KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Bears quarterback Caleb Williams will go into the upcoming season as much of a mystery as ever. After a month of practices and preseason games, the outlook is no clearer than it was at the end of his murky rookie season.
Williams, coach Ben Johnson and everyone else at Halas Hall will say his progress is evident in the details and his work behind the scenes — and maybe they’ll be right. But it hasn’t been definitive in public.
At a time when his trajectory had seemed to be upward, Williams was shaky and unconvincing Friday night as the Bears beat the Chiefs 29-27 in their preseason finale thanks to a last-minute touchdown pass by backup Tyson Bagent. In three possessions against their starting defense, Williams and the offense punted twice and couldn’t cash in with a touchdown in the red zone.
“It didn’t go well,” wide receiver Rome Odunze said. “We’ve got to be able to execute better and move the ball. Just a couple mishaps and got behind the chains a little bit.
“It’s definitely a gut punch. There’s a lot to learn from it. Gladly, it was a preseason game, and we’re able to correct those mistakes before we play real ball.”
A lot of the most concerning problems were back for Williams in what was by far his biggest test of the preseason.
He finished 6-for-9 for 41 yards and a 76.6 passer rating against the Chiefs’ starters before completing 5 of 6 passes for 72 yards and a touchdown pass to Odunze in a two-minute drill against their backups.
“Every single chance you go out there, you want to perform, go out there and not have a slow start,” Williams said. “It’s frustrating, but you also understand that it is preseason, and the situation is different than it is in-season.”
On the Bears’ first snap of the game, they tried to run a sweep for wide receiver Olamide Zaccheaus, but he and Williams fumbled the handoff and Williams fell on it for a four-yard loss.
After a false start by rookie tight end Colston Loveland and a throwaway by Williams as defensive end George Karlaftis chased him out of the pocket, the Bears ended up in the all-too-familiar spot of third-and-19. They followed that three-and-out with a slightly better effort but stalled again when another Williams issue resurfaced: From a favorable second-and-three approaching midfield, he held the ball for five seconds trying to make a play and was sacked by three-time All-Pro defensive tackle Chris Jones.
It was a drive-killer, sending the Bears to third-and-eight and eventually another punt.
“It is disappointing to me, for sure, because I thought we worked our way out of that,” Johnson said of the offense’s struggles. “This is our first time on the road, and we were going to find out what kind of road team we were going to be. If the first quarter was any indication, it was not good enough. We have to get better in a hurry.”
Williams got one more chance against the Chiefs’ starters as the Bears drove from their own 29-yard line deep into Chiefs’ territory. The offense was efficient for a while, with running back D’Andre Swift giving them steady yardage on the ground and Williams making smart, short passes to Odunze and Zaccheaus to minimize third downs. The Bears had second-and-five at the Chiefs’ 10-yard line, but Williams threw the ball away under pressure and, on the next play, threw into too tight of a window in the end zone, resulting in safety Bryan Cook breaking up his pass to Odunze.
Williams’ biggest play against the starting defense was an 18-yard scramble. But while that’s a helpful ability to have in his back pocket, it’s not sustainable — and it never got the Bears far in the Justin Fields era, either.
Johnson said this week that he has no hesitation telling Williams after a frustrating practice that he isn’t playing well enough. He must have been thinking that Friday as he sent Williams out for a fourth possession even after the Chiefs had pulled their starters.
It was amazing how much easier it got against the backups, although Williams did take a hard shot from Chiefs safety Jaden Hicks. Nonetheless, he hit Zaccheaus for 25 yards to ignite the drive and closed it with a three-yard touchdown pass to Odunze.
While Williams was up and down, Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes made a preseason game look as easy as it’s supposed to be, chopping up the Bears for a 17-0 lead before exiting. The Chiefs scored on all three of his possessions; he completed 8 of 13 passes for 143 yards and a 124.8 passer rating.
Whether it’s in the preseason or not, every time the Bears face the Chiefs, they get a reminder of how far away they truly are. They’ve been chasing this team ever since taking Mitch Trubisky second in the 2017 draft before the Chiefs snatched Mahomes at No. 10. Williams’ dominant style in college drew comparisons to Mahomes. As the Bears prepared to draft him first overall last year, general manager Ryan Poles noted “pieces that are similar.”
But there are pieces that clearly aren’t. In Mahomes’ second season, after sitting out as a rookie, he threw 50 touchdown passes, won the MVP award and took Tom Brady’s Patriots to overtime in the AFC Championship Game. It certainly doesn’t feel as though Williams is on the brink of a run like that.
As an immediate starter last season, albeit in a highly dysfunctional situation under former coach Matt Eberflus, Williams completed just 62.5% of his passes, averaged 208.3 yards per game and threw 20 touchdown passes against six interceptions for an 87.8 passer rating that put him at 24th in the NFL.
It’ll take a few leaps from there to get within reach of Mahomes. In the meantime, the Bears should be less concerned with the gap between Williams and Mahomes and far more concerned with how much ground they need to cover just to be ready for the Vikings in the season opener Sept. 8.
