Will Bears QB Caleb Williams play in preseason games? Ben Johnson has a decision to make this week
Matt Nagy spent the 2020 offseason trying to figure out what went wrong with the Bears.
One chief regret, the former Bears coach decided then, was the way he coddled his quarterback during preseason games.
The Bears played five preseason games in 2018, Nagy’s first season. Mitch Trubisky, the No. 2 overall pick a year earlier, threw just 18 passes in them.
The next year, he threw zero. The Bears looked thoroughly unprepared for their season opener, a nationally televised “Thursday Night Football” contest that celebrated the start of their 100th season. They lost 10-3 to the Packers in a game where Trubisky posted a 62.1 passer rating. The momentum that surged through the Bears during the offseason — from dusting themselves off after the double-doink to having alumni predicting a Super Bowl berth during their 100th anniversary convention — was ground to a halt in three hours’ time.
When it comes to quarterbacks, preseason coaching decisions matter.
New Bears head coach Ben Johnson is about to make his Caleb Williams decision known — perhaps as soon as Tuesday. He could decide to sit him all preseason or give him a handful of snaps. It seems most likely he’ll have Williams warm up Sunday — the Bears, after all, have never prepared for a game day under Johnson — and then do very little.
Johnson’s call, and his explanation behind it, will be one of his earliest, and most public, coaching decisions. It will give a glimpse into his confidence in Williams and in the Bears’ practices to this point.
Asked about his plans for preseason games when the Bears reported to camp, Johnson his initial plan was to treat joint practices like games. The Bears have one scheduled for Friday against the Dolphins at Halas Hall, two days before they face each other in the preseason opener at Soldier Field. The following week, they’ll follow the same plan against the Bills.
There are clues that Johnson isn’t putting much stock in Sunday’s preseason opener. The Bears have scheduled a practice for the next afternoon, something they wouldn’t have done if they planned for the entire roster to be banged up from their first game action. The fact they scheduled joint practices against two different teams for the first time in team history shows the emphasis Johnson puts on them.
“I’m going to take a lot of weight into these joint practices,” Johnson said last month.
Williams has hardly mastered training camp. His inability to get the Bears’ snaps off on time Sunday frustrated his coach, who said the Bears “were not going to win many games” without making some fixes.
Williams has struggled enough to this point so far in camp — on quiet backfields, at Halas Hall in front of fans and at Sunday’s “Family Fest” — that declaring him good-to-go feels disingenuous.
That’s what Matt Eberflus did in 2023. Minutes after watching Justin Fields struggle against the Colts’ second-string defense during a joint practice in Westfield, Ind., Eberflus declared Fields would not play in the preseason game two days later. He had appeared in seven snaps in the preseason opener and would play 13 more in the preseason finale.
The Bears lost to the Packers in the opener — sound familiar? — and began the season by losing four-straight and seven-of-nine.
Sitting quarterbacks in the preseason — and controlling how often they're hit in joint practices — is the modern way of thinking. In 2022, Johnson's first full season as coordinator, Lions quarterback Jared Goff threw four preseason passes. In the last two preseasons, he threw zero.
Goff, though, was entering his seventh season in 2022, having made two Pro Bowls and one Super Bowl.
Williams — who threw 20 passes last offseason — is about to embark on his second year, and first under Johnson. He needs all the work he can get — even if he’s likely to get it only in the setting his coach prefers.