Matt Eberflus made it clear that he isn’t going to go easy on Caleb Williams during any part of the upcoming training camp. He wants the #1 overall pick to get a regular taste of what actual NFL defenses will look like every week. If that means throwing him to the wolves that are the Chicago Bears defense so be it. Williams got an education in OTAs and minicamps as the unit didn’t pull any punches, throwing disguised coverages and blitzes at him with regularity. It led to some mistakes, but the rookie held his own. Tremaine Edmunds made one thing clear on CHGO.
It won’t stop.
The defense plans to bring everything they have to those practices. It won’t be because they’re trying to show up Williams or make a statement. Everything they do is about striving to get better. They want to take that next step into elite territory.
This is why Williams is in good hands. Yes, the defense always wants to win the day in practice. Competitiveness is an eternal thing. Still, their objective is also to help him become a better quarterback. He can do that by taking their best shots and learning to counter them.
Quarterback vs. middle linebacker is one of the more underrated chess matches played every Sunday. It was Ray Lewis vs. Peyton Manning, Aaron Rodgers vs. Brian Urlacher, and Luke Kuechley vs. Matt Ryan. Edmunds makes the defensive calls. He is responsible for getting everybody in position and making the right adjustments. The same goes for the quarterback on offense. That means Williams must learn to read what defenses are showing and, more importantly, what they’re disguising.
That will come with film study and lots of practice. It is why Eberflus is doing the right thing. Exposing Williams to all of that stuff from the beginning is almost certain to pay off down the road. By the time opening day rolls around, the young quarterback will have seen almost everything defenses can do to confuse him and have counters ready. Tremaine Edmunds can help that process along by being on top of everything the offense tries to do, forcing Williams to make adjustments and call audibles. Iron sharpens iron.
