After sitting out of the Hall of Fame Game, No. 1 pick Caleb Williams is set to make his preseason debut for the Bears on Saturday against the Buffalo Bills.
It will be highly anticipated for obvious reasons: The NFL world will get its first look at the top pick of April's draft, while Bears fans will finally get to see Williams operate new offensive coordinator Shane Waldron's system.
The game plan will likely be vanilla, but that doesn't mean Williams won't be watched closely. Bears coach Matt Eberflus believes Williams is ready for the moment.
"He's right where he needs to be right now," Eberflus said Thursday. "He's having some good days, some good periods, and then some other ones that he's learning from adversity and a setback. I told him to just lean into that. When you have a setback or have adversity, don't shy away from it. Lean into it and then learn from it and then get better from it.
"A lot of people want to hide and shrink away from adversity. That's not what we do. We lean into it and get better from it, invest our time, grow and improve, and that's what he's been doing. He's got some moments out there today that he's gonna need to do that in today's practice, and I'm sure he's gonna have some in the game.
"So, it's again that exposure and experience that we can give him throughout the course of this camp, the reps in preseason, the reps with the joint practice next week. All those are very valuable."
Prior to the Hall of Fame Game, Williams spoke of the importance of live reps to his development in his first NFL season. He knows he's carrying the weight of Chicago's collective expectations on his shoulders, and would like to be as prepared as possible before he's thrown into the fire.
He'll receive such an opportunity Saturday. Eberflus isn't expecting him to light it up, but just wants to see positive signs in his rookie quarterback's first legitimate test.
"Just more of what we see now, where he is now in terms of the progress," Eberflus said. "This is his first time in live action. He's been getting a lot of good reps with our one defense, so I think it'll feel similar to him. But I really feel that when it's live there in the pocket, to be able to maneuver in the pocket, ride the pocket, escape on the outside, B-gaps, all those things, and be able to deliver the ball, keep your eyes downfield, and really just the operation of it, getting in and out of the huddle, no pre-snap penalties, just a clean operation."
Clean and efficient operation is often difficult to achieve with a rookie quarterback. They're frequently overwhelmed by the speed of the game, especially when placed behind subpar offensive lines.
Chicago has worked to avoid such a scenario, surrounding Williams with talent with the hope he'll be able to settle in before long and use his natural talents. We won't receive anything close to a final verdict Saturday, but Eberflus will likely gain a better understanding of where Williams is on his path toward Week 1.
Williams, meanwhile, will get those live reps he's been craving. We'll see if he's up for the challenge.
