Mixed bag for Caleb Williams in practice Saturday

On the final two plays of Saturday’s practice, Bears quarterback Caleb Williams gave the coaching staff a bit of a training camp progress report. Williams showed what he can do and the work that’s still left to be done.

During the first play, Williams faced a third-and-10 situation and a 6-point deficit from the defense’s 17-yard line with 24 seconds left in the game. The defense pressured Williams from the snap and forced him to scramble to his right, but Williams kept buying time until he heaved a pass to a wide-open Cole Kmet in the end zone.

“That’s what you watched at USC,” Bears offensive coordinator Declan Doyle told reporters at Halas Hall in Lake Forest. “His ability to evade. The arm talent. ... I think it shows his competitiveness. The best thing he does is the unscripted stuff, the two-minute stuff where he’s able to go out and really play and show the competitiveness that makes him who he is.”

That competitiveness got the best of him on the last play of the day.

Williams had another third-and-10, this time at the defense’s 10 with the game tied 10-10 and 13 seconds left in the second quarter. He tried to fit the ball in down the middle to DJ Moore at the goal line, but cornerback Nahshon Wright stepped in front of the pass and intercepted it.

“Teaching moment,“ Doyle said. ”That’s one of those things. He missed behind with the throw, and you know that was an area we’re going to watch on film. We’ll get it corrected and we won’t make the second mistake twice.”

Doyle’s confidence that the mistake won’t happen again is why he believes Williams has made progress early in practice. Williams has looked more comfortable with the pre-snap process during the first nine practices of camp. The post-snap decision-making has looked better each day too.

Veteran backup quarterback Case Keenum has seen the same growth from Williams. New head coach Ben Johnson and his staff have thrown different things at Williams as they try to reset his foundation, including working more from under center and handling more motion and shifts.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s in the shotgun or under center, I think [Williams’ operation] has picked up tremendously,” Keenum said. “And what I have seen from him pre-snap has really progressed into post-snap play being better as well, too. More command of the offense, command of his mechanics, command of the ball placement. Elite ball placement. Great accuracy with some force behind it.

“It has been fun to watch the growth there.”

Doyle said there’s not one singular next step in Williams’ development. The Bears finished day nine of 12 installs of Johnson’s offense Saturday with the hope of being done by the end of the week before hosting a joint practice with the Miami Dolphins on Friday.

There’s still work left to be done before then. The Bears want Williams to get more comfortable with the game management and the other things he wasn’t asked to do during his rookie season, like working under center.

But Saturday was a good meter for where Williams is and where he needs to go.

“Every single day is really important for him,” Doyle said, “but he’s headed in the right direction.”

Practice notes

Williams’ final two plays ended a practice where the Bears offense made some strides.

During red zone drills, Williams completed a few passes during the first 11-on-11 session but failed to score a touchdown. Williams rebounded and found Rome Odzune for a touchdown on a tight pass that went past a few defenders during the second session.

In 7-on-7 red zone drills, Williams hit rookie tight end Colston Loveland and Moore with touchdown passes and found rookie wide receiver Luther Burden III for a first down in the middle.

The first team offense didn’t find much success during a two-minute drill toward the end of practice, though. It started the drive from its own 41-yard line trailing by 6 points with 31 seconds left in the game.

Williams didn’t complete 23 of his first 3 passes, and the defense sacked him for a loss of 6 on the other attempt. Facing fourth-and-16, Williams showed off his playmaking ability when he shot a pass to Odzune for a first down.

“He did a good job of hanging in on the read,” Doyle said of the fourth-down throw. “He was able to throw the dagger in there behind that defender. We were able to get down and get into a position where we give ourselves a chance to win the game.”

With 3 seconds left, Williams couldn’t complete a pass for a touchdown from the opposing 21.

Both Odunze and Loveland made impressive touchdown catches Saturday. Cornerback Kyler Gordon broke through the line of scrimmage during a D’Andre Swift run for a big stop.

Left tackle update

Rookie offensive tackle Ozzy Trapilo took all of the first-team snaps at left tackle Saturday. Braxton Jones and Theo Benedet split the rest of the left tackle snaps with Kiran Amegadjie not taking part in practice.

Doyle told reporters that the coaching staff would like to eventually narrow the competition down from Trapilo, Jones and Amegadjie to two before making a decision at the spot. But for now, they’ll continue rotating the three in with the first team.

“Right now we’re just working through the rotation,” Doyle said. “There’s a lot of football left to play in the preseason. That’s where we’re at.”

Injury update

Bears offensive guard Jonah Jackson (leg) was back at practice Saturday in a limited fashion.

He stretched with the team but did not take part in any team drills. Jackson, who the Bears traded for over the offseason, had missed the previous two practices and was considered day-to-day. Ryan Bates played in place of Jackson at right guard.

Amegadjie did not take part in practice after a day off Friday. Offensive linemen Ricky Stromberg and Bill Murray, rookie cornerback Zah Frazier (personal) and rookie defensive tackle Sheman Turner (ankle) continued to miss practice.

Wide receiver Miles Boykin left practice after he attempted to make a catch in the corner of the end zone.