Bears need QB Caleb Williams to show them something this week with practice, game vs. Bills
It takes time for a quarterback and play caller to mesh, as Bears coach Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams are trying to do now, but how much time exactly?
That’s the most pressing question poking through all the optimism at Halas Hall leading up to the season. At some point, it should start to click, and it seems like that point should be this week.
Maybe it’ll be at the end of the week, but it sure didn’t look good Monday. The Bears practiced for just over an hour, mainly using first-stringers who didn’t play in the 24-24 tie with the Dolphins the day before, and Williams and the starting offense were clunky.
The two aspects that needed to be cleaned up going into this week were his passing accuracy and the pre-snap glitches, and both were problems in team drills. Williams let out a yell in frustration just as the officials flagged him for a delay-of-game violation, and the practice ended with a sputtering two-minute drill in which he misfired twice in a row to an open Rome Odunze.
Those issues shouldn’t be happening anymore. Johnson said going into training camp that his expectation is for Williams to complete 70% of his passes this season — he was 33rd of 39 qualifying quarterbacks at 62.5% as a rookie last season — and, by extension, he wants him around that number in practice.
Otherwise, Johnson said as players reported for camp last month, “That’s hard to just magically arise in a game.”
He could say that about quite a few things with the offense right now. The Bears aren’t going to stumble around all summer and suddenly snap into shape Sept. 8 against the Vikings, who, by the way, were the No. 5 defense in the NFL last season.
To Johnson’s credit, he hasn’t held back publicly or privately in shining a light on problems that need to be addressed. After a particularly ugly practice Aug. 3, he said the offense was “sloppier than we were hoping we would be at this point” and warned that, “If it continues, we’re not going to win many games.”
It’s a good time for Johnson to put Williams on the spot to show some progress. The Bears have a joint practice with the Bills, a perennial contender, on Friday and a preseason game against them Sunday at Soldier Field. Even if Bills coach Sean McDermott doesn’t play his starters, Williams could benefit from the game experience and get a feel for how far along he and Johnson are in merging their visions.
Fellow 2024 first-round picks Drake Maye and Bo Nix played in the first week of the preseason, while Williams, Jayden Daniels and Michael Penix didn’t.
When asked Monday what improvement he wants to see from Williams this week, Bears offensive coordinator Declan Doyle said the focus is preparing for a specific opponent ahead of facing the Bills on Friday and possibly Sunday. It will be a template for Williams going into the season.
Patience is a necessity when pairing a new coach with a young quarterback, and Johnson and Williams might go deep into the season before this looks sharp. That’s fine. It doesn’t need to be perfect now, but it should look better than this.
Johnson has had the job for almost seven months, and that time has included a lot of meetings and talks with Williams, in addition to offseason practices and training camp.
The Bears are about halfway through their preseason preparation: it has been three weeks since camp opened and it’s three weeks until they’ll start the practice week for the Vikings. This is a pivotal stretch for Williams.