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Recapping Bears-Titans Joint Practice | Toyota Talks
Fox Chicago's Devan Kaney is joined by Chicago Sun-Times' beat writer Patrick Finley from Nashville to break down a physical, heated joint practice between the Chicago Bears and Tennessee Titans.
For Caleb Williams and the Chicago Bears, what happened during Thursday’s joint practice with the Tennessee Titans is symbolic of what needs to change in 2026.
Chicago’s offense looked efficient at the start of team drills, with Williams leading the way. The third-year Bears quarterback hit wide receiver Rome Odunze perfectly in stride out of a crossing route. He stepped up in the pocket away from pressure and threw a nifty shuffle pass to tight end Cole Kmet. He completed a tight window throw outside the numbers. Williams hit Kmet for a wide open touchdown on another play.
After the halfway point of practice, though, the tide shifted.
The Bears’ starting offense went nowhere in the first team period after a break. Williams rolled to his left and fired a jump pass that was nearly picked off. He was sacked the next play. A couple deep passes sailed incomplete.
The Bears pulled off a nice trick play at one point — it ended with Williams hitting tight end Colston Loveland on a go route down the left sideline — but a theme in the second half of practice was the former No. 1 overall pick running around a lot.
Williams described one period where Titans defenders were coming "down the middle, right side, left side."
"We have to be able to start like that throughout the year. And then when we come out from halftime, we have to come out better than I’d say we did today," Williams said.
What made the Bears so magical last season was their ability to pull off the spectacular late in games; their seven victories after trailing in the final two minutes of regulation are the most since the 1970 NFL/AFL merger. The other way of looking at it: They didn’t play well at the start of games. Putting four quarters together is the next step for the reigning NFC North champions, who aspire to be in the Super Bowl conversation this season.
Whether that comes to fruition or not depends, of course, on the talented Williams.
Coach Ben Johnson has high expectations for him. The goal is for Williams, who established himself as one of the NFL’s most clutch players last season, to get his completion rate closer to 70% (he was at a subpar 58.1% in 2025) while preserving his explosive play ability.
Johnson said earlier this month that Williams has taken "complete control" of the offense, so he’s at least headed in the right direction. But Johnson wants to see Williams continue to advance in his coverage recognition.
"At times, you have five [receivers] going out in a concept," Williams explained. "Portions of the concept are specific to certain coverages or certain looks. Just not necessarily going one, two, three, four, five [reads]. It’s, ‘OK, we can skip this route because of this coverage or this post-high or they’re split field’ and things like that. It’s just being able to process those things faster.
"If it’s a common concept that everybody runs, I write it down consistently," he continued. "I write down what we like versus [the concept] and what we don’t like every time the play is put in and installed. I’m getting constant mental reps of when I see a coverage or when I see this, it's, 'OK, we don’t like it versus this. Let’s get onto the backside of the concept’ or another route we do like in that concept."
What they're saying:
"He's like a modern day — I don't want to compare the two — but like Russell Wilson. When it got to the fourth quarter, you better be up three scores. There’s no lead safe with Caleb. He's an unbelievable quarterback. He's elite off-schedule. … And the amount of growth he's had in the last year and a half has been amazing. Credit to the coaching staff and all the things they do with him. But he's a stud in every way." — Titans coach Robert Saleh on Bears QB Caleb Williams