Bear Digest

Last Obstacle to Training Camp Cleared as Caleb Williams Signs

The Bears rookie passer has officially signed his contract and will be available for practices without the problem a rookie holdout can present at training camp.

Gene Chamberlain

The Bears will have Caleb Williams in camp practicing after agreeing to terms on his rookie deal for $39 million.
The Bears will have Caleb Williams in camp practicing after agreeing to terms on his rookie deal for $39 million. / Kamil Krzaczynski-USA TODAY Sports
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The Bears on Tuesday avoided all the unpleasantries of an actual training camp holdout by getting first pick Caleb Williams to agree to contract terms.

Reports by Ian Rapoport of NFL Network and Adam Schefter of ESPN say the first pick of the draft has agreed to sign his rookie contract worth $39 million over four years, with a fifth-year option. Rapoport said the bonus is $25.5 million.

Williams officially signed the deal on Wednesday afternoon.

The signing allows the Bears to have their starting quarterback available for practices when they begin Saturday and avert any hostilities resulting from an unusual contract negotiation that results from Williams not having an agent.

Williams and No. 9 pick overall Rome Odunze had been among five unsigned first-round picks and seven total picks who hadn't signed as of Tuesday, the reporting day for rookies.

Now they'll join the other three Bears draft picks and 15 undrafted rookies at Halas Hall in going over the playbook and refreshing memories from offseason work in advance of Friday's reporting date for veterans.

The only pressing matter yet unresolved for Bears GM Ryan Poles then is whether to bring in another veteran pass rusher from among several available free agents. One of those is their own free agent, Yannick Ngakoue.

Williams hadn't been represented by an agent in the contract negotiations, if they can be called this. The CBA and what is essentially slotted rookie salary spots has prevented many holdouts or actually give and take from players and NFL managements over the last 14 years.

There had been great anxiety over Williams' situation because he had already proven a maverick of sorts by refusing to take the normal combine physicals in February/March.

The only real reason for concern was the Bears have an early start to camp because they play Aug. 1 in the Hall of Fame Game at Canton, Ohio against Houston.

Now the only quarterback from the draft class still unsigned is J.J. McCarthy, Minnesota's first pick at No. 10 overall.

As the USC rookie left spring workouts in June, coach Matt Eberflus described what had been done to get him ready for this moment, and what they had given him to study over the break.

"I think a good coach sets it up for his players and we do that," Eberflus said. "We set it up for him. We give him the tools to use. And again, it's on their own time and all that, but I think you give him the keys to the car, but you also show him how to drive. And that's what a good coach does."

The Bears are about to see what kind of driver Williams became in his time away, and then get him ready to negotiate the hazards of an NFL season.

Williams, himself, said before leaving that the offense won't have a polished look yet.

"Whether it's Game 1, Game 17, Game 21, whatever the case may be there's always a work-in-progress," he said. "That's the reason why you may play really well one week and, then the next week, you don't play as well.

"It's always a work in progress. The progress always shows in the work that you had before the season, but also throughout the season."

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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.