Bear Digest

Back-to-Back Picks for Caleb Williams from Bears Backups

Tracking the Bears at Camp: Caleb Williams had a Saturday practice with several big throws but he also had back-to-back interceptions and had to battle back from that disappointment.

Gene Chamberlain

Tyler Scott on Chasing Caleb Williams' Throws.mp4
Tyler Scott on Chasing Caleb Williams' Throws.mp4 /
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Getting intercepted by a third-string player is one thing. Getting intercepted by two of them on successive plays is quite the other.

Caleb Williams is no different than any rookie quarterback. The successes in practice on a daily basis at training camp will be accompanied by rough times until they attain the desired level or fail.

As they so often say, it's how you bounce back from adversity that counts.

On Saturday, Williams hit as rough a stretch of plays as he has had, but in the same practice he also produced some of his more picturesque plays.

Caleb Williams tries to get off a pass during quarterback pass rush drills in training camp at Saturday's Bears practice.
Caleb Williams tries to get off a pass during quarterback pass rush drills in training camp at Saturday's Bears practice. / David Banks-USA TODAY Sports

"I thought he responded well. I thought he responded well," Bears coach Matt Eberflus said. "When you throw an interception, what is your response?"

In this case, it depended on which interception he was talking about.

Reserve safety Adrian Colbert picked off Williams in 7-on-7 on a throw over the middle for D'Andre Swift. On the next play, Williams went even deeper in the middle for tight end Cole Kmet and undrafted rookie DB Reddy Steward plucked it.

Adding insult to injury, Williams threw an out pass to wide receiver DeAndre Carter on the following play and Carter had it in his hands but dropped it.

"I thought he responded well in 7-on-7 after those plays and again we were doing all downs today so we were doing situational football, third and fourth down, quad zone stuff so I thought the response was good," Eberflus said.

There were high points, and Williams was hardly alone in throwing a pick. After backup Tyson Bagent noted he had only thrown his first interception of camp on Friday, he followed Saturday with an interception by Micah Baskerville/

Williams did drop one in over the zone to the sideline for 30 yards to Cole Kmet.

In the situational work Eberflus spoke about, Williams' best play might have been one producing 3 yards. In a game, the play might have gone for much more, but the officials working the practice called the throw to Roschon Johnson a short gain.

What made it special was T.J. Edwards blitzed and seemed to have Williams dead to rights. Williams stepped outside the pocket and on the dead run hit Johnson for the 3-yard gain but the catch made in the open field never would have gone for 3 yards in a game. Johnson easily could have rumbled for 20 or 25 more yards given his ability to break tackles.

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Williams again enjoyed some success at the start of the two-minute drill with completions to Keenan Allen, Johnson and Gerald Everett to pick up a pair of first downs, but the march ended on downs. The Bears had wide receivers DJ Moore on the sidelines during the drive and also had Allen there after his catch.

The timing of the passes seemed off compared with some earlier practices.

"Yeah, obviously you don't have your best players out there," Eberflus said. "I evaluate it and I told the quarterbacks afterward, you have to make it gamelike so you have to be able to feel the rush, feel the rush and deliver the ball in a timely fashion.

"Again, sometimes the protection is good and you can ride the pocket, ride the wave and deliver your strikes down the field but you have to be able to feel those things and then deliver the ball on time."

Best Policy

At least wide receiver Tyler Scott is honest. After his third beautiful long TD reception of camp on Friday, Saturday he described how he did it. He ran the wrong route.

"Well I actually ran the wrong concept there, so that was actually my first missed assignment I believe of all camp," he admitted. "So it's kind of bittersweet for me."

Brisker called it a case of Williams making the play by putting the ball up and out where even Jaquan Brisker in coverage thought it would go out of bounds.

"That was really all on Caleb just throwing me a great ball, throwing me open, really,” he said.

Lining Up

Linebacker Noah Sewell was in uniform but not taking part in team practices after he'd been out with an undefined injury. Guard Nate Davis, injured throughout offseason work, had made it through the first four days of practice and the first padded practice without injury issues. But he missed Saturday due to what Eberflus referred to as "tightness." It mean moving around the interior of the offensive line and playing center Ryan Bates at guard while Coleman Shelton played center on a day when he was supposed to play there anyway. Cornerback Kyler Gordon missed his fourth straight practice with an unspecified injury.

Gervon Dexter continues to take a few plays in practices at end rather than only at tackle. He enjoyed a strong day at 3-technique stopping the run, as did backup defensive tackle Byron Cowart.

Mano a Mano

One of the more popular drills for fans returned for a good crowd on a Saturday when the general public was allowed in to watch for the second time. That was the one-on-one passing drill, with the defensive back trying to stop a receiver and Caleb Williams or one of the other QBs throwing. It's difficult to defend a full field man to man but Jaylon Johnson had probably the prettiest pass breakup of the day. Keenan Allen faked him and got behind him but Johnson recovered in time to knock a deep ball away

Prior to that, Velus Jones beat Jaylon Jones on a deep ball in the end zone while lunging forward. Rome Odunze beat Josh Blackwell so well that Blackwell fell, then was walking gingerly. He returned to practice later, but at the end when starters were on the field he was not at slot cornerback and Greg Stroman was. The two are replacing Kyler Gordon.

Kicking Himself

If anyone had a worse practice than Williams and Bagent, it had to be kicker Cairo Santos. On a rare off day, Santos missed three straight times on tries from 53 yards to end a two-minute drill Bagent engineered. The first kick doinked off the right upright, the second one was a dud that barely got to the back of the end zone short of the mark. And the last one was wide right.

Third Man In

The quarterback who enjoyed the best situational sequence was third QB Brett Rypien. He threw a perfect back-shoulder pass to 6-foot-6 Collin Johnson for 30 yards to the 3 and on the next play Ian Wheeler powered in for the TD run.

Not done yet, Rypien engineered another scoring surge with a 20-yard pass to Carter over cornerback Terell Smith.

Best Hits

Khalil Herbert lowered a shoulder on the second day of padded practice as he headed upfield on a short pass and annihilated Colbert, who was caught a bit out of position and off-balance.

Carter did the same on a kick return to cornerback Greg Stroman. As Carter tried bringing it back in the new kick return formation and exploded forward to the hole, Stroman had just come off of a block and was off balance. The loud collision knocked Stroman to the turf. And the worst part for Stroman? He had been on the coverage team trying to stop Carter, but as soon as he was knocked down he had to get back up and run down to the end zone to field kickoffs  himself with the other return men.

Visitor

Former Alabama coach Nick Saban was spotted at Halas Hall earlier this week for Tuesday's practice.

"Yeah, he was here visiting me," Eberflus said. "I texted him right after he retired and I said anytime you want to come up and visit coach, please do. He did that. He came up and was visiting and we spent about 2 1/2 hours together."

Eberflus was a linebacker on Saban's 1990 Toledo Rockets team.

"I gleaned a lot of information and a lot of wisdom from him and it was great to see him," Eberflus said of the 72-year-old Saban. "He's been a mentor of mine for a long time. We were together back in 1990 and have stayed in touch the entire time. He's a special man and a special leader."

The conversation: "We talked a little bit about family and of course we ended up spending about 30 minutes talking about coverages. That's something we always do."

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

BearDigest.com publisher Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.