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Lou and Chris break down the first few days of Chicago Bears training camp
Three days of Chicago Bears training camp practices are in the books. Chris Kwiecinski and Lou Canellis discuss what's happened on the field so far.
The first two days of practices for the Chicago Bears training camp featured offensive struggles. The first team had little to be genuinely excited about.
On Friday, the offense rallied after a dismal start to the day.
On Saturday, the offense showed they're putting it all together, one rep at a time.
The first week of Bears' camp concluded with the Bears' offense looking much better compared to the early days. Caleb Williams wasn't perfect, but he looked in control.
Big picture view:
In the latter part of practices, Williams led the first-team offense down the field for a touchdown in a situational drill.
The Bears' offense started behind midfield, but moved quickly past it with a short pass to D'Andre Swift who took the ball well into plus-territory with yards after the catch. Williams led the offense to the red zone, and found Rome Odunze for a touchdown with a back-shoulder throw.
The only major issue was a bad delay of game penalty the offense took near the red zone. Williams was able to shake it off, and the new lessons he's taking in align with his strength.
"There really isn't a ton of carryover from what he was asked to do; the play calls or anything of that nature," Bears head coach Ben Johnson said. "He's always been very comfortable as a shotgun quarterback going back to college. And even last year, he's very comfortable in a two-minute setting."
Johnson said he knows Williams is playing a bit slower than he's used to. But, going slower will help him pick up the offense when there's a need to be more surgical instead of going with his instincts first.
Williams has shown how he's better in moments where he takes some of the pre-snap steps away and rely on his talent alone. However, the two-minute drills only happen about twice a game.
"He's very comfortable with tempo-type plays," Johnson said. "Now, we're asking him to be a little bit more structured in terms of the play calls. Sometimes, there's multiple calls, there's shifts, there's motions, there's a lot more going on mentally than probably there's ever been for him. At some point, this thing will start slowing down and he's going to be able to catch up and his physical ability will take over from there."
What does help is that Williams has a year of experience under his belt.
"I think he understands what a training camp is going to be about. He knows what a game week is going to look like," Johnson said. "There are some things that hopefully the anxiety level goes down because, ‘oh, okay. I know what to expect now.’ But there's a lot that is different than what there was for him a year ago."
Now, Williams is starting to put it together. The offense should follow soon.
All the issues the Bears had early on never got to the players or the staff.
"We’re not frustrated at all," Johnson said. "We’re right where we need to be."
Dig deeper:
Colston Loveland got to work with the offense in 7-on-7 drills for the first time in camp, showing he's slowly progressing towards full action.
Braxton Jones participated with the second-team offense in 11-on-11 drills. Darnell Wright was given a rest day, and Theo Benedet practiced with the first-team at right tackle. He also got looks working at left tackle. In the first-team situational drills, Ozzy Trapilo was at left tackle with the first team.
Doug Kramer left practice after suffering an injury.