Caleb Williams continues to use all his new 'toys' in the offense

"Actually, him and a couple other teammates, we went down to the city on our off day and had dinner.
We’re hanging out, building that bond, building that trust. On the field-wise, he’s smart, he knows what he’s doing, he’s a young cat so there are going to be a few mistakes, maybe hand placement. But when the ball goes up, I got all faith in him."

Williams recounted a pass he made to Loveland that might have been the former Michigan standout's best catch so far. He went high in the air to pluck it.

"The other day I actually threw a ball down the middle to him and the ball kind of slipped out of my hand, a little sweaty, and I kind of raised up cause I knew the ball was slipping out of my hand," Williams said. "He went up and grabbed it and came down with it.
"It was a big catch. Things like that provide trust, faith, belief that whenever the ball goes up in the air, it’s his."

The connection with Burden is a little late as he didn't get on the field until this week and Loveland got out there for more extensive work toward the end of the first block of practices.
Burden was in right away with the first team in the 11-on-11 red zone work and caught a pass in a crowd, rifled over the middle by Williams. He took it inside the 5 before another defensive crowd came to him to greet him on a day when players were in shells and not pads and there was no real hitting.

Burden then showed up when backup quarterback Case Keenum and the second-team offense took reps. He caught a slanting pass for a touchdown from Keenum in 7-on-7 goal line passing, then hauled one in at the back of the end zone in spectacular fashion but was ruled out of the back of the end zone by officials working practice.

With new twists to the offense being added every day, Williams sees it as critical everyone's in working with him now.

"Being able to have those (wrinkles) and being able to have guys that, you know, Luther, DJ (Moore), Rome (Odunze), Colston, Cole (Kmet), D’Andre Swift, we have one a day (wrinkle), being able to adjust and get out there and have these checks and things like that to put us in the best play possible, it’s really important that everybody knows what to do in those situations and I think the guys have been doing a really good job of that," Williams said.

Rest and Rested

A different offensive line blocked for Williams, as Ozzy Trapilo and Kiran Amegadjie held up left tackle with Braxton Jones given a day of rest as he recovers from ankle surgery.

Also, right guard Jonah Jackson was out with an unspecified leg injury and they used Ryan Bates at right guard with starters.

They also gave left guard Joe Thuney rest during team scrimmage, although he took part in individual practice.

Rookie Leads Them

The first-team offense went 1-for-5 on attempts in the red zone on one sequence and the one time they scored came on Williams' run to the corner.

When the opposition isn't wearing pads, a QB run in the red zone almost seems like wasting a rep.
However, the offense did eventually break the logjam when Keenum was at quarterback in red zone 7-on-7.

With everyone covered, Keenum merely swung one out to rookie Kyle Monangai, who took it to the left outside portion of the end zone.

More and more Monangai shows he is a potential contributor in the passing game just as he is in the running game.

Patches of Honor

The Bears will honor the late Virginia McCaskey and also the late Steve McMichael with patches on their jerseys this year, according to a report by Pat Finley of the Sun-Times. McMichael's is his jersey No. 76 while the Virginia McCaskey patch has a VMH on it in a football, somewhat like patch GSH patch the Bears began wearing after George Halas' death in 1983. According to the report, the Bears won't be wearing throwback uniforms this year.