Bear Digest

What the Bears say indicates if Caleb Williams' processor works

There is one thing Chicago Bears offensive coordinator Declan Doyle says everyone should watch to know if their starting quarterback really is processing faster.
Gene Chamberlain|
What Caleb Williams is looking at when he's at the line of scrimmage and dropping back is key.
What Caleb Williams is looking at when he's at the line of scrimmage and dropping back is key. | Denny Medley-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

Everyone knows what Caleb Williams needs to do in his second season and first under coach Ben Johnson, and that's process everything faster so the ball comes out quicker.

What everyone wants to know is how they can tell if he's actually doing it because, barring total disfunction, it's difficult to see with the untrained eye.

It is the eyes that will reveal it, though. It's Williams' eyes, it seems

“The game slows down when your eyes go to the right place," Bears offensive coordinator Declan Doyle said.

"When his eyes are in the right place, that's what you hear guys talk about in Year 2 and 3 and the processing ability," Doyle said of quarterbacks in general. "They're like, ‘Hey, the game slowed down for me.’

"That's really what they're referring to. They're saying, ‘I knowwhere to look, where my eyes need to go, and then I know, really, it's the implied information. This piece moves and I understand what that means relative to the rest of the scheme.’ That's really what you're trying to train, you're trying to train the eyes all the time.”

The processing that begins with Williams' eyes are not the entirety of the learning process.

“I think the biggest thing is just his processing ability," Doyle said. "His thoughts as far as pre-snap and then post snap really ingraining how we want him to think. That's the number one thing.”

So have they actually got his eyes in the right place and his mind thinking like aQB in Year 2?

"He's gotten better since we got here in February to the progress he's made until now  and he's still continuing to get better every day," Doyle said. "As we get into these game plans, you're just going to continue to see a guy who is working really hard at it, continue to progress.”

Just watch his eyes and you'll see if it continues.

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Everyone knows what Caleb Williams needs to do in his second season and first under coach Ben Johnson, and that's process everything faster so the ball comes out quicker.

What everyone wants to know is how they can tell if he's actually doing it because, barring total disfunction, it's difficult to see with the untrained eye.

It is the eyes that will reveal it, though. It's Williams' eyes, it seems

“The game slows down when your eyes go to the right place," Bears offensive coordinator Declan Doyle said.

"When his eyes are in the right place, that's what you hear guys talk about in Year 2 and 3 and the processing ability," Doyle said of quarterbacks in general. "They're like, ‘Hey, the game slowed down for me.’

"That's really what they're referring to. They're saying, ‘I knowwhere to look, where my eyes need to go, and then I know, really, it's the implied information. This piece moves and I understand what that means relative to the rest of the scheme.’ That's really what you're trying to train, you're trying to train the eyes all the time.”

The processing that begins with Williams' eyes are not the entirety of the learning process.

“I think the biggest thing is just his processing ability," Doyle said. "His thoughts as far as pre-snap and then post snap really ingraining how we want him to think. That's the number one thing.”

So have they actually got his eyes in the right place and his mind thinking like aQB in Year 2?

"He's gotten better since we got here in February to the progress he's made until now  and he's still continuing to get better every day," Doyle said. "As we get into these game plans, you're just going to continue to see a guy who is working really hard at it, continue to progress.”

Just watch his eyes and you'll see if it continues.

More Chicago Bears News

X: BearsOnSI

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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.