Bear Digest

Caleb Williams Gets Another Chance to Show He's Different

It's Bears and Bengals at Soldier Field at noon and Caleb Williams gets a second chance to show he's unlike other Chicago quarterbacks.

Gene Chamberlain

Caleb Williams isn't Justin Fields, but it does not mean he lacks the ability to scramble for yards.
Caleb Williams isn't Justin Fields, but it does not mean he lacks the ability to scramble for yards. / Gregory Fisher-USA TODAY Sports

Cole Kmet has been around a long time.

It might not seem like it but in NFL terms he has. He's been chasing the passes of Bears quarterbacks since Mitchell Trubisky, Nick Foles and Tyler Bray in 2020, Andy Dalton and Justin Fields in 2021, Trevor Siemian, Tim Boyle and Nathan Peterman in 2022 with Fields and then Fields and Tyson Bagent last year.

And now Caleb Williams after an offseason, training camp and first preseason game?

"Yeah, he’s different. Yeah, he's different. For sure," Kmet said.

Chicago fans get their first look in person Saturday at the quarterback who is different—different than Fields, Dalton, Trubisky and the rest. It's a little like the old Sesame Street song, one of these things is not like the others.

The Bears hope the home crowd gets to see the same version of Caleb Williams Saturday who they all saw in Buffalo. He'll be facing backup players, unlike in Buffalo, because coach Zac Taylor says his starters will sit.

In the Bills game, Bears players saw a calm, composed passer who let his playmakers handle it by getting them the ball. They did see a few instances of "hero ball" but not too many.

A week later they were still talking about how much of a competitor Williams is.

"It was cool to see him do his thing out there. When those lights came on, you can see the competitive side of him really come out," Kmet said.

It wasn't always apparent on the practice field because the teaching and learning takes priority there in training camp. When Williams was put in his element, so to speak, his natural competitiveness took over and blended with what he has learned.

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"That was beautiful," defensive tackle Andrew Billings said. "We watch him do what he does in practice. We wanna see it in a game.

"The fact he came out there and did what he did and stayed composed with it, that's all you can ask from him, really."

In 2022, Fields had a big game after he had begun doing breathing exercises. It helped him be more comfortable. 

Williams doesn't need this. He already operates at the comfortable level. Williams' calmness can only increase once he gains more experience.

"I mean just like I said on the game day, honestly, I didn't expect him to be that comfortable," safety Kevin Byard said. "You know what I mean, just his first time being out there. Obviously it's a preseason game. Buffalo. Regular season Buffalo is a hostile place to play, so it was pretty good to watch it.

"Just watching him on the sidelines, just interacting with him, you know, in the locker room. Just even on the road. He just looked real calm, you know what I’m saying? So that's something you want to see out of a young quarterback."

Former Bears defensive coordinator Sean Desai used to like using the word "palpable" for his defense because he wanted teams and even people in the stadium to feel the defense's effect.

Apparently players are seeing this in their new quarterback.

"Yeah, I don't even know if he notices this but his demeanor on the sideline and his demeanor in the huddle was a little different," Kmet said. "Just that game day juices and you could feel his confidence in the huddle in terms of saying the play call and at the line of scrimmage I thought his cadence was great on game day."


It was the cadence when calling signals where Williams had his problems in OTAs and even the beginning of camp.

It was only two drives last week but Kmet felt like Williams even learned from his few bad plays. One was the throw he made that was nearly picked off along the sideline.

"He made that throw to Rome where we got the (pass interference) flag and you see a lot of guys, I think, would be a little hesitant going forward after that but he kept ripping it and kept doing his thing," Kmet said. "His confidence is just unwavering and that was really cool to see."

It's different.

Twitter: BearsOnSI

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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.