Bears News: Caleb Williams Reset: Why Year 2 feels like Year 1

Ariana Pensy · Correspondent · 22 hours ago

CHICAGO - Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams is essentially a rookie again.

While he has 17 games of NFL experience under his belt from last season, head coach Ben Johnson said there is not a lot of carryover between what Williams was asked to do last season versus what he will need to do this year.

“There really isn’t a ton of carryover from what he was asked to do, the play calls or anything of that nature. He’s always been very comfortable as a shotgun quarterback going back to college and even last year. He’s very comfortable in a two-minute setting. He’s very comfortable with tempo-type plays and so, now we’re asking him to be a little bit more structured in terms of the play calls. Sometimes there’s multiple calls. There’s shifts. There’s motions. There’s a lot more going on mentally than, probably, there’s ever been for him,” Johnson said. “And so, at some point, this thing will start slowing down and he’s going to be able to catch up and his physical ability will take over from there. But right now, because mentally it is what it is, he’s playing a little bit slower than what he’s capable of.”

The fact that Williams is behind mentally from where a second-year quarterback who started every game last season speaks volumes about the inadequacy of the coaching staff last season. Last season, there were numerous times when he tried to dance his way out of the pocket similar to how he did in college and got sacked for a loss.

Part of the mental development Johnson is looking for from Williams is to know when to just take the loss or throw the ball away versus trying to make something happen.

“What we want to see from Caleb is to not throw the ball away while we’re in the pocket. We got to be smart with it. There are times we got to eat it and just go down and then part of his superpower is he’s going to be able to break some of these tackles. Even though we’re calling them dead in practice with a sack, he’s going to be able to escape and make something out of nothing,” Johnson said. “Each play’s a little bit different and that’s the hard part for a guy like that that’s been such a dynamic playmaker when things break down is trying to scale him back just to a little degree to make sure we’re taking care of the football and we’re being smart for the benefit of the team. So, you talk about the sack number being high from a year ago and how we can bring that down. I think that’s one way we can do that, is just looking to get that ball out of his hand a little bit quicker, whether it’s a completion or a throwaway.”

Last season, Williams was sacked for a league-leading 68 sacks for a loss of 466 yards. If the Bears are going to be competitive this year, that cannot happen again. Not all of those were on Williams, as the offensive line also struggled a great deal last season. However, since the offensive line was completely revamped in the offseason, Williams has every reason to succeed.

While sacks may have been an issue, interceptions were not. In fact, Williams only threw six interceptions all of last season, which comprised 1.1 percent of his passes. That was the third-lowest interception rate in the NFL, with only Justin Herbert on the Los Angeles Chargers and Lamar Jackson on the Baltimore Ravens having a lower interception rate. Nonetheless, Williams has thrown a few picks already in training camp.

Johnson is not concerned about these interceptions. First, this is part of where Williams needs to develop his game mentally. Second, both interceptions provide him with opportunities to learn to ensure similar plays do not happen again.

Particularly since these picks happened during the red zone drills, these are important lessons for Williams to learn now as opposed to during the regular season.

“One of them was a bang-bang play. I thought our receiver could run the route just a little bit better to separate more. I think in hindsight, he should see how tight that coverage is and keep progressing. I think he can learn from that one and then the second one that he had down there. (We) talk about on the back of the end zone, high back five throws. So if you’re throwing those things, it’s got to be us or nobody and he kept it a little too low and so, (linebacker) TJ (Edwards) was able to pick that thing off. So, once again, these are things that you learn from and unfortunately, sometimes you have to do it a couple times to get burned by that hot stove before you realize, ‘Hey, I don’t want to touch that anymore.’”

Chicago’s first preseason game is Sun. Aug. 10 (Noon / FOX) against the Miami Dolphins. It is unclear how long Williams or any of the starters will play in that game or if they will at all.