Caleb Williams looked the part Friday.
In seven-on-seven drills on the back fields at Halas Hall, he completed 13 passes, threw only two incompletions and found DJ Moore for a touchdown.
Just as Williams’ struggles a week earlier came with a caveat — he’s learning a new scheme, and the Bears’ veteran defense isn’t — so, too, did this success.
The drill features no offensive or defensive linemen. Later, cornerbacks coach Jon Hoke joked that “me and you can go play seven-on-seven.” More important: Four of the five starters from the Bears’ defensive backfield were absent from practice for various reasons.
Still, the Bears weren’t apologizing for the rookie’s positive performance.
“I thought seven-on-seven for Caleb was really good,” coach Matt Eberflus said. “I thought he did a really nice job throwing the ball on time. His footwork has improved this whole week. His progress was there.”
Progress remains the watchword as Williams prepares for his first mandatory minicamp next week. The Bears will practice with a full squad Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday before the veterans break for the summer. Young players will stick around for a third week of OTAs the following week.
After two weeks of OTAs, the Bears are happy with Williams’ trajectory.
“I thought this week was better than last week,” Eberflus said. “That’s the positive.”
Eberflus and the Bears’ coaching staff are watching the little things. He needs to learn the plays, sure, but also to master footwork and cadence. He tried a hard count in Friday’s practice with mixed results.
“Just understanding the plays and how his feet are married to those plays, albeit if it’s just normal situations, if it’s a play-action pass or in the red zone when it quickens up a little bit,” Eberflus said. “I think he really improved on that this week, and you could see the ball coming out of his hand pretty live when his feet were right.”
That’s what happened Friday, even if it came against a defense half-filled with backups.
What Williams can do on the run and off-script is well-documented. But he won’t be able to truly improvise until he has the basics down.
“Man, just the talent jumps out at you,” running back D’Andre Swift said. “Somebody that’s willing to learn — that’s first and foremost what jumps out at me.”
Whether Williams has struggled or succeeded during OTAs, his teammates have been impressed by his leadership skills. Linebacker Tremaine Edmunds said Williams was “competing, holding his guys accountable” in practice.
“You could tell he’s trying to get comfortable with the offense and everything, commanding the offense,” Swift said. “You stand in the huddle with a whole new set of faces, new group of guys, so it takes time for somebody to get comfortable and for that to be repetition-like. He’s doing a great job so far.”
There’s no shortcut to learning at this time of year.
“When everything’s new, the offense is new, a new group of guys, it takes repetition for us to be comfortable together,” Swift said. “It’s gonna take time, but he’s doing a great job as far as listening and being vocal with us. It’s definitely taking time.”
On the last day of May, time is something the Bears have in abundance.
The next two weeks will be the last time Williams will be able to practice in relative anonymity. Fans will attend training camp while HBO’s “Hard Knocks” documents his every move inside Halas Hall.
“People always talk about success, and they think it’s a straight line,” Eberflus said. “And success really isn’t that, as we know, because there are bumps in the road. It’s always gonna be here, and then a little bit wavy, and then it’ll be [high]. . . .
“There are some learning moments in there during the course of the week. It wasn’t perfect, but, again, there was progress.”
Edmunds can see it from his vantage point as the quarterback of the defense. He knows that the gains Williams makes will only help a franchise that has long been desperate for a star quarterback.
“He’s competitive,” Edmunds said. “As a rookie, he’s doing some things that are good to see. I think that’s the thing that gets me most excited and I think gets our team most excited.
“Failure is nothing if you look at it as an opportunity to go out there and get better.”
