Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Poles is not panicking after practice video surfaced last week of quarterback Caleb Williams showing frustration after missing on four consecutive throws to net targets during a passing drill.
Williams, the No. 1 pick in last year’s NFL Draft, is learning a new offensive system this summer under first-year coach Ben Johnson and has reportedly shown periods of inconsistency during training camp.
“I actually think it’s pretty cool,” Poles said about the reaction to the footage, per ESPN’s Courtney Cronin this week. “I knew there was a bad practice. I’ve seen clips on Twitter. I didn’t know it was a national crisis of Caleb struggling.”
The video shows other Bears quarterbacks — Case Keenum, Tyson Bagent and Austin Reed — offer no reaction to Williams’ misfires.
Poles, who Chicago extended earlier this summer through the 2029 season, is not focusing on Williams’ tantrum, instead prioritizing pieces to fit around the Bears’ franchise player so improvements will be reflected in the future.
It’s hard to rush a second-year pro still adjusting to vast schematic changes, Poles says.
“I think as a human being, I want it to happen super fast, and I would love for it to look really clean and for [Williams] to look like a fifth-year vet right now,” Poles said, per ESPN. “But I think, just being in this long enough, what’s reality, though? It’s going to take time. It’s new. A new defense is going to jump out faster. It always does. We’re also playing this man scheme that [defensive coordinator] Dennis [Allen] is playing is a pain, and he is not holding back anything.
“And I think because of that it might look choppy at times, but that’s what you want. You want this time to look, be as hard as possible. And then when you get to game time when the lights come on, you want that to then slow down.”
Chicago Bears urge Caleb Williams to improve ‘body language,’ pre-snap procedure
Brad Crawford
One of the first items on the agenda this offseason following Johnson’s arrival from Detroit was getting Williams to improve his body language around the team and hone in on pre-snap procedures.
Williams is one of the NFL‘s second-year quarterbacks expected to take a major leap forward given Johnson’s past success with the Lions. Williams threw for 3,541 yards and 20 touchdowns last season with a 62.5% completion rate, but was sacked a league-leading 68 times and was often slow to pick himself off the turf before returning to the huddle.
Chicago quarterbacks have worked in training camp without playcall wristbands, a point of emphasis from Johnson to see what his signal callers can handle.
This news was originally published on this post .
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