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1st & North: Caleb Williams' slow start at Bears training camp; Ben Johnson still has faith
On this episode of "1st and North," Lou Canellis and NFC North insiders discuss Caleb Williams's slow start at Bears training camp, other training camps getting chippy (especially in Detroit), and whether the Packers are better off without President Mark Murphy. Then, a new Bear is already throwing stones at the Vikings, and there's speculation that the Packers' new uniforms might have been stolen from the Illini—what do you think?
The Chicago Bears' offense has been improving steadily.
There aren't any more dismal days when the offense goes for entire practices when it struggles to string positive plays. Saturday featured some rough moments, but there were flashes of brilliance that balanced out the issues.
It is good news is the unit is grasping the offense. But, there's still more to go.
With the coaching staff on the back end of its offensive install, Bears offensive coordinator Declan Doyle detailed the next steps for the offense. This includes some of the biggest dates coming up soon.
Timeline:
Johnson hired Doyle to one of his most important staff positions for a reason. Doyle won't be calling plays, but he has one of the most important jobs on the offensive staff, alongside some of the other assistants.
"We’ve got to be able to download a game plan and execute it," Johnson said on May 28. "I think J.T. Barrett is doing a phenomenal job. Declan is a big part of that as well, just figuring out how much install we can push on these guys."
That's been Doyle's focus in training camp, too. He's at the tip of the spear with the offensive install, and the Bears are nearing their last install day.
"We're still in our installation phase," Doyle said. "We have 12 installs. We're through nine and so three more, and then we kind of take a step back. We re-evaluate everything."
Chicago Bears training camp: Caleb Williams details where he's made the most progress in camp
So far, learning the playbook has been a public exercise that many have noted has started slowly. Caleb Williams is undeterred, and detailed where he's had progress so far in training camp.
When it comes to the re-evaluation, Doyle means looking at everything they've put on the offense so far. That's not a small sample size.
Johnson has been adamant the staff is going to throw as much as they can at the offense to see what sticks. This will be the part where the staff can discern what's sticking going forward.
"Here are things that we need to add to that, and then here are things that maybe we don't see ourselves doing," Doyle said. "That's really the timeline would be by the end of next week we're through 12 installs."
From there, it's taking what's making the playbook and using it against other teams. For the Bears, that will include two teams coming to Halas Hall in Miami and Buffalo for joint practices later in August.
Doyle said those practices will provide variety that's valuable to the Bears, especially at this point of the preseason.
"It provides a better environment for our guys to go out and showcase the growth and things like that," Doyle said. "The other thing is you get to play a different scheme than our guys. We play against our guys all the time. We get pretty used to how they play certain things."
Offensive Line Timeline:
The offensive installation is also contingent on one aspect of the Bears' preseason competition.
Who will play left tackle?
This has been the most important position battle of training camp so far, as Kiran Amegadije, Braxton Jones and Ozzy Trapilo will get their shot at first-team reps. All three have taken first-team reps recently.
Eventually, Doyle noted, the team will have to cut down the competition from a three-man race to two.
"We'll have to narrow it down and really focus in on, 'hey, here are the guys that we're going with right now,'" Doyle said. "We're just working through the rotation."
So far, that rotation has seen Trapilo take more of the first-team snaps recently. He took the brunt of the first-team reps Saturday, while Jones took second- and third-team reps. Amegadije was nursing a leg injury on Saturday and didn't practice.
The Bears will have to make a decision soon on that competition, and it wouldn't be much of a surprise to see if the Bears cut that race down after the joint practice with the Dolphins.
"There's a lot of football left to play in the preseason," Doyle said.