Chicago Bears No. 1 draft pick quarterback Caleb Williams listens to No. 9 draft pick wide receiver Rome Odunze during an NFL football news conference in Lake Forest, Ill., Friday, April 26, 2024.
Nam Y. Huh/AP
One of the many unique aspects of the Bears drafting quarterback Caleb Williams was the inevitability. It was such a sure thing that they’d be taking him No. 1 overall that Williams was able to start working on their offense more than a month ago, setting himself up for a good start when rookie minicamp opened Friday.
The Bears began teaching him some of their offense at the NFL Combine at the end of February during their brief visit, and he launched into full preparation after his visit to Halas Hall in early April.
“You always want to get ahead if you can,” Williams said Friday before practice. “With those things that they gave me, I would take it to my QB training and we would use the cadence, we would use the drops — we would use all those things so that’s not something that’s on my mind when I actually got here.”
Bears coach Matt Eberflus credited Williams’ personal quarterbacks Will Hewlett for working through the basic mechanics and operation of the offense ahead of rookie minicamp.
Williams said it made a big difference and believed he knew the offense well enough that he’d be able to help other rookies learn it this weekend.
“I feel pretty good right now,” he said. “The top-30 [visit] was big for me. They gave a bunch of notes and ideas of how the offense is, verbiage, drops, cadence and all the things that really matter, breaking the huddle, getting in the huddle, being able to communicate.
“Obviously we’ll go out here today [and] I’m gonna have a few mess-ups probably. Working to eliminate those as fast as possible. You need those things to grow and progress.”