The cadence problems between Bears quarterback Caleb Williams and the offensive line that disrupted practices at minicamp last month appear to be fixed.
Williams steered the offense through its third consecutive clean practice Monday and has found common ground with the line on snap counts to avoid false starts, which haven’t been an issue in training camp.
“It came back way better and it’s improving every day,” coach Matt Eberflus said.
Left guard Teven Jenkins added, “It’s all ironed out. We’re doing really good on it and hopefully we keep on continuing and growing off that.”
The Bears will continue testing that when they have their first practice in full pads — scheduled for Saturday — and their Aug. 1 preseason game against the Texans. Eberflus also said the Bears will continue implementing more complicated hard counts to get defenses to jump offsides and are “not even close” to done with that process.
Williams had one of his better practices Monday, including a successful two-minute drill at the end. He drove the offense into field-goal range with short and intermediate completions to wide receivers Rome Odunze and Keenan Allen and running back Roschon Johnson, and converted a fourth-and-three to DJ Moore underneath.
The Bears closed with a brief “last-play” drill in which Williams had one snap to try for a touchdown, first from the opposing 25-yard line and second from the 15. He threw incomplete into a crowd on the first one, but nearly completed the 15-yarder. He found Odunze open in the back of the end zone on the left side, but the referee ruled he did not get both feet down in bounds.
Odunze practiced in full for the first time after an excused absence Saturday and a ramp-up day Sunday and looked good. Williams lofted a 40-yard touchdown pass to him down the left sideline in 11-on-11 work.