Chicago Bears rookie quarterback Caleb Williams will not play Thursday against the Kansas City Chiefs in the preseason finale.
Bears coach Matt Eberflus announced Tuesday that Williams and the majority of the Bears starters will sit out the game, the team’s fourth of the preseason. Eberflus said the Bears felt good about the range of reps that starters received in preseason games this month against the Buffalo Bills and Cincinnati Bengals, along with a joint practice with the Bengals last week.
Bears staff will discuss the possibility of playing a handful of starters who so far may have logged limited reps because of injuries, Eberflus said.
Williams finished two preseason games with 43 snaps, just below the Bears’ original stated range of 45-55. He finished 10 of 20 for 170 yards with no touchdowns or interceptions and also had two carries for 20 yards, including a 7-yard touchdown run.
Eberflus said he thought Williams put together a good preseason.
“Just the process of being able to get into the huddle, make the call, be clean, get to the line, look at the shot clock and say, ‘OK, this is a little bit low’ and move guys around fast enough to get the snap off,” Eberflus said. “Have an awareness. And then really do a good job at the line of scrimmage to be able to adjust to what the defense gives you. It’s been clean. And then post-snap he’s been relatively good in terms of going through his progressions, making good decisions, taking care of the football in the pocket with two hands and moving around there when he does have to do that.”
The Bears still have 20 days until the season opener on Sept. 8 against the Tennessee Titans at Soldier Field. Eberflus said his two main goals for his players are to maintain their conditioning level and to stay healthy. He said the Bears will have Williams get into work on the Titans next week.
Until the opener, Eberflus wants to see Williams “just competing.”
“Rising to the challenge like he’s done every single time that we have asked him to,” Eberflus said. “We’re going to give him different looks on defense with things we are putting in this season that we want on our menu board defensively. We’re challenging our players right now to learn those.”
