3 Takeaways from the Bears’ joint practice with Bengals

Unfortunately for Chicago Bears fans, Thursday’s open joint practice with the Cincinnati Bengals was rained out. The good news is that the Chicago Bears have opened up not one but two practices for fans next week, even though Thursday was supposed to be the last open session.

The bad news? Fans didn’t see what was a man-handling of the Cincinnati Bengals on both sides of the ball.

Of course, this is just practice. It was raining the entire day, and Ja’Marr Chase was not present. Even with those grains of salt, Bears fans and the team itself have to feel pretty good about the way they’ve played other teams so far this preseason.

With that said, here are the main takeaways from Thursday’s practice.

Caleb Williams garners immediate respect from Bengals reporters.

People who cover the Bengals know better than most what elite quarterback play looks like.

Jeremy Rauch of FOX19 was at Thursday’s practice and said that he “could not have been more impressed with how Caleb Williams looks.” Williams threw an interception early on in 7-on-7 drills, but it sounds like he spent the rest of practice shredding the Bengals’ defense, throwing touchdowns to each of DJ Moore, Keenan Allen, and Rome Odunze in team drills.

Two takeaways in two minutes after watching the entire #Bengals practice in Chicago.

1) The obvious became more obvious.

2) Was it good Bears or bad Bengals? pic.twitter.com/CWBdM2RSjJ

— Jeremy Rauch (@FOX19Jeremy) August 15, 2024

I hate to go back to the last quarterback and draw comparisons at this point, but CHGO’s Greg Braggs had a good take. The last time the Bears held joint practice at Halas Hall was in 2021 with a rookie, Justin Fields. What did beat writers from the other team have to say about Chicago’s quarterback situation then?

Last joint practice at Halas Hall a few years back, @OmarKelly had big questions regarding the Bears QB play.

Jeremy comes here today to see the Bengals and left being most impressed by Caleb Williams.

Bears fans… none of this guarantees anything but damn, it’s exciting. https://t.co/hkyJ6ejhJe

— Greg Braggs Jr. (@GBraggsJr23) August 16, 2024

As Braggs said, there are no guarantees, but no one should blame you for feeling like you’ve finally got the right quarterback.

Maybe iron is sharpening iron, after all.

For years now, there’s been an annual ritual at Halas Hall in August. The defense wins almost every day of practice while some fans and coaches wave it away with the “iron sharpens iron” platitude. Except once the season began, we saw the truth: the offense was genuinely bad. So far, after a preseason game against the Bills and a joint practice with the Bengals, the bumpy practices we’ve seen for the offense of late might genuinely be the result of two really good units facing off against each other every day.

Joe Burrow threw three interceptions in practice on Thursday, which, according to Bengals beat writers, may be the first time he’s ever done that in a practice session. Jaylon Johnson, in particular, was a menace. If Chicago’s defense is feasting off a quarterback like Burrow three times, I can’t wait to see what they can do against lesser competition.

Jay don’t play pic.twitter.com/ObzWx5PK9j

— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) August 16, 2024

Nate Davis might save his job after all.

Much-maligned right guard Nate Davis is finally back at practice this week and told reporters he’s not going anywhere. Regarding fans’ perception that he doesn’t like to practice, he told Peggy Kusinski that he wouldn’t be where he is today if he didn’t like to practice.

I asked #ChicagoBears Nate Davis if its fair the perception that he doesn’t like to practice? He smiled & said No, you don’t get to where he is in his career by not working hard… pic.twitter.com/WdcAEAutcx

— Peggy Kusinski (@peggykusinski) August 15, 2024

Make no mistake: words are cheap. I won’t be moved on Davis until he proves it on the field in the regular season. But Bears fans ought to be open to being proven wrong about Davis. It’s in everyone’s best interest that he silences all the doubters.