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Lighter Version of Caleb Williams Takes Aim at Bears Accuracy Goals

Bears QB dropped weight this year and has started practice confident in his knowledge of the offense but also his ability to handle Ben Johnson's criticsm.
Gene Chamberlain|
Caleb Williams is looking lighter and feeling more confident these days at Bears camp.
Caleb Williams is looking lighter and feeling more confident these days at Bears camp. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

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Chicago Bears


The new, sleeker version of Caleb Williams threw the ball with good accuracy on shorter tosses Wednesday in his first practice of training camp.

Williams looks like a different player even if he never does play like it. This won't change how he'll be coached, however.

Williams estimated he has lost 10 to 15 pounds this year, which should put him at about 211-215 pound instead of the 226 the Bears listed him at last year. He has been unbelievably durable in two seasons of taking hits and any change like this has to cause concern whether he can continue this.

Whether Williams' better conditioning and lighter weight changes anything with his passing accuracy or ability to elude tacklers when he gets out of the pocket is a great unknown. After 58.1% completions last year, it probably can't hurt with the passing.

He didn't do anything extraordinary to get into better shape beyond what many dieters do.

"Eating at certain times," he said. "Going to bed and not eating after 7. Just eating consistently, eating well."

It's one more step in the process for Williams in Year 2 of Ben Johnson's offense, a season when he's expecting to be coached even tougher than he was last year as they try to hit the lofty 70% completion goal his coach set forth for him.

Johnson thinks Year 2 is going to mean better recognition of defenses and his own offense for Williams, but it isn't just repeating what they did last year.

"I have this urge as an offensive guy to want to continue to evolve and innovate and push the limits a little bit," Johnson said. "And yet at the same time, in the back of my mind, what's best for him is to continue to bank some of these reps.

"He's had two offseasons and one training camp so far, and a full season obviously, to where he's had a lot of the similar concepts repeat for him. Now we're at the point where he's not thinking about the play call, he's not thinking about the cadence, the motion, and all the rigamarole before the snap. Things are starting to slow down (for him). So, what we need to see here in camp is that anticipation, take it up a notch. I think with that, the coverage recognition gets taken up another notch."

Williams is willing to take whatever Johnson throws at him, from plays to criticism.

"He's adding more on my plate of figuring out the coverage before (plays) and having an idea of where I can go with the ball faster and sooner," Williams said. "I haven't thrown a lot of picks in my career because I can see the coverage and feel the coverage. It's a little more detailed from play to play and specifics within the play towards the coverage that we are attacking. Then adding more plays in there so that we can kill, alert, and check to these different man checks, Cover 2 checks, one high or whatever the case may be. So it's a little bit more of that. We are excited about that. I'm excited. The challenge that he's giving me to be able to take the next step and progress is what I'm most excited about.

"It's going to be hard, it's going to be tough like it is every year. That's what you embrace, that's what you enjoy. Because when it shows up on game days and Sundays or whatever day we play on, it's really rewarding."

Williams heard plenty of hollering from Johnson last year in camp but Wednesday's first practice went off without many hitches. He does have a new center for the third straight Bears season, so some difficulty could be anticipated between himself and Garrett Bradbury.

"We had a slight miscommunication today, something that’s popped up throughout his career," Williams said of Bradbury. "He’s had a long enough career, I think it’s 9 years or so (actually this is 8). So he’s been with many different quarterbacks and under center, things like that. So something that popped up that’s happened with other QBs and just us getting on the same page on those small things and then when those moments show up, just being able to communicate with each other.

"Obviously it’s frustrating and you don’t want to have miscommunications, you don’t want to do that, but it’s the point of camp, it’s the point of practice so that when you go out there on Sundays and between those white lines and 60 minutes, you’re if not perfect, damn near perfect."

It needs to be perfect because if it isn't, Williams will hear about it. Just like last year, he'll let it bounce off of him.

“Oh yeah," Williams said. "I know we have a real common goal and it’s to find a way to make the Chicago Bears champions at the end of the day. So everything he says and what he says to me, I’ll do it at 200% and won’t look back.

"That’s kind of how it is now. If he yells and curses at me or anything like that, I know it’s for the greater good of the team and so whatever it takes is what it’s going to take.”

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

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.

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