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Courtney Cronin, ESPN editor
LAKE FOREST, Ill. – Text notifications started showing up on Chicago Bears quarterbacks coach Kerry Joseph’s phone around 11 p.m. Hours after the Bears finished their first day of rookie minicamp on May 10, Caleb Williams peppered his coach with questions as he began preparing for the next day’s practice.
“He texts me, ‘Hey, why are we doing this here? Why are we blocking him like this? Isn’t it his job to block?'” Joseph said. “He wants to know those answers.
“He’s hungry for it, and you love knowing that, because now he becomes your coach on the field. Once he gets it and learns this whole system, he’ll be a coach on the field.”
The Bears traded former starter Justin Fields to the Pittsburgh Steelers on March 16, almost guaranteeing that they would take Williams with the No. 1 pick on April 25. That gave the former USC Heisman winner a long runway to familiarize himself with the philosophy of new Bears offensive coordinator Shane Waldron, who spent the last three seasons as the Seahawks’ OC.
And Williams took advantage.
“I would say learning,” coach Matt Eberflus said of what impressed him most about Williams. “…Have a beginner’s mindset so you can learn, absorb, ask questions and keep learning.
“That’s what impressed me. If he does that, everything will be fine.”
Williams’ situation is atypical for a QB taken with the No. 1 pick. The Bears are coming off a 7-10 season and they added Pro Bowlers in wide receiver Keenan Allen and running back D’Andre Swift. Since 1950, only eight QBs have recorded double-digit wins in their rookie seasons, and only two of them – Russell Wilson with Seattle in 2012 and Mac Jones with the New England Patriots in 2021 – have inherited a team with at least seven wins. according to ESPN Stats & Information.
The Bears also led the NFL in rushing defense last season, meaning Williams will hold the reins on a team that could be ready for the playoffs.
“We are going to move forward on this at a fairly rapid pace, as we have done before,” Eberflus said. “And I’ve seen his progress.”
INSIDE THE JEANS McKay Center at USC’s pro day in late March, Waldron set up shop to teach Williams various concepts that he would delve into during Williams’ first visit to Halas Hall in April.
In his time off, Williams and his private quarterbacks coach, Will Hewlett, were already familiarizing themselves with the fundamentals of Waldron’s offense, from traditional drop techniques to pace.
Hewlett, who has coached Williams since seventh grade, has a relationship with Waldron through their work with the QB Collective, a consortium of NFL and private quarterback coaches who host camps and workouts for elite high school athletes. Hewlett spoke with Eberflus, Waldron and other Bears coaches at Williams’ pro day to get an idea of what they wanted the quarterback to focus on in the weeks leading up to his draft.
“The reason it’s so unique is that the perfect alignment has to happen where the team has complete confidence that they’re going to pick ‘Player X,'” Hewlett said. “Chicago was completely committed to recruiting Caleb, so when you have that lined up, you can basically get to work before that.
“As soon as we knew that everyone was good at everything, we started moving in that direction in terms of placing the Bears’ terminology, their expectations, Coach Waldron’s expectations from a playing standpoint legs and timing in our training.”
Hewlett called Seahawks quarterback coach Geno Smith to understand the elements of footwork he worked on with Waldron. Throughout April, Hewlett participated in Zoom meetings with Waldron, Joseph and Williams and incorporated educational points from these virtual sessions into his on-the-job training.
“It’s nice to be able to call a thunder road a thunder road, instead of calling it something different there,” Hewlett said.
One of the biggest changes for Williams was the transition from the clapping cadence used by most college quarterbacks to returning to center barking words to time the snap of the ball.
“Understanding how cadence works for that particular team, those are things that if you can understand, it’s so much easier,” Hewlett said. “The learning curve is shorter.”
ON BACK TO BACK For several days at minicamp, Williams was late on throws up the middle during 7-on-7 work, leading to two interceptions and celebrations along the defensive sideline.
Practicing against an experienced defense while Bears coaches encouraged the 22-year-old quarterback to experiment and take risks came with expectations of mistakes.
“I love 7-on-7, where we know there’s no defensive line, there’s no point threat,” Waldron said. “There are a lot of things that aren’t totally realistic to the actual game, but it’s a great opportunity for the quarterback to see what windows he can fit in there.
“It’s a great opportunity to time things with their feet, to see different gaps in a sharp image, the end goal being: OK, let’s bank these reps. What works? What which does not work ?”
Several Bears defenders said it was their responsibility to throw as much at Williams during the offseason to prepare him for any situation he encountered during the season. The disguises and pre-snap moves they showed Williams and the offense got the best of the rookie at times. But there were times when the young quarterback showed the defense why he was selected No. 1 overall.
“You definitely see some things that you don’t really expect a rookie to do,” linebacker TJ Edwards said. “You know, he moved us a few times with his eyes. The first day, me and (linebacker) Tremaine (Edmunds) were excited, but he’s impressive, that’s for sure.”
OFFICIALS ON Participants on the first day of the mandatory June 4 minicamp tossed their flags a half-dozen times during full-team drills. False starts and errors in recovering the ball on time continued to put the Bears offense behind the chains, but those frustrations created a teaching moment for the quarterback and his offensive line.
“One thing we always try to tell him is to talk louder, emphasize like that second ‘hut’ so the defense goes offsides and gets a free play,” left guard Teven Jenkins said . “Those games we had last year. We got a free touchdown for DJ (Moore against Detroit), it was like a free play.
“I’m just making him understand that these voice inflections are very important.”
This is new territory for Williams, who hasn’t used a verbal cadence since high school. Mastering double and triple counts, dummy counts and silent counts is part of his NFL upbringing, which required him to adjust his pre-snap rhythm, switching from looking toward the sideline to receiving the play, hearing it in his headset before communicating it to the rest of the offense.
“I just found the green line,” Williams said. “It’s right in the middle of where we need it so everyone can be on the same page. That’s the most important thing, so the center can hear me, the right tackle, left tackle, right guard, fullback, left guard, wide receiver, everyone can hear me.
“It’s just about finding a balance between all of that, not being too strong on certain plays and that sort of thing, not being too weak, so just working on the practice side, working on it .”
Williams’ training will continue over the summer with plans to hold workouts for both offensive and defensive players. His goal for this trip, which will take place in Florida or California, is to strengthen his on-court chemistry with his teammates and their bonds off the court.
Hewlett said, “I would call him the most prepared and ready-to-be professional I have ever worked with.”
But preparation during the offseason doesn’t always translate to success in the fall. The Bears were convinced that Fields was their franchise quarterback, until he wasn’t. It remains to be seen whether Williams can end generations of quarterback futility in Chicago, but safety Kevin Byard saw a resilience after his younger teammate’s struggles that could bode well for his future.
Byard told him to “keep fighting, keep going, watch the film, get better…and he kind of looked me straight in the eye and said, ‘Of course I will.’
“And it was good to see.”