LAKE FOREST, In poor health. – Caleb Williams yelled as he stomped away. Throughout a person interval at a coaching camp final weekend, Williams and the opposite Chicago Bears quarterbacks had been engaged in a rapid-fire throwing competitors, aiming at targets in a web.
Williams’ accuracy was off, and his emotional response, which was caught on video by followers throughout an open observe, sparked a social media firestorm. Was it a sign of larger issues with a group that’s underneath a microscope with first-year coach Ben Johnson, who is predicted to develop the previous No. 1 draft choose right into a franchise quarterback whereas guiding the group to playoff competition?
Or did the frustration merely mirror Williams’ aggressive nature whereas coping with the ups and downs of studying an advanced new offense?
Normal supervisor Ryan Poles wasn’t frightened.
“I really assume it is fairly cool,” Poles informed ESPN in regards to the uproar over the video. “I knew there was a foul observe. I’ve seen clips on Twitter. I did not comprehend it was a nationwide disaster of Caleb struggling.”
Earlier than anybody requires backup Tyson Bagent to take snaps with the primary group, think about that the Bears are practising lots of the ideas for the primary time. And there have been vivid spots, from the accountability and a focus to element that Johnson calls for to the offense’s execution within the two-minute drill. Nonetheless, a fan base that hasn’t celebrated a playoff win because the 2010 season and is on the lookout for its first franchise quarterback in over 80 years does not want a lot to get on edge.
“They’ve put in rather a lot — OTAs, now,” Williams stated. “I take pleasure in attempting to retain all of it, each single element that now we have. I feel that is the place I have been rising to date since Ben’s been right here is retaining the entire info, all of it is smart to me and having the ability to go on the market and execute.
“Clearly, there’s going to be errors, however having the ability to perceive that it was a mistake by me or we lined up unsuitable — regardless of the case could also be — getting again within the huddle, calling it proper, getting again on the market, doing it, executing, being a player-led group [is what’s important].”
Offseason strikes have put the onus on Williams to make that second-year leap. He has a revamped offensive line together with a first-round tight finish in Colston Loveland and second-round huge receiver in Luther Burden III. Johnson’s offensive innovation is predicted to get probably the most out of Williams.
VIDEO: #Bears QB Caleb Williams throws a mood tantrum after lacking 4 consecutive checkdowns throughout a throwing web drill. pic.twitter.com/xqnh7NhLqk
— 𝑻𝒚𝒍𝒆𝒓 𝑰𝒓𝒆𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒅 🍀 (@TylerTalksBall) August 2, 2025
“I feel as a human being, I would like it to occur tremendous quick, and I’d love for it to look actually clear and for [Williams] to seem like a fifth-year vet proper now,” Poles stated. “However I feel, simply being on this lengthy sufficient, what’s actuality, although? It should take time. It is new.
“A brand new protection goes to leap out sooner. It at all times does. We’re additionally enjoying this man scheme that [defensive coordinator] Dennis [Allen] is enjoying is a ache, and he isn’t holding again something. And I feel due to that it’d look uneven at instances, however that is what you need. You need this time to look, be as laborious as potential. After which once you get to sport time when the lights come on, you need that to then decelerate.”
What are the reliable causes for concern and optimism because the Bears get able to host the Miami Dolphins for a joint observe and their first preseason sport on Sunday? Listed below are a number of.
Concern: Is the Bears’ offense too difficult?
Backup quarterback Case Keenum has performed for eight groups and quite a few playcallers getting into his twelfth NFL season. He likened Johnson’s scheme to the “best hits” of his profession — an offense that makes use of heavy play-action, shifts, pre-snap movement and a posh system for calling performs.
“Ben has put loads of stress on us as quarterbacks to deal with playcalls with out wristbands on the market,” Keenum stated. “New playcalls on daily basis. Lengthy ones with double kills and potential alerts.”
Johnson stated he needs Williams to be “slightly bit extra structured” on the subject of dealing with calls, which are sometimes longer and include extra verbiage than he handled final season.
“There’s so many phrases that now we have in our playbook, and we put so many phrases collectively that generally they sort of sound the identical,” Williams stated. “So once you hear a play or begin to hear a play it is like, ‘OK, I do know what the play is’ and I do know precisely what now we have.”
The advanced nature of this offense is not restricted to the quarterback place. Broad receiver Rome Odunze famous that mastery of your complete scheme won’t be real looking early on.
“I do know Ben’s offense is not simply one thing that you will fully have a full understanding of in Yr 1,” Odunze stated. “It is one thing that takes slightly little bit of evolving to get there.”
Optimism: The installs are carried out.
Earlier than practices started on July 23, Johnson went again and evaluated how he put in his offense and structured practices when he first started calling performs as Detroit’s offensive coordinator in 2022.
