Caleb Williams, Bears to report to training camp with great expectations
Twenty weeks ago Friday, Caleb Williams stood at the most popular podium at the NFL Scouting Combine and laid out exactly what he wanted to find out from the Bears.
“Just: ‘Do you want to win?’ he said then.
The team’s actions ever since have answered in the affirmative.
General manager Ryan Poles traded for receiver Keenan Allen and signed running back D’Andre Swift — both were Pro Bowl players last year — and drafted rookie receiver Rome Odunze ninth overall to pair with the first overall pick. They’ll play for offensive coordinator Shane Waldron, the former Seahawks play-caller whom coach Matt Eberflus chose from among 14 candidates in January.
On defense, Poles re-signed Pro Bowl cornerback Jaylon Johnson and added safety Kevin Byard, two years removed from being a first-team All-Pro, to take Eddie Jackson’s place.
The Bears are ready to win. When their veterans report to Halas Hall for training camp Friday, they’ll carry that responsibility with them. Poles, Eberflus and Williams will speak to it, too, when they meet the media.
When the Bears take the field for their first practice Saturday, expectations will be as high as they’ve been since the start of the Bears' ill-fated 2019 campaign. In each of Eberflus’ first two seasons, the preseason over-under was 6½ wins. This year, preseason odds have the Bears more likely than not to make the playoffs.
“The time is this year,” safety Jaquan Brisker said last month. “No more waiting.”
No one has the franchise riding on him like Williams, the former Heisman Trophy winner from USC who is the most anticipated rookie in the 104-year history of the team. When the No. 1 overall pick signed his contract Wednesday, he killed off the last of the unfounded rumors surrounding his draft status — that he wouldn’t play under the standard rookie deal. The Bears believed all along he would.
Long before he signed — he held a pen in his right hand and made a bear claw with his left — Williams had ingratiated himself with his teammates and the community.
“There is definitely a natural feel to how he connects with people and how he does a really good job of disarming people in trying to make them feel comfortable and not being standoff-ish in a high-profile role,” passing game coordinator Thomas Brown said last month. “You’re talking veteran guys on this roster who are great players and have played for a long time who demand their own respect.
"Being able to have that balance of confidence but also humility has been awesome to see.”
Those veterans are miles better than anything given Justin Fields during his three-year stint with the team:
• DJ Moore and Allen have a chance to post the most productive season by a receiver duo in Bears history, passing Alshon Jeffery and Brandon Marshall, who combined for 2,716 receiving yards in 2013.
• If Williams pairs well with Odunze, the two would become just the second rookie quarterback-receiver tandem of the Super Bowl era to team up for at least 1,000 yards.
• Simply matching last year’s 1,049 rushing yards would make Swift the Bears’ most accomplished running back since David Montgomery in 2020.
• Cole Kmet is coming off a season in which he caught 73 passes, the third-most for a tight end in Bears history. Tight end Gerald Everett, a free agent acquisition, has 2,833 career receiving yards; had he done that all as a member of the Bears, he’d rank 19th among all pass-catchers in franchise history.
“It’s a complete offense, but it’s going to take work,” Swift said in May. “It’s a new offense — we’re all new here. Coaching staff’s new. Rookie quarterback. So it’s going to be a learning experience for everybody.”
That’s what training camp is for. And it begins Friday.