CINCINNATI — Bears quarterback Caleb Williams walked off the Bengals’ practice field Thursday afternoon steaming over a mistake on his final pass of the day. It had been a choppy performance to begin with, and this was an ugly way to end it.
Backed up to his own end zone in a two-minute drill after backup left tackle Theo Benedet allowed back-to-back sacks, Williams was under pressure in the pocket yet again. He saw tight end Colston Loveland open over the middle, but threw high and late — a recipe for disaster in that part of the field — and the ball deflected off Loveland’s hands to Bengals cornerback Jalen Davis for an interception.
It was the type of focus-related error that coach Ben Johnson has working with Williams to eliminate. His fundamentals must be correct even under duress, and that ball got away from him when he released it too high.
“I’ve got to bring the ball down,” Williams said, drenched in sweat after the Bengals chased him around for 2½ hours. “I got some pressure on the back side and just tried to check it down, get the drive going … ended up missing.”
That’s the biggest thing still holding him back amid the strides he has made under Johnson, and a miss like that would be a nightmare in a game.
Williams was last in the NFL with a 58.1 completion percentage and second-worst in on-target passes at 69.8%, per Pro Football Reference, last season and that simply doesn’t work for Johnson. Not only does he want Williams to complete 70% of his passes in practices and games, he wants passes that lead his receivers into the open space that he created with his play designs.
That’s an absolute requirement if the Bears are going to chase Johnson’s goal of setting the NFL scoring record held by the 2013 Broncos at 37.9 points per game.
Williams did his best work in red-zone scenarios Thursday, at one point throwing touchdown passes on three consecutive plays, but plenty else needed improvement. The Bears will play the Bengals in a preseason game Saturday, and Johnson said he’d assess late Thursday whether he needed to get his starters some snaps.
The joint practice was far from reassuring.
The Bengals’ defense surely was amped up to face Williams after an offseason full of hype, including the prestigious Madden cover, and they were loud from the start. He’d better get used to that.
They flushed Williams out of the pocket on a play early in practice, sending him sprinting to the right sideline and throwing the ball out of bounds as defensive lineman T.J. Slaton taunted, “Where the (expletive) you going?” Later, after Williams hit rookie Zavion Thomas on the right sideline, defensive tackle Jonathan Allen shouted, “That’s a sack,” after his unit crashed the backfield but wasn’t allowed to hit Williams.
Three-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence was Williams’ biggest problem throughout the day. The Bears eventually adjusted somewhat with the offensive line holding up better and Williams getting the ball out quicker, but Lawrence’s disruption was a constant concern.
Beyond the pressure he put on Williams, he also made a perfect read on a screen pass, stepped into the lane, “did a little volleyball tip,” he called it, and intercepted the pass.
The practice was a continuation of Williams’ turbulent trajectory. His passing was sharp the first week of training camp, then Johnson said he plateaued, but it started to pick back up over the past week.
“It’s trending upward, and that’s really what we want to see,” Johnson said before practice. “He’s taken a lot of pride in where he’s putting the ball throughout practice. You see it early on in our warm-up periods to routes on air, and it’s translating over to the team periods as well, yet he still hasn’t lost that stinger of being aggressive and trying to push the limits.”
Johnson saying that Williams’ accuracy is “trending upward” is one of the more complimentary appraisals he’s given in their two years together. He’s had no hesitation calling him out before.
More than anything, it comes down to Williams’ discipline. His talent is off the charts, but he has to harness it.
The essential points Johnson has been hammering are proper fundamentals, mainly that his feet are pointed at his target, and better anticipation of defenders. It’s on Williams to implement that, especially when the pocket starts breaking down. He called it a “mental and physical” battle.
When Williams was asked to grade his training camp so far, he described it correctly as a mixed bag. That’s undoubtedly a reflection of Johnson’s feedback.
“I’ve done a good job taking the coaching,” he said, pointing to that as the most important thing he can do right now.
But soon enough, all the learning and development must produce results. The Bears have a little over three weeks until their season opener and they want to be a Super Bowl contender. Williams can’t get them there if he’s still alternating steps forward and backward.
