Where’s Caleb Williams? Bears run ‘Shush Push’ while questions about QB’s feelings about team linger

On the same day the NFL preserved the legality of the Tush Push, the Bears and quarterback Caleb Williams unveiled a strategic maneuver of their own:

The Shush Push.

As in, not making Williams available to a media contingent eager to discuss an explosive report about the former No. 1 overall pick’s reluctance to play in Chicago entering the 2024 draft and his less-than-ideal experiences as a rookie.

What was revealed last week about Williams’ involvement in an upcoming book by author Seth Wickersham hit Beardom like a tanker of ice-cold water during a peaceful spring slumber. Did Williams and his family really want so badly to avoid being drafted by the Bears that they met with lawyers and even considered going to the United Football League for a year? To what extent was Williams left to his own devices as a rookie when it came to film study and preparation? Just how bad was Williams’ time with former offensive coordinator Shane Waldron and bumbling coach Matt Eberflus?

And — ahem — does he agree with his father, Carl, that Chicago is the place where “quarterbacks go to die”?

All that sounds mighty serious. And that’s not even getting into Williams’ reported hope to embark on his NFL career as a Minnesota Viking. A real shame that wish didn’t come true, right?

It would’ve been nice to ask Williams about all this Wednesday at Halas Hall, where first-year coach Ben Johnson and a handful of players took questions after the second OTA practice of the preseason. Instead, the Bears huddled up and decided to string along the public with the Shush Push, which made about as much sense as a backward pass on fourth-and-1.

Johnson, for his part, was smart enough to get right to the matter before a question had even been asked. What he said wasn’t exactly illuminating — Williams’ is the only mouth that matters on this one — but he did manage to let a tiny bit of air out of the balloon.

Coach and quarterback have discussed the issue at hand.

“He’s his own man and he’s going to be treated as such,” Johnson said. “I think we’re both really looking forward to turning the page on years prior and focusing on the here and now.”

A year ago, the Bears were pointed toward a season opener against the Titans. That game would end with a Bears comeback from 17 points down in a 24-17 win that made Williams the first No. 1 overall QB to win his debut start since 2002. But Williams threw for only 93 yards in that game and took three sacks on his way to a cartoonish, league-leading total of 68. Signs of the struggles were already present during OTAs in May as the team’s offense lagged behind its defense.

The outlook seems a bit brighter now as we take a long view toward a Week 1 Monday-night game against the Vikings and their coach, Kevin O’Connell, once the apples of Williams’ eye, but that part of this overall Williams saga has the legs to live on at least until game day and likely beyond. It surely will resurface if ever Williams displays signs of being displeased with his lot as a Bear.

“He’s going to go out there and play as well as he possibly can,” Johnson said, “not just for himself or for me but for the whole team and the city.

Yet only Williams himself can speak definitively about where he stands on where he’s playing. Johnson and a handful of teammates were left to try to do it instead for now.

“If that’s how he felt, that’s how he felt,” safety Kevin Byard said. “Obviously, I can’t speak for him, can’t speak for his dad. But since he’s been in the building, since I’ve been around him, I haven’t noticed any of that. …

“He’s a really, really talented young quarterback in this league and he’s trying to get better every day. And that’s all I see from him — just working out every day, staying late, obviously meeting with Ben and all those guys. We’re trying to right the ship, we’re trying to right this organization, trying to right the culture, and that’s the only thing I can see.”

Linebacker Tremaine Edmunds — who, like Byard, has been one of the Bears’ captains — referred to Williams as “one of my guys.”

“I can tell he wants to be here,” Edmunds said. “I can tell that he’s a highly competitive person. …

“Caleb wants to be here, man. Caleb wants to win.”

So all’s fine, then?

Nope, not yet.

“We’re very much aligned in terms of what we want to get done,” Johnson assured.

That’s a little something to go on, maybe, but Williams is still on the clock.