Bears preseason game 2 primer: Caleb Williams' moment arrives

The uncertainty is good for Williams to contemplate, just like almost everything he sees while operating the offense his coach installed.

Behind it all is the calendar working against Johnson and offensive assistants to have Williams and the attack all in sync and ready. The urgency is to cut corners, but that's what GM Ryan Poles said they did last year with Williams and the offense. The end result was felt in November with the firing of an offensive coordinator and then a head coach.

“That’s the balancing act that us as a coaching staff have to go ahead and figure out," Johnson said. "Yeah, we do want it done a certain way and we know what winning football looks like. But at the same time, we’re at a different stage in Year 1 than where we’ll be in Year 2 or Year 3 of this offense and this defense.

"It's a good reminder for me (of) where I was last year. We played Buffalo in Week 14 of the season, so I’m able to pull up that game plan and look at that game plan. We’re not ready for some of those plays yet, to be frank with you. And then I go back and look at the first game I called in 2022 against the Philadelphia Eagles. Well, that game plan was nowhere near what that Buffalo game plan was last year. It’s just perspective."

They can't get ahead of themselves with this painstaking process.

"The learning process, knowing where you start is not going to be where you finish and making sure we don’t bite off more than we can chew here at this point," Johnson said. "We just want to see these guys go out there, play clean football and play fast.”

With Williams, specifically, it's getting the play, calling it in the huddle and running it on time without penalties. They have had problems with this as recently as Friday at practice.

Then there are simple fundamentals in passing. Williams must get himself squared to the target when he throws while maintaining proper footwork.

"That’s something we talked about going into the summer break and something we still harp on," Johnson said. "You can’t get enough of that.

All the while, they'll be looking at their left tackle position with second-year undrafted tackle Theo Benedet making a late run at Braxton Jones' starting position. 

Strange, but Ozzy Trapilo has quickly been relegated to being a right tackle or swing tackle after they seemed to think Benedet should be considered Jones' competition.

"It's really play speed," Johnson explained. "There are times where the feet have gotten a little bit slow at times, both in the run game and in pass pro. The mental of just speeding up, ball, snap, let’s go ahead and get in a good physical position here to block the man in front of me, it’s been a little bit of up and down.:

Progress is needed from the run blocking and running backs Kyle Monangai and Ian Wheeler, with Roschon Johnson and Travis Homer out injured most of the week. It's an opportunity for both backs. What would really help is if any of the backup running backs and starter D'Andre Swift pass block. Pro Football Focus' pass-blocking grades for Bears running backs last week looked like the grade point averages from Delta House in the movie Animal House. They weren't 0.0, but closing in on it.

Williams is not the only show in town for the Bears, although it's unlikely Dennis Allen will show off much in terms of his defense during a preseason game.

Keeping people healthy needs to be on goal, considering Jaylon Johnson and Kyler Gordon are still unavailable with hope they'll be back for the Sept. 8 opener.

Beyond that, they want to see players making a wreck of the Bills offense in the backfield.

"It's what we have the shared vision of--coming off the ball up front, attacking blockers, playing on their side of the line of scrimmage and then the secondary coming up and challenging receivers in the passing game," Johnson said, showing he does think about his defense at times. "Re-routing, playing tight coverage.

"We need to be great tacklers in space. That's an area we are looking to improve from Week 1 into Week 2 here of the preseason and then having good eye discipline as well. That's another area that we've been talking about where we can get better from Week 1 to Week 2."

A missed tackle led to on 35-yard Miami gain last week and a few others helped the first preseason game end in a 24-24 tie.

No one should care whether this one ends in a win, loss or tie. The goal is better functionality to all parts and especially the offense.

The calendar shows roster cutdown day arrives Aug. 26, although in the past they've cut some players during a day off right after the final preseason game, which is Aug. 22 at Kansas City.

It's a picture changing rapidly with each passing day, whether they're playing Buffalo or getting in two more practices prior to the Kansas City game.

That preseason finale could take on more significance than just a chance for players at the bottom of the roster to make the team, if some aspects of first-team play—particularly on offense—don't improve against the Bills.

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