It was only a 7-on-7 drill in July, but there was a sense of anticipation on the sidelines at Halas Hall on Saturday after rookie quarterback Caleb Williams was intercepted by backup safety Adrian Colbert.
Even in a simple drill early in the second day in pads barely a week into training camp, it was a chance for the ballyhooed No. 1 overall draft pick to show why he’s here. As coach Matt Eberflus said later, ‘When you throw an interception, what is your response?”
On the next play, Williams provided the answer: He was intercepted again, this time by fourth-string cornerback Reddy Steward, an undrafted free agent from Troy.
Now it was time to see how Williams would respond to even more adversity. But on the next play, his pass to running back Travis Homer along the left sideline was incomplete when Homer couldn’t hang on to the ball.
It was that kind of day for Williams and the Bears offense — out of sync, clunky and outplayed by the defense for the second consecutive day.
Williams still had a “wow” throw — rolling to his right to beat a blitz by linebacker T.J. Edwards in a team drill to throwing a dart to tight end Gerald Everett in stride over the middle. But that was a rare highlight that came after back-to-back false starts — two of five procedure infractions by the first-team offense on the day.
While nothing is defining in early training camp practices — especially where Williams is concerned — the faulty operation in the first two days of practices in pads was at least notable if not a red flag for an offense in its first season under new coordinator Shane Waldron.
The offense also was beset by multiple pre-snap penalties on Friday. Williams was able to rise above the muck of the shaky operation to finish on a high note — rolling from pressure to throw a 35-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Tyler Scott to finish the two-minute drill.
There was no such finishing touch Saturday, with the offense fizzling early in the two-minute drill to close it out. Then again, Williams was operating that two-minute drill without top receivers DJ Moore and Keenan Allen — which kind of makes a difference.
But that’s training camp, where progress is incremental and often difficult to discern. For now, anyway, the offense losing the day is part of the process of camp, where a step back is expected to lead to two steps forward. With Williams at quarterback, all explanations are valid until they’re not.
“I thought he responded well in 7-on-7 after those [interceptions],” Eberflus said. “We were doing all downs today, so we were doing situational football, third and fourth down, quad-zone stuff. So I thought the response [by Williams] was good.”
Or, as tight end Cole Kmet said when asked about the pre-snap penalties: “We’ll get that squared away. I’m not worried about that. I’ve always said, I think the operation is what’s going to be big for us with Caleb as a rookie, just getting the operation [right] pre-snap. Because post-snap, he’s pretty special.”
For now, Williams’ potential — and pretty impressive overall performance in training camp — continues to be a dominant force that magnifies anything good and mitigates anything bad.
“Caleb’s a great kid,” left tackle Braxton Jones said when asked how Williams responded during a difficult practice. “When it’s us making the mistakes as a unit or whatever it is, he’s trying to get us going and just be better, and we’ve got to be better for him in that situation.
“But that kid, he’s just electric. He comes out with a great attitude, just focused on getting better every day. When we’re having those ups and downs, we’re trying to get it fixed as a unit, I’s no one man’s fault. But he does a great job of keeping a level head himself and trying to get us better as well.”