Bear Digest

Matchup Big for Caleb Williams Whether Jayden Daniels Plays or Not

The Washington Commanders QB missed Wednesday's practice but Caleb Williams looks forward to Sunday's game against his hometown team and it has meaning regardless.

Gene Chamberlain

Caleb Williams looks downfield against the Jaguars. He looks to continue his progress facing Jayden Daniels' team Sunday.
Caleb Williams looks downfield against the Jaguars. He looks to continue his progress facing Jayden Daniels' team Sunday. / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
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Caleb Williams is going back home to Washington DC for what might be a showdown against the No. 2 pick in the draft, Jayden Daniels.

Or, at least it used to be his home. And it might be against Daniels or might not.

The part about the game back in his hometown Williams gets. The part about facing the team Daniels plays for registers. Facing off against Daniels? Not so much.

"My job is to go win games on Thursdays, Sundays and Mondays. That's it," Williams said.

The hype will be there for No. 1 vs. No. 2 draft picks nonetheless, or at least until the Commanders announce Daniels isn't playing due to his rib injury. Daniels did not practice on Wednesday.

It's not that Williams lacks a competitive side and pays no attention at all to the No. 1 vs. No. 2 draft build-up for Sunday's 3:25 p.m. game at Northwest Stadium.

"Yeah, it's been pretty cool watching him," Williams admitted. "His progress from Arizona State to LSU to now in the pros balling out."

Williams realizes the comparisons will continue being made, maybe throughout his career.

"Obviously he's on the same side, the NFC side, so I'll be seeing him a good amount I would say," Williams said. "We'll see from this game and in the future.

"I think it's going to be great for us and the battle between us is what (reporters) want to kind of talk about. But my job is to go out there and win the game for the Chicago Bears."

Although he's not too into all the hype, Williams definitely doesn't want to see Daniels miss the game with the injury.

"I hope he plays," Williams said. "Obviously you don't wish to see wish to see good and great players down, not in games. It only makes the game better."

A bigger connection for Williams is the tie to Commanders offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury, who he said was coaching him last year on his future NFL career more than on how to succeed at USC in his final year.

"Great guy. Great coach," Williams said. "If you go and ask all the guys over there at the Red ... Commanders now—sorry, I've known them as the Redskins all my life growing up there, but the Commanders—you go over there and ask all the players, they say they love him probably because he’s a players coach.

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Knowing him and knowing how much he loves football, it brings joy to his players. I've texted him back and forth every once in a while 'great game,' this and that and he’s done the same. It’s been cool building that relationship with him in college and then obviously being a pro about to go play against him."

Visits to the Washington area have been rare for Williams since he started college, so it will be important to him from that standpoint.

"I've been back, I'd say, since I left high school, I haven't been back other than one or two times, so being able to go back and share that experience is going to be great, is going to be fun, and to come out with a win is going to be most important," Williams said.

Williams has used up his ticket allotment for the game to get those in who want to see him playing back home.

All of this will be much more meaningful for Williams because of the way he has come on over the last four games, with nine touchdown passes after a slow start his first two games. He and teammates credit this with the way the offense took off after a meeting in which players asked offensive assistants if they could be coached harder.

It led to a more fluid attack.

"Just really, the continuity in terms of communicating with the receivers, with the line, and being on the same page and just really focusing on the detail, that started about a month ago where we started to really focus on the details," Williams said. "The guys understood the offense and we adjusted a little bit as we went, of course, and we're still doing that.

"We're still finding our winning way and the best way for that particular week to win that particular game, but really just the connection. You've got to have that and that's all part of the relationship we talk about and communicating with each other to get it right. Doesn't mean, if it's your idea, that's great. But it doesn't have to be your idea it's got to be the right idea and we've gotta execute at a high level."

The result of the meeting was better Bears practices, even the non-contact ones.

"Walk-throughs done got real detailed," wide receiver DJ Moore said. "If you're not out there doing the right thing it will be seen and we're going to re-do it and that's what really has been the difference right now."

It's help make for a potential marquee matchup. If Williams came in with a passer rating in the low 50s like he had after two games, fewer people might be interested. The game still probably would have been flexed to a 3:25 p.m. start like it has.

No, if only Daniels gets to play.

Otherwise, it will be the No. 1 quarterback in the draft against Marcus Mariota instead of Daniels.

"Of course, they're different types of players in terms of who they are quarterback-wise but, again, our plan will be our plan and we'll adjust," Bears coach Matt Eberflus said. "We'll have contingency plans for that, for who's in there.

"But we're gonna stick with what we're doing."

It will just look so much more interesting if it's against the No. 2 QB in the draft.

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.