Refreshed and reinvigorated, the Bears returned to work Monday at Halas Hall looking to pick up where they left off before their bye week.
While the defense has not allowed more than 21 points in any game this season—extending its streak to 12 contests dating back to last year—the offense's marked improvement has been the most positive development so far in 2024. It's a major reason the Bears (4-2) will take a three-game winning streak into Sunday's road showdown against the Commanders (5-2).
Led by emerging rookie quarterbackCaleb Williams, the unit has scored five touchdowns in back-to-back games for the first time since 1956 and has tallied at least 35 points in consecutive contests for the first time since 2013.
While the offense has performed well in spurts sinceCole Kmet arrived in 2020, the Bears tight end feels that the success is sustainable due primarily to Williams.
"For me, it's hard not to say the quarterback," Kmet said. "The quarterback looks really good. He's super talented and can do a lot of really good things with his legs and with his arm. The things he does in the pocket as a rookie are really impressive.
"I think those are the things you look at that you can rely on week-to-week, whether that's the intermediate or short passing game. I think Caleb has done a really good job with that. There are a lot of other elements to it, protecting and all that. But I think Caleb has a knack for playmaking."
Since Week 4, Williams leads the NFL with a 122.8 passer rating and a 74.1 completion percentage. In his last two games, he's posted the two best passer ratings by a Bears rookie quarterback since 1970: 126.2 in a 36-10 win over the Panthers at Soldier Field and 124.4 in a 35-16 victory over the Jaguars in London.
"You can really see the improvement through the course of the weeks," said coach Matt Eberflus. "I always say that every unit faces its difficulties every single week. It could be a pass rusher. It could be scheme. It could be certain players that threaten your particular unit, offense, defense, special teams. And I think he's learning that as we go. I think he's learned to do a good job in the noise to work through those things and also just the basic operation of good quarterbacking. And you can see that with the way he's executed the last few weeks."
Williams has helped the Bears offense score 15 touchdowns in its last 13 quarters after the unit mustered only one TD in the first 11 quarters of the season.
Even with the recent success, Kmet knows that the offense can and must improve.
"We still have a lot of work to do," he said. "In the run game there are still things we need to clean up. Pass game-wise, there's still a lot. In our protection game, still things we can be better at, and I think you look at the film and there's actually some big mistakes that we need to correct.
"Once we go against these better teams in the NFL and we start vying to make a playoff push here as the season continues, we have to get those things dialed in. There's definitely a lot to improve on, but as we keep playing here we know our schedule is going to get tougher and tougher, the margins are just going to continue to get more thin and we've definitely got to be on our stuff if we want to come out ahead in those type of games."
Injury update
Eberflus revealed Monday that safety Jaquan Brisker remains in concussion protocol. The third-year pro sustained the injury Oct. 6 in the Bears' win over the Panthers and sat out the victory over the Jaguars in London.
"He's got a couple more steps to go, but it looks good," Eberflus said.
The Bears coach added that nickel back Kyler Gordon is "working through" his hamstring injury and that cornerback Tyrique Stevenson and long snapper Scott Daly attended Monday's walk-through practice.
Super sub
Kmet never dreamed he'd win an NFC special teams player of the week award, but that honored was bestowed upon him after he took over long snapping duties against the Jaguars when Daly exited in the first quarter with a knee injury.
"I think there might be some pretty [ticked] off long snappers throughout the league, but yeah, I'll take it," Kmet said with a laugh. "Pretty cool and obviously a cool award to get regardless. Just kind of makes that day a little more memorable."
