{"id":857864,"date":"2026-08-14T13:46:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T13:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/857864\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T13:46:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T13:46:09","slug":"confident-caleb-wlliams-has-bears-flying-high","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/857864\/","title":{"rendered":"Confident Caleb Wlliams has Bears flying high"},"content":{"rendered":"

LAKE FOREST, Ill. — If the goal of Tuesday\u2019s lengthy, humid practice was to \u201ccreate evidence\u201d for Ben Johnson and his coaching staff to know where the Bears stand at the halfway point of training camp, Caleb Williams<\/a> gave his head coach exactly what he was looking for.<\/p>\n

Towards the end of the near two-hour session, Williams and the offense began the final move-the-ball period backed up at their own 1-yard line. Like majority of practice, this exercise was completely off-script, with the objective for Williams\u2019 unit to convert two first downs to win the drill.<\/p>\n

One play after Dillon Thieneman<\/a> blitzed off the edge and nearly ran Williams out of the back of the end zone, the quarterback slipped through a gap as he felt pressure to his right and fired off pass to Rome Odunze<\/a>, who scampered 58 yards down field on a catch-and-run.<\/p>\n

Moments later, Willams briefly lost Scotty Miller<\/a> — \u201cthat\u2019s what happens when you\u2019re on the shorter end,\u201d Williams quipped — before he caught a glimpse of the veteran wide receiver streaking open on a crossing route and ripped the ball for another big gain to win the drill.<\/p>\n

It was an exclamation point on the type of practice Williams said the Bears needed; one that helps build callouses for an offense looking to continue its late-game dominance from a year ago when it became the first team in NFL history to pull off a total of seven fourth-quarter comebacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s taken complete control of what we\u2019re trying to do, and so we\u2019re on the right track,\u201d Johnson said. Williams\u2019 search for consistency through the Bears\u2019 first 11 practices has been a focal point of camp. The quarterback who had to curtail the urge to text his head coach throughout the offseason as he eagerly awaited the start of their second year together was red hot during the opening stretch of camp.<\/p>\n

His operation from the huddle to the snap was crisp. His connections with Odunze, Colston Loveland<\/a>, Luther Burden III<\/a> and Kalif Raymond<\/a> showed what this offense is capable of at full strength. Just about every practice featured a \u201cwow!\u201d moment from Williams, who showed up to camp down 10-15 pounds and with sky-high confidence.<\/p>\n

Then came the lull, to which Johnson shouldered some responsibility. It wasn\u2019t as if the issues that routinely plagued Williams last training camp were resurfacing. Unlike a year ago, the quarterback hardly felt like he was drowning. Having his head above water meant surviving an intense installation period designed to see how much the quarterback can handle.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose first four practices I thought were really, really good, and then as the volume has continued to go up — and it\u2019s my fault as much as anything, just because I think I\u2019ve put in more this year on offense than I did a year ago by design,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cI want it to feel like a lot right now — that there\u2019s been a level of plateau up to this point. Now that things will slow down from an installation point, I think we\u2019re going to see him continue to go on the upswing.\u201d<\/p>\n

By every account, Tuesday\u2019s practice snapped that lull. Even in the areas where Williams still seeks improvement, like with his accuracy, the quarterback\u2019s growth is tangible in different areas. While the Bears built themselves into the kings of the fourth quarter, the offense\u2019s ability to score before halftime was an issue in 2025. Most practices end with the team repping crunch-time moments with situations that force the offense into hurry-up mode and the two-minute drill.<\/p>\n

On Aug. 8, Williams delivered one of those wow moments during an end-of-half situation. With the offense facing a third-and-10 with 12 seconds until halftime, Williams bought time when dropping back before throwing a 17-yard laser to Odunze, who high-pointed the ball between two defenders in the back of the end zone for a touchdown.<\/p>\n

Mastering moments like these allows Williams to fulfill Johnson\u2019s objective of throwing as much as he can at the quarterback in film and walkthrough sessions to see what he can retain and execute at full speed on the practice field.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne, it takes reps,\u201d Williams said. \u201cThat\u2019s always important. I think, two, it takes a bit of failure, it takes a bit of maybe plateauing and going up and down. Taking one step up, one step down and kind of being at the same level trying to figure things out so that when you get to the season, now you\u2019re rolling. When you get to the season, the confidence is there.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you get to the season, it\u2019s everything is coming together and like I said, that\u2019s the point of this moment, this time, being able to go out there and fail. Go out there and come back to the film room and correct it and go out there the next day in walkthrough or whatever it is and get out there and correct it and get it right so that Coach has the proper confidence in myself but also the team to be able to go out there on game days.\u201d<\/p>\n

But nothing carries a bigger endorsement for where Williams is at this point of training camp than how Johnson sees an extension of himself on the field. Rather than coaches leading the charge in afternoon walk-throughs from practice hours before, players, particularly Williams, are now focusing on where corrections need to be made.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe certainly is leading that charge,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cHe knows when it\u2019s not good enough; he\u2019s huddling us back up and let\u2019s get it right.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt that in practice [the other day] too. You guys might\u2019ve noticed it; we broke the huddle and things weren\u2019t quite right and he\u2019s regrouping us. So, I think that\u2019s a huge step in the right direction. I know those guys really value what he has to say. They\u2019re getting extra reps when the horn is done for the day and continuing to working on hooking up in the passing game with all the pass catchers, and that\u2019s only going to pay dividends down the road.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAKE FOREST, Ill. — If the goal of Tuesday\u2019s lengthy, humid practice was to \u201ccreate evidence\u201d for Ben…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":857865,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[49,142674,48,134662,514,82],"class_list":["post-857864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-ca","tag-caleb-williams-sports-football-player-player-statscom-1286445","tag-canada","tag-chicago-bears-sports-football-team-team-statscom-326","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=857864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857864\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/857865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=857864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=857864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=857864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}