Matt Eberflus explains process of preparing Caleb Williams for NFL

The talent and potential of Chicago Bears rookie quarterback Caleb Williams was hardly questioned throughout his NFL Draft evaluation process. He was selected with the No. 1 overall pick by the Bears last month in a decision that did not surprise anyone.

But Williams reaching that potential in Chicago will largely hinge on the support of his coaches. Head coach Matt Eberflus and his staff will look to get as much out of Williams as they possibly can ahead of a highly anticipated 2024 season in The Windy City.

Prior to rookie minicamp, Eberflus was asked about the plan for preparing Williams for his first NFL season and how he leans on coaches like offensive coordinator Shane Waldron and passing game coordinator Thomas Brown during the process.

“We’re fortunate that Thomas went through it last year, he was at Carolina obviously and so we got to glean some information from him. We certainly talked to guys throughout the league that have had this early pick at quarterback and got a lot of good information from those guys,” Eberflus explained.

“You would go through the whole process of that and certainly have good friends in the league that you would lean on to talk to that about and we certainly got some good information from those guys.”

Chicago likely gathered as much intel as possible in preparing rookie quarterbacks for their first season in the league. Now tasked with pouring their resources into the first quarterback prospect to draw comparisons to Patrick Mahomes after Williams threw for 8,170 yards and 72 touchdowns in his last two seasons at USC.

Williams will likely show flashes of his generational talent throughout the offseason, but Eberflus broke down what he’d like to see from his rookie signal caller leading up to the fall.

“With the development piece of it is operation. Operation of the offense, but understanding of the concepts,” Eberflus said. “We have a plan in place and the concepts that we’re going to get taught through this offseason and leading into the summer, and we’ll have a plan for the summer, and then leading into training camp. So just the full understanding of the concepts.”

“Run, pass, checks, and his fundamentals. The fundamentals that we have in place for him, which he’s really good fundamentally obviously. But we have some things that we want to be able to work on and improve as well,” Eberflus concluded.

Many are curious if Williams can translate his unique, off-schedule play style to the pro level that generated many jaw-dropping plays in his college career. But there’s no question that given his talent, mastering the operation and basics ahead of his rookie year could take him and the new look Bears a long way in 2024.