Bear Digest

Is Matt Eberflus Doing the Right Thing Sitting Out Starters?

Analysis: Caleb Williams, other rookie starters, and new veterans in the Bears offense can use the play reps in preseason but they're watching the preseason opener for better or worse.

Gene Chamberlain

Caleb Williams on Strength and Weakness (2).mp4
Caleb Williams on Strength and Weakness (2).mp4 /
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For now, it's a case of in Flus they must trust.

Coach Matt Eberflus' plan to hold Caleb Williams and all the starters out of Thursday's Hall of Fame Game in Canton, Ohio could conjure up plenty of haunting memories for Bears, fans when player missed huge chunks of preseason or all of it and seemed unprepared when the regular season began

The 2019 regular-season opener comes to mind first, after Matt Nagy held quarterback Mitchell Trubisky and other offensive players out through all the preseason games. They played four exhibitions that year, just like the Bears will this season because of the extra preseason game. Then the Bears flopped in the opener with a 10-3 loss at home to Green Bay before going on to a non-descript 7-9 season.

It's strange because Nagy was never a big preseason proponent until his job seemed to be on the line going into 2021, and then he not only got Justin Fields extensively playing time, but he was allowed to throw 49 passes.

There are many philosophies on how to use quarterbacks in preseason, and giving veterans too much playing time never seems to make much sense. However, the rookies need the reps and Eberflus acknowledges this much.

Last year a rookie quarterback did get the most passing game reps as Tyson Bagent threw 29 times. Fields threw only nine times in his third preseason.

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The Bears play the Texans in the Hall of Fame Game and last year's quarterback sensation, C.J. Stroud, threw only 20 preseason passes. Bryce Young threw 24 for the Panthers.

A quarterback Williams most often gets compared to, Indianapolis' Andrew Luck, threw 62 passes in preseason. There's no way Williams is doing this with just three games left after this week.

"However, with three preseason games remaining it's easy for the Bears to find enough chances for Williams to become sharper. That may not be entirely in games, as they practice one day against the Bengals.

"You always got to look at the health of your team, as I stated before," Eberflus said. "That can change. That can adjust.

"I do know that we're getting a lot of good reps in practice. Those are also equally as valuable. And the Cincinnati work is going to be equally as valuable as those games because there you can run some more things and you're doing some different things there and you can play … it's good (first team) on good (first team) there."

For now, it's going to be a case of trusting Eberflus' better judgment that enough snaps can be gleaned from the other three preseason games to have his rookie QB ready.

The same goes for their entire offense because the offensive line has altered like it has so often over the past two seasons. With Nate Davis gone, both the center combatants—Coleman Shelton and Ryan Bates—are with starters, Bates moving over to Davis' right guard spot. The line needs to build cohesion. Continuity through reps together is desirable and something the Bears haven't been able to achieve either of the last two seasons.

Eberflus acknowledge there will be long faces about not seeing Williams or even some of the new starters like Keenan Allen and Rome Odunze on the field.

"Yeah, I mean, obviously the passion that the Chicago fans have is second to none," Eberflus said. "It's the best in the world. That's why I'm always mindful of decisions that we make, to make sure that the experience is good for them out here. We want to have good passion, good hard work and they can see how we're working to prepare for the first game.

"But you always have to put in the front of your mind the safety and health of your football team to get ready for that first game. So it is a balancing act, but I think you can do both."

They've seen it work out poorly either way, so at this point they may be willing to take it on faith Eberflus knows what he's doing.

The bottom line is getting Williams and the offense to the starting gate against Tennessee and not showing of in meaningless games.

Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven

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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.