The Bears held their first training camp practice Saturday at Halas Hall, a non-contact session that was closed to the public. Here were the day's main developments:
Rookie quarterback Caleb Williams and the No. 1 offense looked sharp.
"Really the whole day, I thought that was a great start for us," said receiver Keenan Allen. "We looked real solid; no repeats and everybody was on the same page.
"[Williams] called the plays way better than he was at OTAs. He felt confident in the plays and knowing what he was doing. There was no timidness from him today."
The offense's precision no doubt reflected the work that Williams did during the five weeks off between the end of the offseason program and the start of training camp.
"We gave him a lot during the spring and in the summer: formation, motion, understanding a concept, run kills, killer to run, killer to pass, alerts," said coach Matt Eberflus. "All those things were a couple levels up, and you could see it. How do you see it? You see it in the execution. They're in and out of the huddle. I think we only had one today where they weren't, and it was much better."
Williams threw the ball with accuracy and conviction. In one 7-on-7 drill, he completed passes to receiver Tyler Scott, tight end Cole Kmet into a tight window and running backs Roschon Johnson and D'Andre Swift. In another drill, he connected with Allen.
"The first day was really good," Eberflus said. "You can see they leveled up. Guys studied, and really the execution was good for the first day, for sure. You could see the preparation really paid off for that."
Building chemistry
Allen and Williams developed a rapport while studying the playbook together when they stayed at the same hotel during the offseason program.
"Just being able to sit there with him, he'd call out the play, I'd draw it up, vice versa, while we're sitting there watching the NBA playoffs," Allen said. "Just being able to go through it with him, we talk about the play—what I like, what I'm used to, what I usually see—and then going over the knowledge, making sure we're on the same page, just being able to communicate at this level. Obviously, you've got new terminology from college and you're going to get different coverages too."
Many of the Bears' skill-position players on offense are veterans. But Allen insists that Williams has no qualms about approaching them and discussing what's transpiring in the classroom or on the practice field.
"He's the quarterback," Allen said. "At the end of the day, it all runs through him. I can see things how I see them. I can be a (jerk) about it, but that's not me. That's not the way I learn the game. That's not the way I play the game. I cater to the quarterback. I'm trying to be his best friend, stuff like that. As long as I get to the spots that he likes at the timing that he likes, then we'll be fine."
By design
As they did in Saturday's practice, the Bears will employ different combinations of players at several positions throughout training camp.
That will certainly be the case with the defensive line, both to give individuals reps at multiple spots and prepare the offense for different looks it will encounter this season.
"You'll see different rush groups in there because four equals one when you're rushing the quarterback," Eberflus said. "So we'll do a lot of that during this process.
"What that does is it gets experience and exposure for all of these guys, especially the quarterback. We're going to give him variations of all coverage, all blitz, everything he sees, fronts, everything he's going to see during the course of the year. And that's by design so he gets that exposure and experience to that."
Health update
Eberflus said that left tackle Braxton Jones and linebacker T.J. Edwards will be limited early in training camp due to injuries they suffered before camp.
"It's nothing major," Eberflus said. "I saw them out there in walk-through. They're moving around, so they're close. We don't know how [long] it's going to be. The training staff will decide that."
Eberflus revealed that the injury that forced veteran tight end Gerald Everett to begin camp on the non-football injury (NFI) list also occurred earlier this summer.
"It's day-to-day and we'll see where it goes," Eberflus said. "It was nothing major."
Eberflus is confident that rookie receiver Rome Odunze will return Sunday after being excused from Saturday's practice due to a personal reason.
Play of the day
One highlight in Saturday's practice came when Williams threw a pass that deflected high in the air off defensive lineman Gervon Dexter Sr. Showing his instincts and athleticism, Williams alertly caught the ball and dashed around right end.
Eberflus told reporters that the quarterback had recently told him that he once played running back and linebacker.
"I said, 'You must be a tough guy,' but he is," Eberflus said. "He's a tough guy and he's got good quickness. You saw that right there. He's got good quickness [and is] obviously a good athlete."
Center of attention
Acquired by the Bears in a trade with the Bills in March, Ryan Bates is impressing at center.
"We ask our centers to have really good movement skills and be very intelligent," Eberflus said. "We run a lot of inside, outside zone. We're jumping to the second level to the linebackers, so they've got to be able to get on them, to stick on them and stay. He has that. And then, the ability to make the calls, move the protections when need be, communicate, be a great communicator – that's what Bates-y does."
