Caleb Williams led his Bears to a blowout in Buffalo — below are a few notes from what I saw from Chicago’s starters.

If you’d like a full recap of the weekend’s contest, check out the latest episode of Bear With Us below. 

Caleb’s First NFL Completion Proves His Poise

https://twitter.com/robertkschmitz/status/1822762254988931140

Andrew Billings Is A Force In The Run Game

Andrew "That Dog" Billings, man. Some things never change.

Love sticking him at 3T on the frontside of heavy run looks — here, he beats a double-team to push the RB wide for a stop. Great use of Dexter's 1T versatility too. pic.twitter.com/5IElRoxHhq

— Robert Schmitz (@robertkschmitz) August 11, 2024

Gervon Dexter Flashed Promise

I liked what I saw from #Bears DT Gervon Dexter yesterday — you can tell he's worked on his hand usage, and that led to some quality pass-rush reps.

Looked stout vs the run too, which I loved seeing. It sounds like he's having a big camp too, so keep an eye on him. pic.twitter.com/6IjZS2rztV

— Robert Schmitz (@robertkschmitz) August 11, 2024

I Can’t Imagine The World’s Reaction Had Caleb Completed This Pass

Many of the worst "Disaster Moments" Rookie QBs come on great defensive playcalls — the Bills plays the #Bears' 3-vert concept beautifully here & jam Everett hard. Options aren't great.

I love seeing Caleb stay poised — he works through his reads, avoids pressure, finds Rome… pic.twitter.com/fi6vM3JZGF

— Robert Schmitz (@robertkschmitz) August 11, 2024

Your Turn: What did you see in the Bears-Bills game?

A word to the wise: try not to get too wrapped up in the “results” of individual Training Camp practices. Learning is a process, and not a linear one.

Caleb Williams is a rookie QB, practice “results” will vary — especially since they’re running him & the rest of the #1 offense against the defensive starters, as opposed to the second-string. That’s always going to push a young QB, especially when his defense is reportedly doing nothing to make life easy for him, blitzing him often and challenging his understanding of coverages early.

It’s fun to talk about practice highlights, but Caleb’s growth was always going to be a process — and not a process that will finish by September 8th. I can personally attest to having agonized over each individual Mitch Trubisky and Justin Fields Training Camp pass attempt, and as much as I’d love to tell you that those Camp performances signaled anything about their upcoming seasons… they didn’t.

I could wax on about how Caleb’s bar for this season is set by lowly Bears records like “11 total passing TDs” and “2300 passing yards in a season”, but ultimately football is a results-based business. During Training Camp we bog ourselves down in the minutia of each individual rep, each individual handoff, each individual 1-on-1, and each individual 2-Minute-Drill, but the first number that truly matters in the early season is the number the Bears put on the Soldier Field scoreboard as of ~3PM CST on September 8th.

I love to dig deep into the nitty-gritty of football, I love to obsess over the details of every snap, and while I’d love to tell you that preseason results tell us anything about a young QB’s development… they don’t. CJ Stroud’s first two preseason starts saw him complete 9 of 16 passes for 72 yards, 0 TDs, and 1 INT — he didn’t throw a regular-season INT until Week 6.

All of this to say, enjoy the growth process and don’t let it get to you. Football is fun, after all! And above all else, Bear Down.

I love hearing that the #Bears are putting their offensive 1s vs their defensive 1s, but it creates a set of funny reactions as practice plays out.

Jaylon Johnson blanketing Keenan and DJ is great news — the Bears need a big season from him! I love hearing that the defense is…

— Robert Schmitz (@robertkschmitz) August 7, 2024

Your Turn: What are you looking for in Caleb’s first Preseason start?

Your Turn: What do you think about the recent offensive reports?

I had the chance to attend Bears practice today (thanks to Jeff Berkes of Windy City Gridiron for hooking me up with a ticket when I wasn’t able to land one on Ticketmaster), and want to share some of what I was able to observe.

I’m going to focus mostly on injuries and depth chart, because it’s hard to take too much away from individual performances in one practice.

Injuries

• Six players had no pads on and did not participate in practice at all today: G Nate Davis, RB Roschon Johnson, LB Noah Sewell, CBs Kyler Gordon and Tyrique Stevenson, and S Jaquan Brisker.
  • I did see Gordon and Stevenson doing some running and cutting before practice, so I would guess they’re both fairly close to returning.
• Several other players joined them on the sidelines as practice wore on, including OT Darnell Wright, WR Collin Johnson, DT Andrew Billings,  DE Montez Sweat, CB Tyrell Smith, and RB Ian Wheeler.
  • Wheeler and Wright have been working their way back from injuries, so maybe partial participation was the plan for them. I’m not sure.
  • Smith’s injury was the only one I saw happen. He dove to the ground while defending a deep pass to DJ Moore in 11-on-11 action and didn’t get up until a trainer had taken a good long look at him. From what I could tell, they were looking at either his left arm or shoulder, and he seemed to be in a lot of pain.
• Rookie OT Kiran Amegadjie, who has yet to practice after being drafted with an injury he suffered during the season last fall, did some work pushing a blocking sled before practice. Hopefully that’s a good sign that he is nearing a return, though I won’t be shocked if the Bears keep him on the non-football injury list so that they can transition him to IR at the start of the season without him ever taking up a roster spot.

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8:56 PM ET. Full disclosure: I am deeply regretting the commitment I made to review these episodes. I don’t even want to watch them. But I do love a Liev Schreiber voiceover. For me, he stands with Peter Coyote as our finest documentary voiceover artists. (Coyote does many of the epic Ken Burns films.)

8:59 PM ET. How many of these Game of Thrones series need to exist? I watched a few episodes of this latest one and it’s just people arguing in old timey conference rooms about tactics. Boring as boring can be.

9:03 PM ET. Blues Brothers music…already. This is going to be a tough watch.

9:05 PM ET. Liev sounds a bit weathered. The depth of his vocal is missing. Not happy about this.

9:06 PM ET. I guess Cole Kmet is not a draw for White Sox fans. What was the attendance that day? 11?

9:06 PM ET. Eberflus: “Winning doesn’t make you a winner.” I disagree, Matt. I believe that’s the only requirement.

9:08 PM ET. They are MILKING the first ten minutes of this episode. They can’t have much.

9:12 PM ET. Caleb couldn’t sing. “You don’t have to be able to carry a tune, to carry a team,” Liev says. This show is written by children.

9:16 PM ET. Very excited about the Harris/Walz ticket. Walz seems a genuinely good dude who’ll connect with the union/rural voter that Dems have lost to the Trump types over the last eight years.

9:17 PM ET. If they knew Saban was going to be there this week (episode) they should have made the entire thing about him. Let him host the episode. He’s a compelling figure.

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Your Turn: How did you feel about the Bears’ performance in the Hall Of Fame game?

The Bears are BACK, baby!

Your Turn: What are you looking forward to in tonight’s game?