.. been a couple of weeks !!
Bears camp: Caleb Williams steps into middle of first scuffle, fires TD in hurry-up
By Kevin Fishbain and Adam Jahns
5h ago
LAKE FOREST, Ill. — The pushing and shoving didn’t stop between tight end Gerald Everett and defensive ends DeMarcus Walker and Montez Sweat until Caleb Williams stepped in.
That’s right, the rookie quarterback — the No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft — stepped in.
He grabbed Walker and shoved him in the middle of the team period on Friday.
The Chicago Bears’ first padded practice of camp continued after that.
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“It’s good, man,” Walker said. “Obviously, he doesn’t want to see his OGs going at it. But, I mean, it gets raspy out there. It gets rowdy. I’m very proud of Caleb for how he’s been holding himself, and he’s been continually just carving his craft just every single day.”
Sometimes that means showing some leadership and stepping into a burgeoning fracas among his teammates.
“That’s my quarterback,” center/guard Ryan Bates said. “I love that. I love that mentality. He’s got to be smarter, though, because we can’t have that. God forbid anything happens. But I love when he stepped in there and got in the middle of it. That’s who he is. He’s a chippy guy. He wants to get in there. He wants to compete.”
As Bates said, staying healthy remains the priority. Tight end Cole Kmet and others soon pulled Williams away from the kerfuffle as practice resumed.
“We love a little feisty, like getting scrappy,” center Coleman Shelton said. “It’s part of the culture. Knock it forward. We’re always moving forward. We’re moving together. Eleven as one.”
Hurry-up offense
The offense got the ball at the 35-yard line with 80 seconds to go in an end-of-half situation as practice wrapped up Friday. A screen to Roschon Johnson for 8 yards got things started, but the Bears faced a third-and-2 after Williams had to throw the ball away.
On third down, he calmly and quickly got the ball to Rome Odunze, who ran a quick out route against Tyrique Stevenson, for the first down.
One snap later, Williams threw a strike over the middle to Keenan Allen for a big gain. He missed an open Odunze after a coverage gaffe, but then found the end zone when he rolled to his right and connected with Tyler Scott for a touchdown. The second-year wideout had a step on safety Jaquan Brisker and caught the score in the back of the end zone.
In the trenches
With the pads on, we got our first glimpse of the one-on-one pass rush drills. Here are a few notes and observations:
• Sweat kicked things off by beating Darnell Wright around the edge with his speed.
• Bates won his rep against Zacch Pickens with power and good footwork, moving Pickens away from the quarterback.
• Sweat and Dominique Robinson tallied back-to-back wins against Aviante Collins, with Robinson showing off his speed in his rep.
• Rookie Austin Booker showed off an impressive inside move to beat Ja’Tyre Carter.
• Defensive end Daniel Hardy, who flushed Williams from the pocket on his touchdown at the end of practice, continues to flash with his quickness in camp.
One of the highlights of the team drills came on the line. Gervon Dexter judged the snap perfectly and showed his great get-off as he got into the backfield for a tackle for loss.
Rookie punter wows
A slow start for the offense meant the biggest cheer of camp — the first practice open to the public — came in the punting period.
Though, maybe it would’ve anyway, considering what an attraction rookie Tory Taylor is.
Taylor dropped a punt perfectly out-of-bounds at the 1-yard line, drawing enthusiasm from special teams coordinator Richard Hightower and plenty of applause.
“We focused on one thing with him this week, and he delivered above and beyond and executed on that today,” said Hightower, who wouldn’t go into detail about what that was but did say Taylor was “awesome” and showing consistency.
Taylor’s rare abilities have also helped the returners, as have catching punts from left-footed Corliss Waitman.
“Most of the returners right now are talking about the flight of (Taylor’s) ball and how it travels differently,” Hightower said. “Having two punters in camp right now, with Corliss, the spin is different with a lefty punter, as well. They saw Tory’s footballs hang up there quite a bit. They’re both hard to catch. He has a lot of tricks in his bag, like you guys have seen. He’s doing an outstanding job. Our returners are getting better.”
Who will be returning punts?
The Bears have a long list of players vying to be their punt returner. It includes Dante Pettis, DeAndre Carter, Velus Jones Jr. and Greg Stroman Jr. But receivers Odunze and DJ Moore and cornerback Tyrique Stevenson have also been involved.
Odunze’s and Stevenson’s opportunities keep adding up, too.
“Fearless is the No. 1 trait — being fearless as the punt returner,” Hightower said. “And you gotta have confidence. … And then we get on the field, the No. 1 thing is ball security. So we need somebody that is going to take care of the football and give us the best field position. Those are the things I’m looking for.”
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Reacting to ‘Move!’
The first-team offense endured another tough practice as far as getting into any kind of rhythm. There were several false starts, one of which we got a front-row seat to.
Before the snap, defensive tackle Andrew Billings yelled, “Move!” and as the D-line shifted, someone jumped. We heard from Teven Jenkins in the spring about Billings’ ability to mess with the offense with his “move” call, and now we got to hear it.
“Bill’s probably the best in the league at it,” Shelton said. “I’ve played some good amount, and I’ve never heard anything like that before. He’s very emphatic with it. For us, we’ve just gotta key into Caleb’s voice. They don’t sound the same; it’s just that one startles you more than the other.”
Billings has to be careful when he does it in games to not be penalized for messing with the offense, but as frustrating as it might be in practice, Shelton knows it ultimately helps.
“It’s only getting us better,” he said. “It’s an abrupt sound, and it’s something we’ve gotta lock into because we’re going to play away, and there’s gonna be loud noises all the time. It’s something we’ve gotta focus on and just lock in and just listen for Caleb’s voice.”
Unique training activity
What did backup quarterback Tyson Bagent do during the offseason?
“I was grinding my absolute face off,” he said.
What did that entail? Well, on June 19, he did a 1-mile burpee-broad jump. Yes, Bagent and a friend did burpees and broad jumps a half mile from a backyard to a river, and then all the way back.
“I might not be getting better necessarily at football when I’m doing a workout like that,” he said. “However, the mental edge it gives me in finding out what I can endure versus what the next man can endure in a sense gives me a little mental edge when I show up to things like this and people start complaining about our schedule. I (know) somewhere in the back of my head that I have done things far worse than this, that I can handle really anything that’s thrown at me.”
Quick hits
• One of the most productive plays for the first-team offense came on a well-designed and executed tight end screen to Everett.
• Running back Khalil Herbert has had a good start to camp, and while it’s always challenging to evaluate run play, he had a nice cutback for a big gain to start 11-on-11 drills.
• Safety Adrian Colbert intercepted a Bagent pass in team drills. “I threw my first pick today,” Bagent said. “That’s never fun, but it’s great to be able to see what works and what doesn’t work with different coverages and concepts that we’re installing.”
• Defensive end Jacob Martin left practice with an unknown injury.
• Cornerback Kyler Gordon, wide receiver Nsimba Webster and linebacker Noah Sewell were present but not participating. Tight end Marcedes Lewis had a vet day.
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(Photo of Caleb Williams: Quinn Harris / Getty Images)
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