Chicago Bears head coach addresses Caleb Williams' 'rough' day

As previously discussed on GH, Williams struggled during drills on Thursday:

One reporter, Nicholas Moreano of CHGO Sports, was on the scene. According to Moreano, Williams did not have his best performance in an early practice with the Bears.

Moreano made some specific notes about Williams’ performance. Here were some of the main things he noted:

“Really rough day for Caleb Williams and the starting offense. A lot of incomplete passes and near interceptions.

In the 7-on-7 period, Williams completed just three passes. Jaylon Johnson nearly had an interception over the middle of the field.

In the team period, most of the passes were completed to the flat, and Williams held onto the ball for a long time.” -Nicholas Moreano

The Chicago Bears offense couldn’t get snaps off

One would assume Williams wouldn’t look polished in his third practice with the team. After all, the Bears were missing starters Darnell Wright, Nate Davis, Rome Odunze, and Keenan Allen. However, Williams and the offense struggled to get lined up and get the ball snapped in time. Per Jon Greenberg with The Athletic:

When we watched the red zone drills, Williams was constantly under pressure while his receivers (which didn’t include Rome Odunze or Keenan Allen) tried to get open. There were a few just-missed interceptions.

Sometimes, Williams couldn’t even get passes off as the secondary used its space advantage in the red zone to shut down receivers. We saw a lot of screen passes, many of which turned into scores. Occasionally, the offense struggled to line up or get a play off.

HC Matt Eberflus responded to Williams’ bad day

During his press conference on Thursday, Eberflus talked about Williams’ progression. He acknowledged Williams would go through growing pains this offseason.

“This is the first time going against a pro-defense, and a pretty good one,” Eberflus said. “It’s going to be learning for everybody. They’re getting everything together. It was progress. I saw progress from the first day to the second, the second to the third.”

The Bears aren’t letting Williams ease into the job. Eberflus, who named Williams the Bears QB1 before the start of rookie minicamp, said they’re throwing everything they can at Williams before the beginning of the regular season.

“We’re not holding back,” Eberflus said. “We’re giving him a lot of information. We’re giving him the offense, and you want to be able to go through the whole offense before the offseason gets done, primarily most of it, and work it into the summer. We’ll have a plan for him there and work him into training camp and then go from there.”

Eberflus has confidence that Williams will catch up in time to learn the offense before the beginning of the season. Williams will benefit from going up against a talented Bears secondary during OTAs in training camp. Hopefully, Williams will start to beat the defense on some players.

But he’ll have to get the offense lined up and set so he can take a snap first.