Caleb Williams is about to embark on the most important week yet in his young NFL career — one that figures to end with the Bears rookie quarterback making his preseason debut Saturday in Buffalo.
That was what coach Matt Eberflus hinted at late Thursday night following the Bears’ weather-shortened win against the Texans. Eberflus has maintained that the decision to play the former Heisman Trophy winner in preseason games is one that will be made on a week-by-week basis. Asked what he needed to see to give Williams the green light to play Saturday, the coach laid out a challenge.
“It’s just going through the whole process,” he said. “This is a big week for us. We’ve got to really make strides here. We’ve got a sense of urgency. We have to get better now. We’ve gotta see that from everybody. That’s an important part of that.
“That’s what we’ve talked to the guys about. They understand that. It’s going to be a physical week. It’s gonna be a week where we gotta get better.”
While Devin Hester, Steve McMichael and Julius Peppers are being inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Saturday morning, the Bears will be practicing at Halas Hall, the first of five in a six-day span leading up to the Bills game.
The Bears’ second exhibition game has long been the most obvious target for which Williams to play, if for no other reason, via the process of elimination.
Few teams play their starters in the final preseason game — in the Bears’ case, Aug. 22 in Kansas City. The Bears’ third game will be at home Aug. 17 against the Bengals, though coaches may consider the joint practice between the two teams on Aug. 15 at Halas Hall more essential to Williams’ development. That’s what happened last year, when two joint practices with the Colts earned quarterback Justin Fields and the rest of the Bears starters the night off when they played the same team in an exhibition game.
Fields had an injured offensive line last preseason. Provided the Bears’ starting five stays relatively healthy this week — only right guard Nate Davis is on the shelf with a muscle strain — the Bears should be confident in protecting Williams in a brief outing.
Eberflus’ stated goal is to give Williams 45-55 snaps in preseason games. It’s unlikely he gets there without starting in Buffalo.
Williams didn’t Thursday night against the Texans, of course, to the consternation of eager Bears fans and a national audience tuning into ESPN for the first preseason game of the season. The Bears, though, still presented opportunities for him to learn.
Eberflus wanted Williams to pay attention to the extensive pregame walk-through the Bears practiced at their hotel in Cleveland hours before the game. The Bears focused on their first 15 offensive plays — standard procedure in NFL game-planning but new, at this level, to Williams.
Once the Bears drove an hour to Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton, they watched as Williams, for the first time as a pro, took the field in headphones, a white long-sleeved T-shirt and game pants. As he jogged into the field, he was greeted by shrieking fans, many of whom screamed “That’s my quarterback!”
The Bears went through their pregame warmup for the first time and reviewed the gameplan, as vanilla as it was, before kickoff.
Williams was paying attention.
“Bringing him in right before the game, to talk to him about what he needs to know based on the information we give him as the quarterback,” Eberflus said. “That’s information that’s pertinent to locations on the field, what we’re doing when we’re going for (fourth downs), all those things we talk about.”
The conversation continued into halftime too.
“He was right there with halftime adjustments, so he got to see that for the first time,” Eberflus said. “It’s not college where you’ve got a 30-minute halftime and you can put a whole new offense in — ‘Now we’re running the wishbone.’ It’s fast.”
That’s not the only difference from the college game. Generations of quarterbacks who have struggled as rookies — and even the few who haven’t, such as the Texans’ C.J. Stroud — can attest to that.
Williams, though, might be the rare quarterback who’s ready. At the least, the NFL world is ready to find out.
During Thursday night’s game broadcast, ESPN analyst Troy Aikman called Williams a “special, special talent” and casually projected that Williams, if healthy, would throw for more than 4,000 yards this year. That would be a Bears single-season record — they’re the only NFL team to never have a passer eclipse the number.
Friday morning, Williams and receiver DJ Moore appeared on ESPN’s “First Take” live from the NABJ convention downtown. After listening to host Stephen A. Smith spend 30 seconds asking if it was wrong to think Williams could match Stroud’s all-time-great rookie performance last year, Williams smiled and said one word: “No.”
A week from now, Williams figures to start making his case on the field.