Despite not playing, Williams’ development continues with Bears

When the Bears hosted their first joint practice of the preseason against the Miami Dolphins on Friday, it gave quarterback Caleb Williams an important moment in his development.

Williams finally get a chance to go against someone other than his teammates, but he also got an opportunity to test how well he can process a defense at the line of scrimmage.

“He’s continuing to evolve as a processor and things like that, dealing with a pretty large variety of defense,” Bears offensive coordinator Declan Doyle said Monday at Halas Hall. “They’re kinda stemmed from that Baltimore tree, and that’s one that provides a lot of different looks — different than what he gets from our defense all the time. I thought that was really good to get to see him go out and process that.”

Processing will be an important next step for Williams as he continues to learn under new head coach Ben Johnson and rework his fundamentals.

The Bears and Williams have used the first couple weeks of training camp to hone various aspects of his game. Doyle and Johnson both have focused on Williams’ pre-snap process.

Now the coaches will focus more on Williams’ processing. The Bears will have a week that resembles the regular season before hosting the Buffalo Bills for a joint practice Friday and a game Sunday. Coaches will monitor how Williams processes what he sees on tape and translates that to the field.

“A lot of the improvements happen within the meeting room and things like that,” Doyle said. “His process of, ‘How am I going to study this team? How am I going about executing the game plan that we’re going to put together for a specific team?’ Buffalo, a totally different style of defense coming in. Really, that’s the biggest thing that we’re looking for as a staff, is him continuing to develop and handle that classroom work.”

It’s part of a process Doyle said doesn’t have shortcuts. The Bears believe they can help Williams develop his processing by getting as many snaps as possible.

Johnson tried to maximize the first team offense’s snaps by having them take part in Friday’s joint practice, a session before Sunday’s game against the Dolphins and then a practice Monday afternoon. Each time Williams is out there, the coaches are accelerating the pre-snap process to make it become second nature to Williams.

While Williams, coaches and fans might want the overall developmental process to accelerate in time for the season-opener, the Bears aren’t rushing it.

“That’s upholding the standard that there are no shortcuts,” Doyle said. “Everything we do matters. Every single little detail matters.”

The battle for left tackle

A couple weeks into the competition for the starting left tackle spot, Doyle said there’s been separation in the battle between returning starter Braxton Jones and rookie Ozzy Trapilo. But the competition remains wide open.

“There’s a lot of room for improvement in both cases,” Doyle said. “I think (offensive line coach Dan Roushar) addressed that with them in their meeting. Really, it’s about who’s willing to make improvement on that performance and keep accelerating to see who’s gonna be the guy there Week 1.”

Jones started at left tackle in the Bears’ tie against the Dolphins and played in three drives for 24 snaps. Trapilo came in during the second quarter and came back in late in the fourth and played a total of 37 snaps.

Although Jones left the game after he almost allowed quarterback Tyson Bagent to get sacked on his final play, Doyle said his removal wasn’t because of that. He explained that each tackle played a predetermined number of snaps.

Doyle and Johnson have said during training camp that even though they’re not in a rush to name a starter, they would like to know sooner rather than later so the offensive line can build chemistry.

“The tape doesn’t lie,” Doyle said. “It will become clearer and clearer as time goes on that one of those guys is going to separate themselves — in the eyes of the decision makers, of Ben (Johnson), of our front office, of the O-line coaches, of myself. But incomplete evaluation thus far. We still a lot of football left to play.”

Practice notes

Some Bears players returned to the practice field Monday as the team held a 70-minute, unpadded practice. Thirty-four players took part in the practice, most of whom were starters who didn’t play in Sunday’s game.

The first-team offense failed to gain much momentum during team drills. A few passes fell to the ground and there was some miscommunication as conditioning was tested without backup players.

That was on full display in the final situational drill of practice. The offense started a drive near midfield trailing by three points with just under a minute left in the game. Williams picked up a first down with back-to-back completions but then the drill ended with three straight incompletions.

Jones took all of the first team snaps at left tackle. Trapilo didn’t practice.

Injury update

Left tackle Kiran Amegadjie and offensive lineman Bill Murray returned to practice Monday in limited fashion. Amegadjie missed about a week.

The Bears signed running back Brittain Brown on Monday and waived defensive back Ameer Speed due to injury.