Bear Digest

Caleb Williams Has Priorities in Order Heading Into Opener

Bears rookie QB is less worried about style and more worried about the end product as the opener with Tennessee Titans approaches.

Gene Chamberlain

Caleb Williams on What He's Learned and Why He's Ready.mp4
Caleb Williams on What He's Learned and Why He's Ready.mp4 /
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Caleb Williams' confidence has run high since his arrival at Halas Hall, and facing the Tennessee Titans in the opener hasn't exactly diminished it.

The first pick in this year's draft believes he can produce in Sunday’s opener even though history says first picks rarely win their starting debuts. The Bears are no less confident in Williams.

Whether it’s been working against an established defense daily or the coaching staff’s messages, Williams hardly seems the brash player he was depicted as coming out of USC. Winning, he says, is a matter of sticking to the plan and remembering what he’s learned since practices began.

In other words, no hero ball unless totally necessary.

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"Yeah, I've said this since I've come here, we got a top-5 defense, we just drafted a punter in the fourth-round I believe. we got Cairo, Mr. Santos, we have, like I said, this amazing defense, we got special, special guys at wide receiver,” Williams said. “We got a special running back. Our offensive line, I believe our run game has been top five past two or three years and so it's what I said when I was first drafted or around that time.  I'm going to do whatever I need to do for my team to win.

“Like I spoke about earlier, handing the ball off, leaning on my guys if that's dropping back throwing the ball 30 times. That's doing that. It's leaning on my talent.”

It could be Williams simply has witnessed how little he knew coming into the league, but he knows now he doesn’t know it all.

Facing the Bears defense every day might have brought him down to this realization.

"I think that the way that we practice, I don’t think there’s many teams that practice the way we do. And so I think being able to go versus the defense like this and how tough they are on QBs and things like that, going through this and all of that, I think it’s going to help me," Williams said. "Obviously there’s going to be times when I do struggle but when those times come you know how to kind of get back on track, you know how to react and things like that in those moments and I think going against this defense every day has helped.

“So, I think that's the biggest adjustment that everybody has to understand or least I've come to that, is that the rookies don't have as much knowledge,” Williams said. “So you have to find ways to be a lot more on time and you have to know your offense in and out. From there you can grow and things like that."

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This doesn't mean Williams is now a "checkdown Charlie." He'll still try to make plays, but he says he knows his limitations.

“As they always say, things will start slowing down at whatever point that may be," he said. "When you know all your stuff, you catch up to the speed of your guys, know your stuff, knowing when routes are going to break and not holding and sitting on routes as a QB is really important.

"If it's not there, if you thought it was not what you thought it was going to be, move on to the next route or move on to the check down.”

This is the music Matt Eberflus’ ears have wanted to hear since the staff started working with Williams. Coaches haven't tried to coach the gambling out of Williams but have tried to coached realization of game situations into him.

Perhaps the best lesson Williams has learned is the only thing important when the final gun goes off. He’s even going to be willing to let the running game do its work if need be.

“You know, if we come out and decide that the offensive line is dominating and wide receivers are dominating blocks, we're extending runs and things like that, coach always talks about back side wins championships, front side wins games and things like that,” Williams said. “So if we got guys out there giving that type of energy and we're handing the ball off and we're getting, I don't know, 5 (yards) a pop, I mean, it's hard to beat that.

“And so, one, you control the game, control the clock, all these different things, keeping their offense off the field and a bunch of different things. If that's the case, that's the case. As long as we get a win. Because last time I remembered, the wins are the most important thing. And so as long as we get that win, at the end of the day, 100 yards, 400, it all becomes the same.”

It might not make fantasy football owners happy, but 53 players in the Bears locker room would be. So would Eberflus.

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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.