Inside Caleb Williams’ development: What the Bears are seeing at training camp

One of the most important storylines heading into this year’s Bears training camp was how second-year quarterback Caleb Williams would develop under new head coach Ben Johnson. A little over a week into camp, that’s been proven to be the case.

Williams’ development has been front and center during practice. Whether it’s headlines about Williams’ slow start to camp or the progress he’s made in some aspects of Johnson’s offense, Williams is the story. Bears fans and analysts dissect each play to determine whether Williams can be the franchise quarterback after being the No. 1 overall pick in 2024.

Johnson and his staff are also examining each play — they’re recording every team snap Williams takes and showing it to him. It’s all part of the “race” Johnson called training camp as he and his staff try to determine who can do what, including Williams.

“The governor is off,” Johnson said. “[Williams] and I have been talking all spring, all summer, constant phone calls, constant conversations. And so I think we’re in a great place and he wants to get coached hard. And we’re going to push him as hard as we can and do what is right for the team.”

Over the past 10 days, Johnson and his coaching staff have given some insight into what they’ll be watching for in Williams’ development during camp. Here’s a breakdown of what they’ve said.

Setting the foundation

Johnson and his coaches essentially started with a blank slate with Williams in terms of play calling. Williams learned the day-to-day routine of being an NFL player. But Johnson said there wasn’t much carryover from what he was asked to do last year.

“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,” Johnson said. “Sometimes there’s multiple calls. You know, there’s shifts, there’s motions, there’s a lot more going on mentally than probably there’s ever been for him. 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.”

That’s why Johnson wanted to reset Williams’ foundation during the spring and even during the first week of camp.

Johnson said they focused on Williams’ footwork so that he could gain trust in its timing. They also worked on Williams’ throw anticipation. But the most important concept of the reset was how Williams handles the pre-snap process.

Coaches examine different parts of the process. How does he receive the play call and communicate it to his teammates? Where do his eyes go when he approaches the line of scrimmage and how does he communicate what he sees? What does he process after the snap and decide where to go with the ball?

“It’s all a progression,” offensive coordinator Declan Doyle said. “We’ve got to continue to get better post-snap and all those things with his vision and where the ball needs to go. But that’s the biggest thing — his ability to communicate to his teammates, his ability to get in and out of the huddle. And I think he’s working at it.”

There’s been progress in that regard. The operation before the snap looks much smoother as camp has progressed. Williams has learned how to handle all the different shifts and motions in Johnson’s offense.

Even though there are still some hiccups before the snap, Johnson and Doyle have both seen progress in that part of Williams’ development. They’ll look to see how he handles more as camp moves on.

“His process is really clean right now,” Johnson said. “I’m talking about how he’s preparing. I’m really pleased with it. He’s doing the work behind the scenes that no one else is seeing and we’re starting to see the dividends being paid from it.”

Facing pressure

One of the ways elite quarterbacks separate themselves from the pack is with what they do under pressure. The Bears are working to get Williams to get to that elite level.

During most padded practices, Bears coaches have used the first 11-on-11 period to test how quarterbacks react under pressure. Defensive coordinator Dennis Allen sends blitzes from different formations to see whether the offense can adapt.

“We have contingency plans for what they are going to bring at us, so the quarterback operating getting the offense on the same page as far as checking plays, checking protections, things like that, but that’s all a part of the scripted practice, is trying to get the defense right with their pressure patterns and the way they’re going to play coverage on the back end,” Doyle said. “Then it’s getting our quarterbacks used to whether we’re throwing the ball or up front handling the movement with those run schemes.”

Williams is used to facing pressure. He became the No. 1 overall pick and won a Heisman Trophy at USC partly because of his ability to make a play off a scramble. That continued during his rookie season when he was sacked a team record 68 times and had to make plenty of plays on the run.

Johnson doesn’t want to take away that playmaking ability when Williams faces unexpected pressure. He just wants Williams to be smart with the ball and to avoid disaster when the unexpected happens.

“What we want to see from [Williams] is to not throw the ball away while we’re in the pocket,” Johnson said. “We have to be smart with it. There’s times we’ve 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.”

Decision making

At the start of camp, Johnson told reporters that the Bears weren’t going to have Williams reach a certain completion percentage each day. But Johnson does want Williams to complete 70% of his passes this season.

Much like when he’s facing pressure, Johnson wants Williams to find a balance. While he wants Williams to strive for 70%, Johnson doesn’t want Williams to force throws just to try to reach a certain number.

“That’s the hard part for a guy like that that’s been such a dynamic playmaker when things breakdown is trying to scale him back to just a little degree to make sure we’re taking care of the football and we’re being smart for the benefit of the team,” Johnson said. “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 hands a little bit quicker, whether it is a completion or a throwaway.”

For how much pressure Williams faced, not many of those throws led to interceptions. He threw 6 interceptions during his rookie season and broke the NFL rookie record for most consecutive passes thrown without an interception.

Williams has tried to thread the needle sometimes at practice between when to try to sneak in a throw or throw it away. During red zone drills at one practice, linebacker TJ Edwards picked off a pass that Williams tried to fit in the back of the end zone. Later in training camp, Williams tried to fit a pass in the back of the end zone to Rome Odunze that went incomplete.

Johnson is comfortable with Williams learning what he can and can’t do in training camp.

“If you’re throwing those things, it’s got to be us or nobody and he kept it a little bit too low so [Edwards] was able to pick that thing off,” Johnson said. “Once again, these are things that you learn from and unfortunately sometimes you have to do it a couple of times to get burned by that hot stove before you realize hey, I don’t want to touch that anymore.”