Fields to Pittsburgh, clearing the way to draft Williams, the former Heisman Trophy winner from USC. The Bears also swung a blockbuster trade for a play-making receiver for the second year in a row, this time getting Allen from the Los Angeles Chargers after acquiring DJ Moore from Carolina prior to the 2023 season.
Those were the biggest moves for a team with its sights set on the playoffs after going 10-24 the past two seasons under general manager Ryan Poles and coach Matt Eberflus. The Bears went from winning three games to seven last year thanks to an improved defense. Now, they believe they have the weapons on offense to contend for a playoff spot.
One key to that is the connection between Williams and Allen.
They had time to go over each other’s preferences and explain how they see plays developing. Allen also passed on what he learned catching passes from Philip Rivers and Justin Herbert during his 11 seasons with the Chargers.
“We’d be sitting down just eating dinner and playing cards and then we’d have a break and rattle off some plays and that was when I was first learning, and he’d kind of have an idea of what the play was,” Williams said “So it’s nice having people like that around.”
Chicago ranked near the bottom of the NFL in passing last season and finished 18th in scoring. But the offense has a different look.
The Bears have a new coordinator in Shane Waldron and made some other moves to boost the offense. They signed running back D’Andre Swift and former Charger Gerald Everett, giving them another pass-catching tight end to go with veteran Cole Kmet.
For now, all eyes are on the quarterback. And along those lines, Allen said his job is simple.
“Just try to make it easy for him,” he said. “Make sure we’re seeing things eye to eye and get to the spots that he likes, whatever spots that he can see versus what I’m seeing. And then just being on the same page.”
The Bears are banking on Williams to develop in ways that Fields and Mitchell Trubisky never did after being drafted with high picks, with his arm strength and poise in the pocket as well as his ability to avoid defenders and make throws on the run. But that’s not all that stands out.
“I feel like he’s in a place where he’s confident in himself,” cornerback Jaylon Johnson said. “He’s not going to let a bad day or a bad game affect him too much. It’s more so how do you continue that momentum, how do you take strides when things are good, and then from there how you stack days or stack weeks.”
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