“It acquired considerably extra advanced and layered as we went,” Johnson stated. “We’re not beginning the place [the Lions’] offense began in ’22. We’re extra advanced.
“I do not count on them to have it mastered, and but they’re trusting, they’re actually leaping within the deep finish right here and trusting the actual fact we have got a plan in place. We all know what that is gonna seem like Week 1. We will get the items aligned accurately.”
Johnson has given gamers a style of that complexity. In the course of the annual Household Fest observe at Soldier Subject, Williams hit tight finish Cole Kmet on a 25-yard misdirection landing.
The offense can also be getting used to accounting for extra motion earlier than the snap. Final season, the Lions ranked fifth in pre-snap movement utilization (70%), a major uptick for a Bears offense that used movement 55% of the time (nineteenth) in 2024.
The largest change for Williams is the quantity of labor he is doing underneath middle. As a rookie, Williams took 84 snaps underneath middle and 575 out of the shotgun.
The change has include coaches altering his footwork and educating him to maintain his eyes on the protection longer. Williams famous the nuances he has realized in regards to the protection figuring out formations in another way underneath middle than if he had been within the shotgun.
“What I’ve seen from him pre-snap has actually progressed into post-snap play being higher as nicely, too,” Keenum stated of Williams. “Extra command of the offense, command of his mechanics, command of the ball placement. Elite ball placement. Nice accuracy with some drive behind it.”
Concern: Is Williams processing quick sufficient?
Throughout a observe on July 31, Johnson was calling in a play to Williams through walkie talkie, and it quickly turned obvious Williams’ headset had malfunctioned. He could not hear his coach.
Once more, Williams confirmed his frustration by motioning to the sideline that he could not hear.
That supplied a educating second as Johnson instructed the 23-year-old to have a number of performs dedicated to reminiscence to organize for the probability of his headset going out throughout a sport.
“Once you get put in that scenario for the primary time, you begin to panic slightly bit,” Johnson stated. “I do not know if he skilled that or not, however the message is we do not panic, we simply discover options, and I feel going ahead, he’ll have options that he’ll get to immediately and we’ll be simply superb.
“We do not need to burn timeouts in that scenario.”
There have additionally been a number of cases of pre-snap errors in the course of the first three weeks of camp. Johnson famous repeated errors in the course of the quarterback-center change, and three delay-of-game penalties highlighted a observe the coach categorized as “sloppy” on Aug. 3.
Receiving the playcall, delivering the data to the huddle after which getting the group to the road of scrimmage early within the play clock has been a objective for Williams to permit himself extra time previous to the snap to see what the protection is doing.
“It offers the middle, it offers me, it offers the sort out, it offers the huge receiver [a chance] to see the strategy of the DB,” Williams stated. “It offers the O-lineman [a chance] to see are we going to have the ability to double-team this ‘backer, are we going to push it, are we going to do that and that.
“It permits me to have the ability to grasp what they’re about to do.”
Optimism: Williams is enhancing inside offensive construction
Throughout a crimson zone blitz interval on Aug. 2, Williams confirmed off his greatest attribute when he evaded the frenzy and located Kmet for a landing within the again nook of the tip zone.
Rome down there someplace pic.twitter.com/GWRPiqwupH
— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) August 6, 2025
“The most effective factor he does is the unscripted stuff, the two-minute stuff the place he is in a position to exit and actually play and present the competitiveness that makes him who he’s,” offensive coordinator Declan Doyle stated.
However even Williams is aware of the important thing to his success this season is enjoying higher throughout the construction of the offense, or as he put it, “not being that younger cat and eager to go and get that large play, that large scramble play” too usually.
That is been the main focus in group drills, and through Tuesday’s session, Williams ended observe by stepping right into a throw and giving Odunze an opportunity down the left sideline.
The end result was a 40-yard landing and one in all Williams’ longest completions of the summer season. It is moments like that when the previous Heisman Trophy winner has proven Bears’ brass that he can undergo his progressions and make the appropriate selections.
“He is getting higher at it,” Poles stated. “It will begin with the straightforward, clearly as you go and also you grow old, abruptly you possibly can progress from one aspect of the sector to the opposite — quick. Similar to once we had been in [Kansas City], [Chiefs quarterback] Pat [Mahomes] did not know coverages, loads of the large performs had been when he simply made issues occur.
“And yearly you simply hold getting higher and higher at figuring out what groups are doing to you, after which abruptly there’s appears to be like that they are hiding from you after which abruptly snap goes after which they’re switching into one thing. As soon as your Rolodex grows, you possibly can react to these issues and really begin to manipulate them as you grow old. It is simply a part of the quarterback place within the development course of.”