Bears coaches continue to gush about Caleb Williams

Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams is used to the spotlight. He’s been in it ever since his freshman season at Oklahoma. He basked in it during his Heisman Trophy season at USC, and he survived the heat of it during a less-than-ideal final year as a Trojan and 2024 NFL draft cycle. Now, he’s the star of “Hard Knocks,” which premiered this week and included at least a suggestion that Williams is experiencing the normal rookie struggles at training camp.

But if you listened to offensive coordinator Shane Waldron and passing game coordinator Thomas Brown talk about the prized first-overall pick, you’d think otherwise.

“When we watch him and watch him go through his reads and his progressions right there, going to where the ball should go is happening way more times than not,” Waldron said Wednesday from Halas Hall. “And some of the things that haven’t worked out have been from just a near miss here or an angle that wasn’t feeling it the right way there. OK, got it. On to the next one. But he has been doing a good job reading with his feet, sticking within progression, recognizing coverage structures. So seeing all those things is what really gives you the confidence moving forward.”

Did you catch that last part? The ‘C” word (not the bad one, the good one). Waldron said Williams is instilling confidence in the coaches that the offense is clicking for him and that he’ll be just fine leading this team despite his inexperience.

Caleb Williams with the Bulls intro.

Somebody find us a brick wall to run through for our QB1.

pic.twitter.com/uEf6sf4fnv

— Barstool Chicago (@barstoolchicago) August 7, 2024

Yep, that’s good news.

And it didn’t stop there. Brown added to the positive messaging by noting Caleb Williams” special qualities.

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“He makes two to three throws every day that are better than most rookie quarterbacks you’ve been around,” Brown said.

Fantastic. It’s the kind of analysis that should have Bears fans jumping for joy. Waldron and Brown are essentially saying Williams has the qualities that special quarterbacks possess. He has a short-term memory, he fixes his mistakes, he’s a fast learner, and, yeah, he makes special throws.

Hopefully, Chicago Bears fans will get their first look at some of those special throws on Saturday in Week 1 of the 2024 preseason against the Buffalo Bills.