Bear Digest

Can Bears Develop This QB? Matt Eberflus Puts Plan in Effect

Bears coach has a plan in place to turn rookie Caleb Williams into the starter they believe he can be, and the process began long before the on-going rookie minicamp.

Gene Chamberlain

Caleb Williams goes through pre-practice warmups as his first Bears practice is about to begin.
Caleb Williams goes through pre-practice warmups as his first Bears practice is about to begin. / David Banks-USA TODAY Sports

Fresh off two years of trying to develop Justin Fields, Bears coach Matt Eberflus thinks the maturation of quarterback Caleb Williams can turn out entirely positive.

Offensive coordinator Shane Waldron and his offensive system are going to be keys for a head coach who is from the defensive side of the ball.

"The whole process, you go through the whole process of that," Eberflus said Friday at rookie minicamp. "I certainly have good friends in the league you would lean on and talk to about. We certainly got some good information from those guys."

Waldron's offense has been front and center with Williams since early April, when the Bears hosted the USC QB on a top-30 visit.

"Yeah, just have a great foundation of how you put things in," Eberflus said. "I think that's important. I think Shane and the offensive staff have done an outstanding job of that thus far putting that foundation in and making sure that it's likable, learnable and it can get executed. And we’re excited about beginning that process.”

Eberflus calls his staff the key. This was also the case when they had Fields and Luke Getsy's offensive staff. Apparently that didn't turn out the way the Bears wanted as Fields is in Pittsburgh and Getsy in Las Vegas.

"Well, I think when you have teachers that are good at what they do, they make it likable in how they put it in and how they teach it," Eberflus said. "It's exciting to be able to see that."

One of those is Thomas Brown, the passing game coordinator.

"Yeah so we're fortunate that Thomas went through it last year, you know, he was at Carolina (as OC for Bryce Young) obviously, and so we got to glean some information from him," Eberflus said.

The plan drew a positive reaction from Williams.

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"From all the things that we do, even starting this morning, there's a process, there's a plan and with having those, we have teamworks, we have all these other things," Williams said. "And even for when we're in the film room there's a set plan in how we do it.

"So adding those things that add structure to us and so the plan makes it a lot easier to be executed when you have all that in place."

To facilitate the learning, the Bears got Williams involved early by introducing some of the offense to him at the early April 30 visit to Halas Hall, but they went beyond that afterward. Williams' personal coach Will Hewlettt was involved. The Bears got him some of the basic aspects of the offense like route trees and other basics and let him work with Williams at this.

Hewlett has been involved training about 60 Division I quarterbacks in the past as part of a QB Collective.

"Will Hewlett's been awesome in this whole process," Eberflus said. "Been able to have great conversations with him. He gets it. He's trained a lot of guys. He's elite at what he does. It was a pleasure to work with him.

"He was working on our stuff a little bit—cadence and those types of things and the footwork that we want. That's been a good process for us."

The other part of being a quarterback besides the passing and the offense is leading the team.

Williams didn't exactly kick the door down to the locker room and pronounce himself the man.

"To be a great leader, you gotta learn how to follow first," Williams said. "So right now I'm following all the vets, I'm following all the coaches. I'm listening, having both ears open and my mouth shut, just kind of sitting back listening. And when I get to the point of when I learn everything, when I learn the ways of how we do it with the culture, the playbook, and what the offensive line, the receivers are all doing, running backs and tight ends and things like that, then you can start taking the lead. Then you can start taking the helms of all of it and take the next steps.

"For right now though, I'm listening more than I'm speaking and talking, and I'm taking it one step at a time being in the moment."

Eberflus' advice for his starting QB in this learning process is simple.

"Just be where your feet are," he said. "Be in that moment. Be in the play. Execute that play. Turn the page. Go to the next play. That's what the elite guys do and that's what we expect from him."

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Gene Chamberlain

GENE CHAMBERLAIN

BearDigest.com publisher Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.